3.

E-BUSINESS
INFRASTRUCTURE
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
www.google.com to the web site being loaded

Why do business managers need to know about the jargon and

technology?
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
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
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
E-COMMERCE
INFRASTRUCTURE ..
ACHIEVE THIS- WHAT DO
YOU NEED?
E-COMMERCE
INFRASTRUCTURE …
E-COMMERCE
INFRASTRUCTURE …
Figure 3.1 This model should not be viewed just from layered perspective
A five-layer model of e-business infrastructure
 Physical and network infrastructure components of the Internet
Figure 3.2
(Levels IV and III in Figure 3.1)
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
CASE STUDY
INNOVATION AT GOOGLE
Case Study 3.1 Innovation at Google
 Explain how Google generates revenue and identify future levels of revenue given
some of the risk factors are for future revenue generation.
 What is AdWords? How does it work?
 What is AdSense? How does it work?
 How does Google make money?
INTRANET AND
EXTRANET
APPLICATIONS
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
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?
WEB TECHNOLOGY
Browser
Server
Interactive between a browser and a server
P. 125, Fig. 3.7
Box.3.2 pp. 126-127 Web Server Log
Figure 3.8 Transaction log file example
 Browsershots (www.browsershots.org) – a service for testing cross-
Figure 3.9
browser compatibility
INTERNET APPLICATIONS
Atomisation concept
Widget
Blogs
Feeds
IPTV How are the tools
Peer-to-peer relevant to e-
commerce?
Social networks
Tagging
VOIP
Figure 3.11 Personalized feed home page from iGoogle (www.igoogle.com)
Figure 3.12 Joost service
URLS AND DOMAIN
NAMES
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?
 .com
 .co.uk, .uk.com
 .org or .org.uk
 .gov
 .edu, .ac.uk
 .int
 .net
 .biz
 .info
BOX 3.3. IDENTIFY URL
COMPONENTS:
HTTP://VIDEO.GOOGLE.CO.UK:80/VID
EOPLAY?DOCID=-
7246927612831078230&HL=EN#00H02
M30S
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
HOW DOES DNS SERVICE WORK?
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
Figure 3.13 The TCP/IP protocol
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. 149-151
Figure 3.15 Architecture of semantic web system used at Electricite de France
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?
INTERNET GOVERNANCE
Internet Corp. for assigning names and numbers-
http://www.icann.org
What is the equivalency in Canada?
 http://www.cira.ca/home-en/?lang=en
Internet Society-www.isoc.org
Internet Engineering Force—www.ietf.org
WWW Consortium-www.w3.org
OPEN SOURCE VS.
COMMERCIAL
Read and discuss p.157 Activity 3.4
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?
MANAGING HW/OS
INFRASTRUCTURE
Client and server machines
OS
Networks
Storage
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
MANAGING APPLICATION
INFRASTRUCTURES
This primarily concerns delivering the right applications to all
users of e-business services
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
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?
WEB SERVICES, SAAS,
AND SOA
What is cloud computing?
What is virtualization?
 Benefits
 Challenges
 Mini Case Study 3.5, p. 173
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. 174-175
Figure 3.20 Google apps (www.google.com/apps)
Figure 3.21 Salesforce.com (www.salesforce.com)
M-COMMERCE
What is m-commerce?

What are its advantages?

What are its limits?

M-COMMERCE
Mobile phone Technologies
Ref. p.178, Table 3.6
M-COMMERCE
Mobile phone Technologies
 Ref. p.178, Table 3.6

Mobile phone user market

 http://www.cwta.ca/CWTASite/english/index.html
 http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/us-catches-up-with-we
stern-europe-in-3g-mobile-device-adoption-5908/
M-COMMERCE
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
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
NEXT CLASS
Preview chapter 4
Read the Econsultancy interview on pages 196-198 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?
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.
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?
Table 3.1 Key management issues of e-business infrastructure
Table 3.1 Key management issues of e-business infrastructure (Continued)