Chapter 6

E-Business Infrastructure Plan

Revised Date: 2/6/2012

Learning outcomes•Define the hardware and software technologies used

to build an e-business infrastructure within an organisation and with its partners

•Define the hardware and software requirements necessary to enable employee access to the Internet and hosting of e-commerce services.

What is e-Business infrastructure?•A system architecture that consists of:

▫ hardware,▫software, ▫content and ▫data used

•The purpose is to deliver e-business services to employees, customers and partners and other related stakeholders.

What is e-Business infrastructure?

• 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.

What is e-Business infrastructure?

Figure 3.1 A five-layer model of e-business infrastructure

Management Issues

Table 3.1 Key management issues of e-business infrastructure

Management Issues

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

What is the Internet?

“The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks - a network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer”

-whatis.com

“A global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions.

-webopedia.com

“is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons”

-FNC

What is the Internet?

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

What is the Internet?

• London Internet Exchange

•Located in Docklands area in East London

•Second large IX in Europe

What is the Internet?

• Malaysia and the Internet▫ Internet Usage Statistics:

13,528,200 Internet users as of Sept/2006, 47.8% of the population, according to M.C.M.C.

▫ Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX) Established in November, 2003 Launched on 15th December 2006 3 nodes connected in AIMS, NCC and TPM Jaring

What is the Internet?

•World Wide Web – standard method for exchanging information on the Internet

•Web browsers – a method of accessing and viewing information stored as web documents

•Web servers – store and present the web pages

Technology Evolution

Table 3.2 Six stages of advances in the dissemination of information

Technology Evolution

Clay tablets Guternberg Press

How big is the Internet?

•Over 1 billion Internet users worldwide•How big the infrastructure they accessing?

▫Measured by number of servers▫Number of pages indexed by search engines▫2006: 9 billion pages▫Dec 2010:????

Figure 3.4 The Netcraft index of number of serversSource: Netcraft Web Server Survey. http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web server survey.html. Netcraft, http://netcraft.com

Intranet and extranet

• Intranet:▫A private network within a single company using

Internet standards to enable employees to share information

•Extranet:▫Formed by extending an intranet beyond a company

to customers, suppliers and collaborators

Intranet and extranet

Figure 3.5 The relationship between intranets, extranets and the Internet

Intranet applications

•Used extensively for supporting sell-side e-commerce

•Also used for internal marketing communications, ex. Directories, staff bulletin, SOP, courses, etc.

•Marketing Intranet has a few advantages:▫Reduced product life cycle▫Reduce cost▫Better customer service▫Distribution of information

Intranet applications- example

Extranet applications- example•Used to provide

online services which are restricted to business customers

Extranet applications- example

Premier Dell.com

Extranet applications- Business benefits

• Information sharing•Cost reduction•Order processing and distribution•Customer service

Extranet applications-issues

•Questions on the extranet?

▫Are the levels of usage sufficient?▫Is it effective and efficient?▫Who has ownership of the extranet?▫What are the levels of service quality?▫Is the quality of information adequate?

Extranet application on global basis

Extranet applications on global basis

Extranet application-Firewalls

•A specialized software mounted on a separate server at the point where the company is connected to the Internet

•Use to protect information on the company

Extranet application-Firewalls

Figure 3.6 Firewall positions within the e-business infrastructure of theB2B company

World Wide Web

•A standard method for exchanging and publishing information on the Internet.

•Based on standard document formats such as HTML▫Offers hyperlink▫Supports a wide range of formatting▫Can integrate graphics and animations▫Make interactions possible

•Benefits:▫Easy to use▫Provide a graphical environment▫Standardization of tools and usages

WWW-How it works

Figure 3.7 Information exchange between a web browser and web server

Internet tools

• E-mail• Instant messaging (IM) and Internet Relay Chat (IRC)• Usenet newsgroups• FTP file transfer• Telnet• Blogs• RSS (Really Simple Syndication)• World Wide Web• IPTV• BitTorrent

Internet tools-RSS

• An Internet standard for publishing and exchanging content using XML

• Content can be published on a site that originates from another site

• New method of distributing messages to subscribers

Internet tools-Voice over IP (VOIP)

•Voice data is transferred across the Internet – it enables phone calls to be made over the Internet.▫Peer-to-peer▫Hosted service▫Complete replacement of all telephone systems▫Upgrading telephone systems▫Ex. Skype

URLs and Domain names

•URL- Uniform resource locaters.▫A web address used to locate a web page on a web

server.•Domain names

▫The name of the web server▫Usually indicate the company name and the extension

shows its type.▫Ex. www.uniten.edu.my What does it

mean?

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? Find out.... .com .co.uk, .uk.com .org or .org.uk .gov .edu, .ac.uk .int .net .biz .info .html

Web Presentation-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. ▫Refer to Example in page 108-111.▫Use to develop B2B integration system ex. Microsoft

BizTalk, Rosetta.net

Figure 3.9 Home page index.html for The B2B Company in a web browser showing HTML source in text editor

Web Presentation-HTML

Web Presentation-XML

Source: http://www.rosettanet.org.my/rnstd.asp

Group Activity

•Find article about Rosetta.Net and Microsoft BizTalk.

•Prepare a presentation –(using a mind mapping method) that summarizes what Rosetta.Net and BizTalk are all about.

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

Who controls the Internet?

• ICANN•The Internet Society (www.isoc.org)•The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)•The World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org)•Telecommunications Information Networking

Architecture Consortium TINA-C

Managing e-business infrastructure• Layer II – Systems software

▫Standardization throughout organization▫Reduce number of contacts for support and

maintenance▫Reduce purchase price through multi-licenses

• Layer III – Transport or network▫Based on internal and external company network▫Issue: performed by the company or outsource

• Laver IV – Storage▫Based on company needs▫Who is in-charged

Figure 3.10 (a) Fragmented applications infrastructure, (b) integrated applications infrastructureSource: Adapted from Hasselbring (2000)

Managing e-business infrastructure

Figure 3.11 Differing use of applications at levels of management within companies

Managing e-business infrastructure

Figure 3.12 Elements of e-business infrastructure that require management

Managing e-business infrastructure

Internet service providers (ISP)

• ISP connection method•Speed of access•Availability•Service-level agreements•Security

New access devices

•Mobile access devices•Wi-Fi mobile access•Bluetooth•Next-generation mobile services• Interactive digital television•What else…. Your inputs…

Not considered as new any more…

Figure 3.13 Mobile access technologies

Access providers

Summary

•The e-Business infrastructure need to be well defined and understand to ensure the company aware of its importance and limitations.

•There are five generic layers of e-Business infrastructure that emphasize on different functions.

•The Internet technology also evolves and allowed various web based applications to be developed to support various business processes and needs.

Tutorial 6

1. Distinguish between Intranet, Extranet and Internet.

2. You are a consultant to a small enterprise that interested in setting up a transactional e-commerce site.

a. Create a summary guide for the company about the stages/levels that are necessary in the creation of a web site.

b. Discuss the management issues that may involved.

References

•Google Image, http://www.google.com accessed on 13 April 2011.

•Chaffey, D., (2007, 2009), E-Business and e-Commerce Management, 3rd and 4th Edition, Prentice Hall.

•Rosetta.Net, http://www.rosettanet.org.my/rnstd.asp assessed on 18.4.2011.

Mini case 1