Chapter 3:

E-business infrastructure
Multiple choice questions: set A

Defining an adequate technology infrastructure is vital as the

infrastructure directly affects the quality of user experience. Which
of the following could be accepted as a component of an e-business
infrastructure?
E-business services applications layer

E-business content and data layer

E-business transport or network layer

All of the above

The different components are all involved and can be seen as layers which interact with each
other.

It is easy to take the Internet for granted as it seamlessly connects

millions of computers worldwide but where do local Internet service
providers come into the picture?
They form part of a country's infrastructure

They relay messages to speed up transmission

They provide home and business users with a connection to access the
Internet
They filter out erroneous data to avoid the Internet slowing down

While there is a modicum of truth in some of the other answers, they provide home and business
users with a connection to access the Internet.

Just how big is the Internet? This could lead to questions such as
how many users there are world- wide. At the end of March 2011,
Internetworldstats (www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)
estimated the percentage of the world's population to be Internet
users:
19.9%

22.2%

30.2%

18.5%

None of the above

With a projected world population approaching seven billion, over 30% are estimated to be
Internet users.

Among other applications, intranets are used by companies for

supporting sell-side e-commerce from within the marketing
function. Which one of the following is not an advantage for a
marketing intranet?
Distribution of information through remote offices nationally and globally

Reduced costs through higher productivity and savings on hard copy

Better customer service that is more responsive and personalized

Lengthened product life cycles

Intranets can actually reduce product life cycles as products can reach markets quicker.

The term extranet may not be as well known though most of us

would have experienced a consumer extranet when we have
registered online to buy a product and have used a username and
password. Which is NOT a business benefit of using an extranet?
Information sharing in a secure environment

Greater order processing and product distribution

Improved customer service

Significant cost increases

Operating costs can be significantly reduced by reducing the number of people involved in placing
orders and repeated inputting of information.

Management issues associated with managing intranets are similar

to those for extranets. Which of the following are key questions to
investigate when creating a new extranet?
Is the quality of the information adequate and up to date

Will the levels of usage be sufficient to justify investment

Is it effective and efficacious

All of the above

These and other issues need addressing to take full advantage of an existing or planned extranet.

With headlines often commenting on breaches of Internet security,

 what is the term used for specialised software to prevent
unauthorized access to company data from outsiders?
Middleware

Web analytics system

Firewall

Enterprise application integration - EAI

Firewalls are commonly built-in to operating software to protect information but can be more
specialised if security is felt to need ramping up.

What are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari,

and Google Chrome examples of?
Web servers

Web application servers

Web browsers

All of the above

They are all web browsers and provide an easy access and viewing of documents on different
servers.

Many different Internet tools have been produced to exploit the

interactivity and extensibility capabilities of the web. Which Internet
tool can be described as having the ability to blend real-world digital
data capture to create a browser-based digital representation or
experience mimicking that of the real world?
Augmented reality

Podcasting

Voice over Internet Protocol

IPTV

Gaining sophistication in design and application over recent years, augmented reality is
becoming powerful marketing tool.

For the Internet to be used successfully, networking standards

needed to be set. Related to these are the management of IP
addresses and domain name registrations which reserve a unique
web address that can be used to refer to a company's website. The
body that regulates domain names is:
 ICANT

The Internet Society

The World Wide Web Consortium

ICANN

ICANN is a non-profit making organisation and stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers.

While governments in many countries take certain views on internet

access, there is a principle to provide equal access to different
Internet services by telecommunications service providers. This is
known as:
Open-source principle

Net neutrality principle

Telecommunication information networking principle

Internet governance

concerns over net neutrality have led to legislation being passed in various countries to protect
access. An alternative position has been taken by some governments where they block access.

A main issue for businesses is managing their internet service

provision and there is a real possibility of e-business failure if an
acceptable download speed is not achieved. How quickly did content
need to load before there was a detrimental effect on site
experience as Akamai's research suggested?
Two seconds

Three seconds

Five seconds

Four seconds

In 2006, it was within four seconds but more recent research has indicated that this has
reduced down to two seconds.

Other problems can cause with poor internet service provision

though this can be reduced through various actions such as:
Having a dedicated server
 Reducing costs through selecting a shared server

Not being constrained by signing a service level agreement

All of the above

Having a dedicated server may increase costs but needs to be considered although other
actions such as increasing bandwidth could mitigate the problem.

Web services or also known as 'software as a service' (SaaS) refers

to a highly significant model for managing software and data within
an e-business. This involves managing and performing business
processes and activities through accessing web-based services.
What would be a benefit of using SaaS?
As the service can be acquired on demand, costs can be reduced

Performance would be no different than when using a local database

Third party provision can be relied upon with new technological advances

There is no discernible difference in data security

As SaaS's are usually paid on a subscription basis and are outsourced, installation and
maintenance costs are reduced.

Many smaller businesses and start-ups do not buy in new

networking and data storage hardware or software to manage their
data. The facilities are hosted externally but can be accessed from
any location. This facility has become known as?
Utility computing

Cloud computing

On-demand hosting

Application service provision

In the clouds - there's the clue.

Multiple choice questions: set B
Try the following questions to test your understanding of this chapter. Once you have finished,
click on the 'Submit Answers for Grading' button to get your results.

This activity contains 15 questions.

The architecture of hardware, software, content and data is known

as:
E-commerce infrastructure

E-business web structure

E-business infrastructure

None of the above

The level of e-business infrastructure which refers to information

processed and displayed is:
Processing

Infrastructure

Application content

Storage/physical

The level of e-business infrastructure which refers to computation

and logic is:
Application content

Infrastructure

Storage/physical

Processing

A service provider that manages the server used to host an

organisation website and its connections to the Internet backbones
is known as:
Client server
 Internet service provider

Hosting provider

All of the above

The website for a company is hosted on a:

Web infrastructure

Web server

Web client

Web page

The website content of a company is accessed by an end-user

through using:
Web e-mail

Web client/server

Web server

Web browser

A provider enabling home or business users access and web hosting

services for the Internet is referred to as:
Application service providers

Internet solutions providers

Online solutions providers

Internet service providers

The likelihood of a poor response from a website can be reduced

through:
 Selecting high bandwidth connection

Selecting a dedicated server

Signing a service level agreement

Both the second and third answer above

The most common way of publishing information on the Internet

accessed through web browsers may surprise some but it is known
as:
Usenet Newsgroups

Web application servers

Web application frameworks

World Wide Web

A private network within a company can be used to provide shared

content for staff is known as:
Extranet

Intranet

Open source

Internet

Which of the following could be seen as business benefits of an

extranet?
Cost reduction

Information sharing in secure environment

Improved levels of customer service

All of the above

None of the above

An API, which is a method of integrating different software or
programs and used by companies such as Google and Facebook,
stands for:
Appliance Programming Interface

Application Programming Interface

Applied Portable Interface

All of the above

Skype offers free calls or video-conferencing between internet

connected computers and is an example of:
Really Simple Syndication

iPTV

Voice Over IP

Instant Messaging (IM)

Which of the following is an example of an embedded application?

Facebook Apps

Skype

Twitter or RSS

Google Apps

XML, which is used for exchanging data between different systems,

stands for:
Extensible microformat language

Extensible markup language

Extensible machine language

X-programming markup language