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Chapter 3
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Outline the hardware and software technologies
used to build an e-business infrastructure within
an organization and with its partners
Outline the hardware and software requirements
necessary to enable employee access to the
Internet and hosting of e-commerce services.
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What are the practical risks to the organization of
failure to manage e-commerce infrastructure
adequately?
How should staff access to the Internet
be managed?
How should we evaluate the relevance of web
services and open source software?
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Write down all the different types of hardware
and software involved from when a user types in
a web address such as www.google.com to the web
site being loaded
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Make a list of the potential problems for
customers of an online retailer
You should consider problems faced by users of
e-business applications who are both internal and
external to the organization
Base your answer on problems you have
experienced on a web site that can be related to
network, hardware and software failures or
problems with data quality
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Web site communications too slow
Web site not available
Bugs on site through pages being unavailable or
information typed in forms not being executed
Ordered products not delivered on time
E-mails not replied to
Customers’ privacy or trust is broken through
security problems such as credit cards being
stolen or addresses sold to other companies
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Articulate what e-commerce infrastructure
include
Are there any differences between a large
organization and a small one?
Figure 3.1
This model should not be viewed just from layered perspective
Table 3.1
Key management issues of e-business infrastructure
Table 3.1
Key management issues of e-business infrastructure (Continued)
Physical and network infrastructure components of the Internet
(Levels IV and III in Figure 3.1)
Figure 3.2
Figure 3.3
Example hosting provider Rackspace (www.rackspace.com)
Figure 3.4
Timeline of major developments in the use of the web
Figure 3.5
The Netcraft index of number of servers
Source: Netcraft web Server Survey. http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html. Netcraft
What applications can an Intranet support?
What applications can an extranet support?
Figure 3.6
Firewall positions within the e-business infrastructure of the B2B company
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A B2B Company has found that after an initial
surge of interest in its intranet and extranet, usage
has declined dramatically. The e-business
manager wants to achieve these aims:
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Increase usage
Produce more dynamic content
Encouraging more clients to order (extranet)
What would you suggest?
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Identify benefits
Involve staff with development
Find system sponsors, owners and advocates
Training
Keep content fresh, relevant and where possible,
fun
Use e-mail to encourage usage
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Browser
Server
Browsershots (www.browsershots.org) – a service for testing crossbrowser compatibility
Figure 3.9
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Intranet
Extranet
Internet
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Intranets are used extensively for supporting
sell-side e-commerce from within the
marketing function. They are also used to
support core supply-chain management
activities as described in the next section on
extranets..
A marketing intranet has the following advantages:
 Reduced product lifecycles _ as information on product
development and marketing campaigns is rationalized
we can get products to market faster.
 Reduced costs through higher productivity, and
savings on hard copy.
 Better customer service _ responsive and personalized
support with staff accessing customers over the web.
 Distribution of information through remote offices
nationally or globally
Intranets are also used for internal marketing communications since
they can include the following types of information:
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Staff phone directories;
Staff procedures or quality manuals;
Information for agents such as product specifications, current list
and discounted prices, competitor information, factory schedules,
and stocking levels, all of which normally have to be updated
frequently and can be costly;
Staff bulletin or newsletter;
Training courses.
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Although an extranet may sound complex, from a user
point of view it is straightforward. If you have bought
a book or CD online and have been issued with a
username and password to access your account, then
you have used an extranet. This is a consumer extranet.
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Although an extranet may sound complex,
from a user point of view it is straightforward.
If you have bought a book or CD online and
have been issued with a username and
password to access your account, then you
have used an extranet. This is a consumer
extranet.
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Atomisation concept
Widget
Blogs
Feeds
IPTV
Peer-to-peer
Social networks
Tagging
VOIP
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How are the tools mentioned in the last slide
relevant to e-commerce?
Figure 3.11
Personalized feed home page from iGoogle (www.igoogle.com)
Figure 3.12
Joost service
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Web addresses are structured in a standard way as
follows:
http://www.domain-name.extension/filename.html
What do the following extensions or global top level
domains stand for?
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.com
.co.uk, .uk.com
.org or .org.uk
.gov
.edu, .ac.uk
.int
.net
.biz
.info
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Protocol
Host or hostname
Subdomain
Domain name
Top-level domain or TLD
Second-level domain (SLD)
The port
The path
URL parameter
Anchor or fragment
Figure 3.1
This model should not be viewed just from layered perspective
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Firewalls are necessary when creating an intranet or
extranet to ensure that outside access to confidential
information does not occur. Firewalls are created as
software mounted on a separate server at the point
where the company is connected to the Internet.
Firewall software can then be configured to only accept
links from trusted domains representing other offices
in the company. A firewall has implications for emarketing since staff accessing a web site from work
may not be able to access some content such as
graphics plug-ins.
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Domain Name System (DNS) is a database system that
translates a computer's fully qualified domain name into an
IP address.
Networked computers use IP addresses to locate and
connect to each other, but IP addresses can be difficult for
people to remember.
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For example, on the web, it's much easier to remember the
domain name www.amazon.com than it is to remember its
corresponding IP address (207.171.166.48). DNS allows you
to connect to another networked computer or remote service
by using its user-friendly domain name rather than its
numerical IP address.
