Extranet VPN
A controlled tunnel to a partner organisation.
How widely is it used?
Common in production todayStandard for B2B integrations in finance, logistics and manufacturing.
How it works
A site-to-site tunnel between two different companies, deliberately narrowed: only the specific subnets or services each side agreed to expose are routed across it.
Connects
Organisation → partner organisation
Protocols
IPsec, SSL/TLS
Typical users
Suppliers, Vendors, B2B partners
Main use case
Letting a partner reach a defined slice of your network.
Advantages
- Tight, auditable external access
- No need to expose services to the internet
Limitations
- Trust and access control must be explicit
- Overlapping private IP ranges are common and painful
Related VPN types
Site-to-Site VPN
Two gateways hold a permanent tunnel so whole networks can talk.
Generate configIPsec VPN
The IETF standard for authenticating and encrypting IP packets.
Generate configZTNA / SASE
Per-application access checks instead of a network tunnel.
Generate config