E-Commerce Technologies

1.     What are the technical requirements of e-commerce?

2.     What are involved in developing an e-commerce application?

3.     What are the options for developing e-commerce applications?

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS: Internet & Web technologies

Internet technology

1.     History

•     ARPANET (1969-1990)

–       the U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) network for data sharing

•     NSFNET (1986-1995)

–       the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) national network for university communications 

•     Internet (1990)

–        Business use of the Internet promotes the development of World Wide Web

 

2.     Architecture  

Level

Example

End user

You and me

Local service providers

Verizon, InsightCommunication

Internet service providers

AOL, MSN, CompuServe

Network service providers

MCI, Sprint, AT&T

Backbone

Fiber optics, routers, switches

 

3.     Protocol: TCP/IP

 

Web technology (De and Mathew, 1999, Fig.3)

 

World wide web: A client/server system and a set of standards (markup languages) for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in a networked environment using graphical user interfaces and dynamic links to documents.

1.     Client ware

·       Browsers, viewers(Acrobat), players(MediaPlayer, RealPlayer, QuickTime, ShockWave)

·       Client computing

2.     Server ware

·       Web server

·       Scripting

·       Page construction

·       Image manipulation

·       Transaction protection

3.     Network ware (Serenbetz, 1998)

·       Routers

·       Gateways

·       Hub

·       Firewalls

·       Leased lines

4.     Middle ware

·       Databases

·       Data warehouses

 

WWW standards: markup languages

  • SGML (Standard generalized markup language): a meta language used for defining other markup languages to describe and format electronic documents that are independent of software applications, devices, and machines.
  • HTML (Hyper text markup language): a document production language that uses a set of tags to define the format and style (headings, title bars, bullets, lines, ordered lists, graphics, tables, frames, …) of a document, i.e., how a page is displayed on the web.
  • XML (extensible Markup Language): a document definition language

 

*Web server functionality

1.     HTTP services

2.     Security and authentication: passwords, certificates, encryption, access control, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol

3.     Provides FTP services

4.     Searching: search engine (directory-based vs index-based) vs intelligent agent

5.     Data analysis: access log analysis

6.     Site management: authoring tool: authoring, publishing, link-checking

7.     Application construction: static (HTML coding) vs dynamic web page (CGI/API coding)

8.     Dynamic content management: ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), ASP (Active Server Page)

9.     Site development: page editor (FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Cold Fusion, PageMill, Composer), development kits (Java, Visual Basic, WinCGI, Perl), page upload 

 

Commercial web servers

Web server

Originator

Apache: a patchy system

NCSA (National Center for Super Computing Applications), 1994

IIS (Internet Information Server)

Microsoft

NES (Netscape Enterprise Server)

Netscape

Web server performance report

Determine web server hardware and software

EC application development process [Turban et al., 2004, Section 18.1]

1.     Develop an EC architecture

–                Business goals

–                Information requirements

–                Data requirements

–                Applications requirements

–                Technical requirements

–                Organization/Resource requirements

2.     Select a development option

–      Out-sourcing

–      In-sourcing

3.     Install and connect

–      Intranet/extranet

–      Databases

–      Business partners

4.     Deploy

–      Conversion strategy

–      Training

–      Resistance to change

5.     Operate and maintain

 

EC applications development options

Options

Considerations

–      Shared or Dedicated hosting

–      Self hosting or Outsourcing

–      Reliability

–      Server space

–      Security

–      Service quality

–      Visibility

–      Cost: setup, transaction, maintenance

–      Technical support


 

Options

Business owns …

Web host owns …

Shared hosting

Web site

Server: shared among other businesses

Dedicated hosting

Web site

Server: no sharing

Self-hosting

Web site and server

Nothing

Outsourcing

Nothing

Web site and server

–      ASP (Application Service Provider): a service that provides business applications to users over the Internet.

–      Web portal: a customized home base for users' web-based activities such as e-mail, search engines, information categories, membership services, web personalization, frequent shopper credit, and web mall.

–      Web hosting: the placement and maintenance of a web site.