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HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
A standard format used to define the text and
layout of web pages. HTML files usually have the
extension .HTML or .HTM
XML or eXtensible Markup Language
A standard for transferring structured data,
unlike HTML which is purely presentational
Figure 3.13
The TCP/IP protocol
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Interrelated content with defined meaning,
enabling better exchange of information
between computers and between peoples and
computers
Figure 3.15
Architecture of semantic web system used at Electricite de France
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GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) A graphics
format and compression algorithm best used for
simple graphics
JPEG (Joint Photographics Experts Group) A
graphics format and compression algorithm best
used for photographs
Streaming media Sound and video that can be
experienced within a web browser before the
whole clip is downloaded e.g. Real Networks .rm
format
Video standards include MPEG and .AVI
Sound standards include MP3 and WMA
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TCP/IP
TCP/IP development was led by Robert Kahn and Vince Cerf in
the late 1960s and early 1970s and, according to Leiner et al. (200),
four rules controlled Kahn’s early work on this protocol. These
four rules highlight the operation of the TCP/IP protocol:
Distinct networks would be able to communicate seamlessly with
other networks.
Communications would be able on a best-effort basis, that is, if a
data packet did not reach the final destination, it would be
retransmitted from the source until successful receipt.
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Black boxes would be used to companies such as Cisco
and 3com. In order to keep them simple there would be
no information retained by the ‘gateways’.
There would be no global control of transmissions _
these would be governed by the requester and sender
of information.
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The HTTP protocol
HTTP, the Hypertext transfer protocol is the standard
used to allow web browsers and servers to transfer
requests for delivery of web pages their embedded
graphics. When you click on a link while viewing a
web site, your web browser will request information
from the server computer hosting the web site using
HTTP.
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Uniform resource locators (URLs)
Web addresses refer to particular page on a web server
which is hosted by a company or organization. The
technical name for web address is uniform (or
universal) resource locator (URL). URLs can be thought
of as a standard method of addressing, similar to
postcodes or ZIP codes, that make it straightforward to
find the name of a site.
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Domain names
The domain name refers to the name of the web server
and is usually selected to be the same as the name of
the company, and the extension will indicate its type.
The extension is also commonly known as the generic
top-level domain (gTLD). Note that gTLDs are
currently under discussion and there are proposals for
adding new types such as. Store and firm.
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Domain name registration
Most companies are likely to own several domains,
perhaps for different product lines or countries or for
specific marketing campaigns. Domain name disputes
can arise when an individual or company has
registered a domain name which another company
claims they have the right to. This is sometimes
referred to as ‘cyber-squatting’.
Net Neutrality Principle
 What it is
 Should it be upheld?
 What two forces are threatening net neutrality?
 What’s your opinion on this matter?
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Internet Corp. for assigning names and
numbers-http://www.icann.org
What is the equivalency in Canada?
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http://www.cira.ca/home-en/?lang=en
Internet Society-www.isoc.org
Internet Engineering Force—www.ietf.org
WWW Consortium-www.w3.org
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As explained at the start of the chapter, e-business infrastructure
comprises hardware, software, content and data used to deliver ebusiness infrastructure by reviewing different perspectives on the
infrastructure. There are:
Hardwar and systems software infrastructure. This refers mainly to
the hardware and network infrastructure discussed in the previous
sections. It includes the provision of clients, services, network
services and also systems software such as operating systems and
browsers (layers II, III and IV in figure 3.1).
Applications infrastructure. This refers to the applications software
used to deliver services to employees, customers and other partners
(layer I in figure 3.1).
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Client and server machines
OS
Networks
Storage
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systems software
The key management decision is standardization throughout the
organization. Standardization leads to reduced numbers of
contacts for support and maintenance and can reduce purchase
prices through multi-user licenses. Systems software choices occur
for the client, server and network.
On the client computers, the decision will be which browser
software to standardize on, for example Microsoft Explorer or an
open-source alternative. Standardized plug-ins such as Adobe
Acrobat to access.pdf files should also be installed across the
organization.
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The systems software for the client will also be decided on; this
will probably be a variant of Microsoft Windows, but open-source
alternatives such as Linux may also be considered. When
considering systems software for the server, it should be
remembered that there may be many servers in the global
organization, both for the Internet and intranets.
Using standardized web-server software such as Apache will help
maintenance. Networking software will also be decided on; this
could be Microsoft-sourced or from other suppliers such as Sun
Microsystems or Novell.
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network
Decisions on the network will be based on the internal company
network, which for the e-business will be an intranet, and for the
external network either an extranet or VPN or links to the public
Internet.
The main management decision is whether internal or external
network management will be performed by the company or
outsourced to a third party.
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Outsourcing of network management is common.
Standardized hardware is also needed to connect
clients to the internet, for example, a modem card or
external modem in home PCs or a network interface
card (NIC) to connect to the company (local-area)
network for business computers.
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storage
The decision on storage is similar to that for the
transport layer. Storage can be managed internally or
externally.
This is not an either –or choice. For example, intranet
and extranet are commonly managed internally while
Internet storage such as the web site is commonly
managed externally or at an application service
provider. However, intranets and extranets can also be
managed externally.
Key issues
 Connection methods
 Service quality and prices
 Speed of access
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How slow is slow? P.162 box 3.6
Shared or dedicated hardware and bandwidth
Availability
Service level agreement
Security
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This primarily concerns delivering the right
applications to all users of e-business services
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What is cloud computing?
What is virtualization?
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Benefits
Challenges
Figure 3.17
(a) Fragmented applications infrastructure
Source: Adapted from Hasselbring (2000)
Figure 3.17 (b)
integrated applications infrastructure (Continued)
Source: Adapted from Hasselbring (2000)
Figure 3.18
Differing use of applications at levels of management within companies
Figure 3.19
Elements of e-business infrastructure that require management
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Web Services—applications are provided though
internet but not necessarily on the same machine
or the same network
SaaS—applications are licensed to customers for
use as a service on demand
What are the challenges for SaaS?
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What is SOA?
A collection of services that communicate with
each other as part of a distributed system
The motive is to develop applications that are
independent of hardware, OS, language, etc.