Scenario: Basic business to business connection

In this scenario, your company wants to establish a VPN between a client workstation in your manufacturing division and a client workstation in the supply department of your business partner.

Situation

Many companies use frame relay or leased lines to provide secure communications with their business partners, subsidiaries, and vendors. Unfortunately, these solutions are often expensive and geographically limiting. VPN offers an alternative for companies who want private, cost-effective communications.

Suppose you are a major parts supplier to a manufacturer. Since it is critical that you have the specific parts and quantities at the exact time required by the manufacturing firm, you always need to be aware of the manufacturer's inventory status and production schedules. Perhaps you handle this interaction manually today, and find it time consuming, expensive and even inaccurate at times. You want to find an easier, faster, and more effective way to communicate with your manufacturing company. However, given the confidentiality and time-sensitive nature of the information you exchange, the manufacturer does not want to publish it on its corporate Web site or distribute it monthly in an external report. By exploiting the public Internet, you can easily establish a virtual private network (VPN) to meet the needs of both companies.