1. MGT 3225: E-Business Lecture 3: E-Business Infrastructure
Md Mahbubul Alam, PhD
Associate Professor

2. Intended Learning Outcomes
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,
Identify the practical risks to the organization of failure to manage e-commerce infrastructure adequately,
Understand how staff access to the Internet should be managed,
Evaluate the relevance of web services and open source software.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

3. E-business Infrastructure
The architecture of hardware, software, content and data used to deliver e-business services to employees, customers and partners.
It includes
Hardware such as servers and client PCs
Network used to link the hardware
Software applications used to deliver services to partners and customers
Architecture of the networks, hardware and software and where it is located.
Also, the methods for publishing data and documents accessed through e-business applications.
Infrastructure directly affects the quality of service experienced by users such as speed, responsiveness.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

4. Infrastructure Risk Assessment
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.
Few Typical Problems
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
s not replied to
Customers’ privacy or trust is broken through security problems such as credit cards being stolen or addresses sold to other companies
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

5. E-Business Infrastructure and Its Components
Access to a program/application for specific function, e.g., book a holiday request.
Web browser and OS that allow access to a program.
System software transfers the information across a network or transport layer.
Stored in computer memory (RAM) or in long-term magnetic storage on a web server.
The information is displayed in this layer, like the holiday request is shown up in a separate layer.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

6. Key Management Issues of e-business infrastructure
Main Issue
Detail
Which type of e-business applications do we develop?
e.g., SCM, e-procurement, secure online ordering, CRM
Which technology do we use?
e.g., , web-based ordering, EDI
How do we achieve quality of service in applications?
Requirements are: business fit, security, speed, availability and errors
Where do we host applications?
Internal or external sourcing and hosting?
Application integration
Integration of e-business solutions with legacy systems, partner systems, B2B exchanges & intermediaries.
Which access platforms and technological standard do we use?
Mobile access, IPTV; or CGI, Cold Fusion, ActiveX.
How do we publish & manage content & data quality?
How are data & content updated so that they are up-to-date, accurate, easy to find and to interpret?
How do we manage employee access to the Internet?
Staff can potentially waste time using the Internet or can act illegally.
How do we secure data?
Content and data can be deleted in error or maliciously.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

7. Internet Technology

8. The Internet Technology
Internet: physical network that links computers across the globe. It consists of the infrastructure of network servers and communication links between them that are used to hold and transport information between the client computers and web servers.
Client/server: PCs, sharing resources like database stores on a more powerful computer, i.e., server.
Request for information are transmitted from client PCs or mobile devices.
Server holds the information and host business applications that deliver the information in response to request.
The Internet is a large scale client/server system.
PC->ISP->Backbone
ISP: provide Internet access to home/business users
Backbone: high-speed communication links
ISP: A provide providing home or business users with a connection to access the Internet.
Backbone: High-speed communication links enable internet communications across a country and internationally.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

9. Hosting of Web Site Hosting Provider
A service provider that manages the server used to host an organization web site and its connection to the Internet backbones. e.g., ,
Types
Shared hosting
VPS (Virtual Private Server)
Dedicated server
Hosting Types: Shared hosting, VPS server, dedicated server
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

10. The Internet Timeline
Six stages of advances in the dissemination of information
How big the Internet is? How do we measure? -> One measure is the number of web servers.
TCP/IP is the first standard for Internet.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

11. Intranet Applications
Advantages (from SCM perspective)
Reduced product lifecycles-> information on product development & marketing campaigns is rationalized so we can get products to market faster.
Reduced costs through higher productivity, and savings on hard copy.
Better customer service-> responsive and personalized customer support.
Distribution of information through remote offices nationally or globally.
Advantages (from communication perspective)
Staff phone directories
Staff procedures or quality manuals
Information for agents such as product specifications, current list & discounted prices, competitor information, factory schedules, stocking levels.
Staff bulletin or newsletter
Training courses, e.g., British Airways
1. Support sell-side e-commerce
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

12. Extranet Applications
Any network connected to another network for the purpose of sharing information and data.
An extranet is created when two businesses connect their respective intranets for business communication and transactions.
Mostly common in B2B communications.
Extranet provides access to a service with username and password, e.g., Dell Premier (Consumer extranet), Walmart Retail link (Supplier extranet).
Advantages
Information sharing in secure environment: controlling access by providing log-in details.
Cost reduction: reduce the no. of people involved in placing orders, no need to rekey information from paper documents.
Order processing & distribution: often known as ‘electronic integration effect’, e.g., retailer’s POS -> supplier’s delivery system; reduces the risk of less sales due to out-of-stock items as well as high inventory cost.
Customer service: Distributors or agents of companies find information such as customized pricing or advertising materials, e.g., 3M.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

