The Automotive Network Exchange (ANX), a large private extranet that connects automotive suppliers to automotive manufacturers. Founded in 1995 by Automotive Industry Action Group (a consortium of major US auto companies), ANX since 1999 has been owned and operated by ANXeBusiness Corp., formerly a division of

Leidos Leidos Holdings, Inc. is an American defense company, defense, Aerospace manufacturer, aviation, information technology, and biomedical research company headquartered in Reston, Virginia, that provides scientific, engineering, systems integrati ...

/ SAIC but acquired in 2006 by

One Equity Partners One Equity Partners is a private equity firm with over $10 billion in assets under management which primarily deals with the industrial, healthcare and technology sectors in North America and Europe. One Equity Partners was the merchant banking ...

. Since 2006, ANX has expanded into other markets and now provides managed security, compliance assurance, and connectivity services to businesses in the healthcare and retail as well as automotive sectors.

Overview

The Automotive Network Exchange is the private

extranet An extranet is a controlled private computer network that allows communication with business partners, vendors and suppliers or an authorized set of customers. It extends intranet to trusted outsiders. It provides access to needed services for au ...

initially set up and maintained by the Automotive Industry Action Group,

Telcordia iconectiv supplies communications providers with network planning and management services. The company’s cloud-based information as a service network and operations management and numbering solutions span trusted communications, digital identi ...

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

, Ford, and

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

. It was built as a private network for the auto industry in 1995 to provide consistent, reliable speed and guaranteed security for data transmissions between the automakers and their suppliers. The ANX Network allows trading partners to collaborate electronically on product design and development; solicit and process orders; and facilitate just-in-time manufacturing and post shipping schedules. In 1999 the Automotive Industry Action Group sold the ANX Network to the

Science Applications International Corporation Science Applications International Corporation, Inc. (SAIC) is an American technology company headquartered in Reston, Virginia that provides government services and information technology support. History 20th century The original SAIC was cr ...

(SAIC), at that time the corporation now operating as

before it spun off SAIC as a separate entity in 2013. The division overseeing the ANX Network became ANXeBusiness. During the next six years, over 4,000 companies joined the ANX Network, making it one of the largest extranets in the world. In 2006, the private equity firm

acquired ANXeBusiness from Leidos/SAIC.

Business drivers

The

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, Maintenance, repairing, and Custom car, modification of motor ve ...

is heavily dependent on collaboration between manufacturers and suppliers. These entities act as federated virtual companies for critical materials, parts, components, and services. High velocity supply chains are imperative to the success of these virtual companies. They must be flexible to accommodate the needs of the virtual automotive manufacturer, enabling the formation of “many-to-many” relationships, where trading partners can simultaneously subscribe to multiple model programs or opt out as the situation dictates. The ANX Network was designed, built and operated to deliver highly secure collaboration between strategic business partners.

Technology

The ANX Network is a secure private network that uses standard, open Internet protocols but carries all traffic over private lines leased from various carriers. Through IPsec and

end-to-end encryption End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a method of implementing a secure communication system where only communicating users can participate. No one else, including the system provider, telecom providers, Internet providers or malicious actors, can ...

, the ANX Network provides secure service to its customers like that of a typical

virtual private network Virtual private network (VPN) is a network architecture for virtually extending a private network (i.e. any computer network which is not the public Internet) across one or multiple other networks which are either untrusted (as they are not con ...

(VPN). It is different from a typical VPN in that the routers that make up its network check every packet to make sure it comes from an IP address on the private network. Thus, nobody but ANX customers can get into the network.

Triple DES In cryptography, Triple DES (3DES or TDES), officially the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA or Triple DEA), is a symmetric-key block cipher, which applies the DES cipher algorithm three times to each data block. The 56-bit key of the Dat ...

encryption protects a customer's data from the potential malicious behavior of another customer.An ultra-secure network that actually works, Andy Oram
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References

{{reflist, 2 Automotive industry Network computer (brand)