1. E-business infrastructure
Chapter 3
E-business infrastructure

2. 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.

3. Management issues
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?

4. Why the jargon?
Why do business managers need to know about the jargon and technology?

5. Activity – Internet infrastructure components
Write down all the different types of hardware and software involved from when a user types in a web address such as to the web site being loaded

6. Activity 3.1 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

7. 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

8. E-Commerce Infrastructure
Articulate what e-commerce infrastructure include
Are there any differences between a large organization and a small one?

9. Figure 3.1 This model should not be viewed just from layered perspective

10. Table 3.1 Key management issues of e-business infrastructure

11. Table 3.1 Key management issues of e-business infrastructure (Continued)

12. Figure 3.2 Physical and network infrastructure components of the Internet (Levels IV and III in Figure 3.1)

13. Figure 3.3 Example hosting provider Rackspace (www.rackspace.com)

14. Figure 3.4 Timeline of major developments in the use of the web

15. Figure 3.5 The Netcraft index of number of servers Source: Netcraft web Server Survey. Netcraft

16. Case Study Innovation at Google
Read the Google case on pages
Answer the questions on page 116
What is AdWords? How does it work?
What is AdSense? How does it work?
How does Google make money?

17. Intranet and Extranet Applications
What applications can an Intranet support?
What applications can an extranet support?

18. Figure 3.6 Firewall positions within the e-business infrastructure of the B2B company

19. Activity – a common problem with intranets and extranets
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:
Increase usage
Produce more dynamic content
Encouraging more clients to order (extranet)
What would you suggest?

20. Suggested answers Identify benefits Involve staff with development
Find system sponsors, owners and advocates
Training
Keep content fresh, relevant and where possible, fun
Use to encourage usage

21. Web Technology Browser Server
Interactive between a browser and a server P. 125, Fig. 3.7
Box.3.2 pp Web Server Log

22. Figure 3.8 Transaction log file example

23. Figure 3. 9 Browsershots (www. browsershots
Figure 3.9 Browsershots ( – a service for testing cross-browser compatibility

24. Internet Applications
Atomisation concept
Widget
Blogs
Feeds
IPTV
Peer-to-peer
Social networks
Tagging
VOIP

25. Internet Applications
How are the tools mentioned in the last slide relevant to e-commerce?

26. Figure 3.11 Personalized feed home page from iGoogle (www.igoogle.com)

27. Figure Joost service

28. URLS and domain names
Web addresses are structured in a standard way as follows:
What do the following extensions or global top level domains stand for?
.com
.co.uk, .uk.com
.org or .org.uk
.gov
.edu, .ac.uk
.int
.net
.biz
.info

29. Box 3. 3. Identify URL components: http://video. google. co
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

30. How does DNS service work?

31. HTML and XML
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

32. Figure 3.13 The TCP/IP protocol

33. Figure Home page index.html for an example B2B company in a web browser showing HTML source in text editor

34. XML example Product> <Action Value5”Delete”/>
<ProductID> </ProductID>
</Product>
<Product Type5”Good” SchemaCategoryRef5”C ”>
<ProductID> </ProductID>
<UOM><UOMCoded>EA</UOMCoded></UOM>
<Manufacturer>Compaq</Manufacturer>
<LeadTime>2</LeadTime>
<CountryOfOrigin>
<Country><CountryCoded>US</CountryCoded></Country>
</CountryOfOrigin>

35. Semantic Web
Interrelated content with defined meaning, enabling better exchange of information between computers and between peoples and computers
Example-Mini Case Study 3.3. pp

36. Figure 3.15 Architecture of semantic web system used at Electricite de France

37. 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 .rm format
Video standards include MPEG and .AVI
Sound standards include MP3 and WMA

38. Internet Governance Net Neutrality Principle What it is
Should it be upheld?
What two forces are threatening net neutrality?
What’s your opinion on this matter?

39. Internet Governance
Internet Corp. for assigning names and numbers-
What is the equivalency in Canada?
Internet Society-
Internet Engineering Force—
WWW Consortium-

40. Open Source vs. Commercial
Read and discuss p.157 Activity 3.4

41. Managing e-business Infrastructure
What to manage?
What are the main challenges
Mini Case Study 3.4 Twitter
How does twitter make money or not make money?

42. Managing HW/OS Infrastructure
Client and server machines OS
Networks
Storage

43. Managing I-Services and Hosting Providers
Key issues
Connection methods
Service quality and prices
Speed of access
How slow is slow? P.162 box 3.6
Shared or dedicated hardware and bandwidth
Availability
Service level agreement
Security

44. Managing Application Infrastructures
This primarily concerns delivering the right applications to all users of e-business services

45. Figure 3.17 (a) Fragmented applications infrastructure Source: Adapted from Hasselbring (2000)

46. Figure 3.17 (b) integrated applications infrastructure (Continued) Source: Adapted from Hasselbring (2000)

47. Figure 3.18 Differing use of applications at levels of management within companies

48. Figure 3.19 Elements of e-business infrastructure that require management

49. Web Services, SaaS, and SOA
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?

50. Web Services, SaaS, and SOA
What is cloud computing?
What is virtualization?
Benefits
Challenges
Mini Case Study 3.5, p. 173

51. Web Services, SaaS, and SOA
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.
Case Study 3.2, pp

52. Figure 3.20 Google apps (www.google.com/apps)

53. Figure 3.21 Salesforce.com (www.salesforce.com)

54. M-Commerce What is m-commerce? What are its advantages?
What are its limits?

55. M-Commerce
Mobile phone Technologies
Ref. p.178, Table 3.6

56. M-Commerce Mobile phone Technologies Mobile phone user market
Ref. p.178, Table 3.6
Mobile phone user market

57. M-Commerce Popular mobile applications Technology Convergence
Short Message Services (SMS) applications
Wi-Fi mobile access
Bluetooth wireless applications
Technology Convergence
Access device convergence
Delivery channel convergence
Supplier convergence

58. M-Commerce Strategies
For portal and media sites, they may adopt embrace early or wait and see
For B2C e-commerce sites, they may market, sell, and building the brand

59. Next Class Preview chapter 4
Read the Econsultancy interview on pages and be prepared to discuss these questions
What’s their business model?
How did they plan to develop their business?
Do you think they have a good chance to succeed?
What can we learn from the interview?