13. Points to be considered for extranet applications
Are the levels of usage sufficient?
Cost of investment vs. extent of usage
Is it effective and efficient?
ROI should be assessed.
Direct and indirect cost savings achieved through each extranet transaction can be calculated.
Cost of shipping physical items to the retailer vs. digitalized content like latest price list, promotional information.
Who has ownership of the extranet?
Needs of different functional bodies of an organization must be resolved and management controls established.
What are the levels of service quality?
Speed or availability of the extranet service.
Is the quality of the information adequate?
Up-to-date and accurate information.
1. How to overcome the limited use of intranets and extranets in a B2B company. Reference page no. 124
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

14. Firewalls
A specialized software application mounted on a server at the point where the company is connected to the Internet.
Purpose:
Prevent unauthorized access into the company from outsiders.
Only accept links from trusted domains.
Multiple firewalls are used to protect information on the company.
Information made available to third parties over the Internet and extranet is partitioned by another firewall called ‘demilitarized zone (DMZ)’.
Corporate data on the Intranet are mounted on other servers inside the company.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

15. Web Technology

16. World Wide Web (WWW)
The most common and standard technique for exchanging and publishing information on the Internet.
Main standard document format is HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), supports a wide range of formatting, making documents accessible by different devices.
Offers hyperlinks-> a method of moving readily from one document or web site to another (surfing).
Benefits
Easy to use: navigate documents easily by clicking on hyperlinks or images.
Interactivity: enables discussion through social networks
Provide graphical environment
Flexibility in the style of designs and tailoring
Browser capabilities are extensible through the use of browser plug-ins, extensions and toolbars.
Browser plug-in: add-on program to a web browser, providing extra functionality like animation.
Browser extensions: capability of a browser to add new services through new add-ons or plug-ins or customizing through different visual themes.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

17. Web Browsers and Web Servers
Web browsers-> software use to access information on the WWW that is stored on web servers.
Web servers-> store and present the web pages accessed by web browsers.
Static web page-> a page on the web server that is invariant.
Dynamically created web page-> a page that is created in real time, often with reference to a database query, in response to a user request.
Web application server-> a collection of software processes running on the server which accepts and actions requests via the principle web server software (e.g., Apache or Microsoft Information Server).
Transaction logs-> a web-server file that records all page requests.
Web analytics system-> Information on visitor volumes, sources and pages visited are analyzed through web analytics systems.
Information exchanges between a web browser and a web server
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

18. Internet-access Software Applications

19. Internet Applications
Tools
Summary
Blog (web logs)
Web-based publishing of regularly updated information in an online diary-type format, e.g., blogger.com, WordPress.
Sending messages or documents, Inbound & outbound IM
Synchronous communications tools for text-based ‘chat’.
Telnet & Secure Shell (SSH)
Remote command-line access to computer system (remote accessing)
P2P file sharing
Sharing large audio and video files in BitTorrent.
FTP
Enables uploading HTML & other files to web servers.
IPTV
Digital TV via broadband Internet, live streaming or archived broadcasts.
VoIP
Digitally transmitted voice over a LAN or Internet.
RSS Feeds
Content originated from a site can be published or syndicated on another site, e.g., news feed or sports feed, e.g., iGoogle.
Widgets
A badge or button incorporated into a site with content or service typically served from another site.
Atomization-> content on a site is broken down into smaller fundamental units which can then be distributed via the web through links to other sites. E.g., stories in individual feeds being syndicated to third-party sites & widgets.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

20. How Does Internet Works? Internet Standards

21. Internet A global information system that
Is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons;
Is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and
Provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

22. The Internet: Key Technology Concepts
Packet switching
A method of slicing digital messages into packets, sending the packets along different communication paths as they become available, and then reassembling the packets once they arrive at their destination.
Uses routers: special purpose computers that interconnect the computer networks that make up the Internet and route packets to their ultimate destination.
Routers use computer programs called routing algorithms to ensure packets take the best available path toward their destination.
TCP/IP communications protocol
Protocol: a set of rules for formatting, ordering, compressing and error-checking messages.
TCP: Establishes the connections among sending and receiving Web computers, handles the assembly of packets at the point of transmission, and their reassembly at the receiving end. Controls moving of data between applications.
IP: Provides the Internet’s addressing scheme
Client/server computing
Model of computing in which very powerful personal computers (clients) are connected in a network with one or more server computers that perform common functions for the clients, such as storing files, software applications, etc.
1. Packets discrete units into which digital messages are sliced for transmission over the Internet.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

23. Packet Switching: Architecture
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

24. IP Address Two versions of IP currently in use.
IPv4 Internet address (also called IP address):
A 32-bit number expressed as a series of four separate numbers marked off by periods, such as
Each of the four numbers can range from
IPv4 the current version of IP. Can handle up to 4 billion addresses
IPv6 (next generation of IP) will use 128-bit addresses and be able to handle up 1 quadrillion addresses.
 first three sets of numbers ( ) identifies the Network (Local Area Network Identification) and last number (91) identified a specific computer.
1 million = 106, 1 billion = 109 , 1 Trillion = 1012 , 1 Quadrillion = 1015
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

25. Routing Internet Messages: TCP/IP & Packet Switching
The Internet uses packet-switched networks and the TCP/IP communications protocol to send, route & assemble messages.
Messages are broken into packets, and packets from the same messages can travel along different routes.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

