A value-added network (VAN) is a hosted service offering that acts as an intermediary between business partners sharing standards based on proprietary data via shared

business process A business process, business method or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product (serves a particular business goal) for a parti ...

es. The offered service is referred to as "value-added network services".

1960s: "Timesharing" and "network" service

Following in the wake of timesharing providers, provision of leased lines between terminals and data centers proved a sustainable business which led to the establishment of dedicated business units and companies specialized in the management and marketing of such network services. See

Tymshare Tymshare, Inc (Matthew Heyer-Baker) was a time-sharing service and third-party hardware maintenance company competing with companies such as CompuServe, Service Bureau Corporation and National CSS. Tymshare developed or acquired various technolog ...

for an example of a timeshare services company that spun off

Tymnet Tymnet was an international data communications network headquartered in Cupertino, California that used virtual call packet-switched technology and X.25, SNA/ SDLC, BSC and Async interfaces to connect host computers (servers) at thousands of lar ...

as a data communications specialist with a complex product portfolio.

1970s: Marketisation of telecommunication

The large-scale allocation of network services by private companies was in conflict with state-controlled telecommunications sector. To be able to gain a license for telecommunication service provision to customers, a private business had to "add value" to the communications line in order to be a distinguishable service. Therefore, the notion of "value-added network services" was established to allow for operation of such private businesses as an exemption from state control. The telecommunication operator sector was marketed in the USA in 1982 (see

Modification of Final Judgment In United States telecommunication law, the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) is the August 1982 consent decree concerning the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) and its subsidiaries. The terms required the Bell System divestiture &n ...

) and in the United Kingdom starting with the early 1980s (mainly due to the privatization of

British Telecom BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...

under Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

). In the later 1980s, running a value-added network service required licensing in the U.K. while the term "value-added network" had merely become a functional description of a specific subset of networked data communication in the USA.

Since 1980s: International competition and standardization efforts

On a multinational scale, and due to the heterogeneous telecommunication economy and infrastructure before the market penetration of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, management of a value-added network service proved a complicated task leading to the idea of user-defined networks, a concept preceding the nowadays ubiquitous availability of internet service. Standardization efforts for data networking were made by

ITU-T The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is one of the three sectors (divisions or units) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It is responsible for coordinating standards for telecommunications and Information Commu ...

(formerly CCIT) and included

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched data communication in wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT, now ITU-T) in a series of drafts ...

packet-switched network In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the pack ...

s and X.400

message handling system Message Handling System (MHS) is an important early email protocol developed by Action Technologies, Inc. (ATI) in 1986. Novell licensed it in 1988 then later bought it. Email clients A wide variety of email clients used MHS, including: * Para-M ...

s, specifically motivated by an emerging transatlantic competition in the early 1990s.

Perspective

In the absence of state-operated telecommunication sector, value-added network services are still used, mainly as a functional description, in conjunction with dedicated leased lines for business-to-business communications (especially for

EDIFACT United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT) is an international standard for electronic data interchange (EDI) developed for the United Nations and approved and published by UNECE, the UN Econ ...

data transfer). Governments like South Africa still maintain explicit regulation, while others address specific services with licensing. Traditionally, most value-added network services mainly supported general-purpose business-to-business integration capabilities focused on electronic data interchanges, but service providers are evolving to become more process- and industry-specific over time, particularly in industries such as retail and hi-tech manufacturing. Some sources suggest that modern value-added network services should be called "trading grids" due to commonalities with

grid computing Grid computing is the use of widely distributed computer resources to reach a common goal. A computing grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve many files. Grid computing is distinguished from co ...

. Others distinguish

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

s from international value-added network services (IVANS) operators.Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: International Value-Added Network Services (IVANS) Operator or Internet Service Providers (ISP)
/ref>

References

External links