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, formerly known as Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), is an American defense, aviation, information technology (Lockheed Martin IS&GS), and biomedical research company headquartered in Reston, Virginia, that provides s ...

/ 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 a ...

. 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 network that allows access to partners, vendors and suppliers or an authorized set of customers – normally to a subset of the information accessible from an organization's intranet. An extranet is similar to a ...

initially set up and maintained by the

Automotive Industry Action Group The Automotive Industry Action Group'' (AIAG) is a not-for-profit association founded in 1982 and based in Southfield, Michigan. It was originally created to develop recommendations and a framework for the improvement of quality in the North Amer ...

Telcordia iconectiv is a supplier of network planning and network management services to telecommunications providers. Known as Bellcore after its establishment in the United States in 1983 as part of the break-up of the Bell System, the company's name ...

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, and

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

. 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 (SAIC), Inc. is an American technology company headquartered in Reston, Virginia that provides government services and information technology support. History The original SAIC was created in 196 ...

(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 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 ow ...

from Leidos/SAIC.

Business drivers

The automotive industry 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 In computing, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is a secure network protocol suite that authenticates and encrypts packets of data to provide secure encrypted communication between two computers over an Internet Protocol network. It is used in ...

and

end-to-end encryption End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a system of communication where only the communicating users can read the messages. In principle, it prevents potential eavesdroppers – including telecom providers, Internet providers, malicious actors, and even ...

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

virtual private network A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...

(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 Data Encryption Standa ...

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)