26. The HTTP Protocol HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
Is the standard used to allow web browsers and servers to transfer requests for delivery of web pages and their embedded graphics.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

27. Domain Names, DNS, URLs
Domain name: IP address expressed in a natural language convention called a domain name.
Domain name system (DNS): allows numeric IP addresses to be expressed in natural language
Example: cnet.com =
Uniform resource locator (URL): addresses used by Web browsers to identify location of content on the Web.
DNS is a hierarchical namespace. Root server at the top.
Top-level domains  organization type or geographic location.
Second-level Servers organizations & individuals. (e.g., nyu.edu)
Third-level servers  a particular computer(s) of an organization. (e.g.,
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

28. Top-Level Domains
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

29. Web Presentation and Data Exchange Standards
Content
The information, graphics and interactive elements that make up the web pages of a site are collectively referred to as content.
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.
Semantic web
Interrelated content with defined meaning, enabling better exchange of information between computers and between peoples and computers.
The semantic web is about how to define meaning for the content of the web to make it easier to locate relevant information and services properly.
XML: e.g., Micorsoft’s BizTalk server
For details of Semantic Web, plz read page 148 and case study 3.3 at page 149
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

30. Semantic Web Standards
Agents
Software programs that can assist humans by automatically gathering information form the Internet or exchanging data with other agents based on parameters supplied by the user.
Wiki
A collaborative interactive web service which enables users to modify content contributed by others.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

31. Media standards
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
Video standards include MPEG and .AVI
Sound standards include MP3 and WMA
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

32. Internet Governance

33. Internet Governance Control of the operation and use of the Internet.
Network Neutrality
A principle of provision of equal access to different Internet services by telecommunications service providers.
“Non-discrimination regarding different forms of internet traffic carried across networks”.
Two threatening forces
Offering different quality of service, e.g., speed
Blocking or controlling access to certain services or content, e.g., The Great Firewall of China
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

34. Internet Governance (cont’d)
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN,
Non-profit body
Allocates and manages domain name and IP address.
Internet Society (
Professional membership society
Facilitates open development, evolution and use of the Internet.
Internet Engineering Force (
Community of network designers, operators, vendors & researchers.
Works for the development of the Internet’s architecture and its transport protocols such as IP.
WWW Consortium (
Responsible for web standards.
Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture Consortium (TINA-C,
Ensure interoperability, portability and reusability of software components.
1. Tim Berners-Lee, invested the WWW and many other protocols like TCP, IP, HTTP, Semantic Web
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

35. Management of E-Business Infrastructure
Managing hardware and systems software infrastructure, Layers II-V in slide 5, e.g., OS, browsers, network service.
Managing Internet service and hosting providers
Dial-up connection: Access to the Internet via phone lines using analogue modems.
Broadband connection: Access to the Internet via phone lines using a digital data transfer mechanism.
Key issues of managing of ISP & hosting relationships
Speed of access: How slow is slow?
Shared vs. dedicated server
Bandwidth: speed at which data are transferred using a particular network medium, measured in bps.
Availability: an indication of how easy it is for a user to connect to it.
Service level agreement (SLAs), especially when outsourced.
Security
Managing application infrastructure: applications that provide access to services and information inside & beyond an organization. Layer I in slide 5, e.g., ERP, CRM, SCM. This primarily concerns delivering the right applications to all users of e-business services
ADSL or asymmetric digital subscribe line: Traditional phone lines used for digital data transfer. Asymmetric-> download speeds are typically higher than upload speeds.
Speed-> Content needs to load within 4 seconds (Akamai, 2006). 10 seconds should be the limit.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

36. Web Services & others Software as a Service (SaaS) (pp. 168-170)
Managing and preforming all types of business processes and activities through accessing web-based service rather than running a traditional executable application on the processor of local computer.
Applications are licensed to customers for use as a service on demand.
Multi-tenancy SaaS Vs. Single-tenancy SaaS
Benefits vs. Challenges
Cloud computing (p.171)
Use of distributed storage and processing on servers connected by the Internet, typically provided as software or data storage as a subscription service provided by other companies.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) (p.173)
A SOA is a collection of services that communicate with each other as part of a distributed systems architecture comprising different services.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

37. Web Services & others (cont’d)
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) (p. 176)
The exchange, using digital media, of structure business information, particularly for sales transactions such as purchase orders and invoices between buyers and sellers, e.g., Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
VPN (p. 177)
A secured, encrypted (tunneled) connection between two points using the Internet.
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

38. M-Commerce
Electronic transactions and communications conducted using mobile devices.
Mobile phone technologies (p. 178, Table 3.6)
Popular mobile applications
Short Message Services (SMS) applications
Wi-Fi mobile access
Bluetooth wireless applications
Technology Convergence
Access device convergence
Delivery channel convergence
Supplier convergence
9/20/2018
Md. Mahbubul Alam, PhD

39. Question Please ? Acknowledgement:
“E-Business and E-Commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice” by Dave Chaffey