Managing computing resources in intranets: an electronic commerce perspective

Intra-organizational networks (intranets) are increasingly being developed for information sharing and collaborative work in geographically dispersed organizations. In this paper we provide a framework to manage the resources in the intranets using the concepts of electronic commerce. Specifically, we propose the creation of an intranet Resource Management Application (iRMA) which manages the user requests using a dynamic priority pricing approach. An iRMA can be viewed as a self-supporting organizational unit which tries to conduct transactions in a manner consistent with the corporate objective of maximizing the benefits derived from Intranet usage. Peripheral support for the implementation of the pricing mechanism in the iRMA is provided by a topology management application and a security management application. We discuss the transaction flows and network management operations, and provide details of the interactions among various elements of the iRMA. The proposed iRMA allows the resource management unit to provide an internal electronic commerce environment where different organizational units compete for network resources; the revenue generated from pricing the resources can be used to support the iRMA operations and to make infrastructure investment decisions.