E-Commerce Infrastructure Planning and Management

E-Commerce is the magic word in the era of web enablement. In this era of internet driven innovations, a rising
number of professionals are engaging in innovative business models and services within their own. There are
further numerous professionals employed within the domain as experts.  This article provides an overview of E-
Commerce Infrastructure Planning and Management.
So why do we need to focus on e-commerce infrastructure and how should we plan it? To define its Mission: It
would be to design, develop and maintenance of e-commerce business venture and enable three critical
objectives:
1. First objective (what we are building): An open, distributed and safe infrastructure which is scalable
and thus has provisions for future needs
2. Second objective (how we can use): Using internet based technologies to demonstrate the value
creation for the users, and facilitate the delivery
3. Third objective (who will pay repeatedly): Define the right business model to sustain in the future, in
tandem with the IT infrastructure

E-Commerce Infrastructure identifies the functionalities of the Hardware and Software components, specifies
the corresponding service level requirements, and describes the management and operations of the whole
system. It may comprise briefly of the following components at a very abstract level.
 Software components used: Content management systems, Web analytics, Text analytics, Application
Programming Interface (API), Database server, Middlewares etc. Object oriented (e.g. CORBA), Transaction
processing, communication (https, messaging), data base (e.g. ODBC), application middleware (CGI)
 Hardware components used: Servers, proxy servers, load balancing systems. Firewalls, encryption
devices and interactive voice response units etc.
 Some of the
major components, which a techno-functional professional in the domain is expected to know are as follows:
 Middleware: Systems that resides between the client (user) and the server (database and application
resources). These could be data access components, communication protocols, specialized servers, or a mix of
all.
 Directory services: Email Directory Services enables users to locate other users for sending emails.
LAN Directory Services facilitates functions like connecting to the web, sharing printers, LAN chats, LAN
based KMS
 Lookup Database: This is the database that stores information about network resources and user
profiles. Enables usage of network resources based on entitlements.
 Meta-Directories: Facilitates the flow of data between one or more directory services and databases.
Enables synchronization of data across databases or data warehouses
 Groupware: Facilitate the automation and streamlining of business processes not implemented in
legacy/ERP systems. Group communications and information sharing enabling collaboration between teams and
individuals
 Internet Domain Name Service (DNS): DNS facilitates the unique identification of an organization or
entity on the Internet. DNS maps the domain name of an organization to its IP address
Further, as a systems or a business analyst, typical criteria for evaluating infrastructure for e-commerce
setup could comprise of the following:
 Flexibility: The ability to respond quickly to changing requirements, and scale up based on the need of
the customer. Resource virtualization can be an important factor in such a scenario.
 Costs: The CapEx & WorkEx, like acquisition and maintenance costs for servers, licenses and other
hardware and software. License cost and its renewal policy would also play a significant part of the evaluation.
 Scope & performance: Factors include degree of fulfillment of specific requirement, knowledge about
service and performance quality. Service uptime could be another sub-criteria.
 IT security & compliance:  Factors like government, industry and firm specific needs in the areas of
security, compliance and privacy are covered. How the information assets are protected could be a regulatory
issue.
 Reliability & trustworthiness: Factors like service availability, consistency of delivery and fulfillment
of the Service Level Agreements. Whether the consumer can get the same uniformity of service every time, is
the evaluation parameter.
 Service & cloud management:  Factors like offered support and functions for controlling, monitoring
and individualization of the web interface.
Beyond this, another important dimension to deliberate upon, is to focus on the key metrics of an e-commerce
infrastructure policy. These could be noted and elaborated as follows:

Further, professionals need to understand the Performance Models associated with E-Commerce

Infrastructure, which may be useful during audits. A model is a representation of an information system. It
could be physical, logical or functional. The model should be as simple as possible. It should be capable of
capturing the most relevant characteristics of the system under evaluation or audit.
 The performance of e-Commerce site depends on the pattern of services requested by customers, as described
by customer model. It also depends on the demands that each service places on the site’s resources and the
intensity at which customers arrive at the site.
In view of this, it would be pertinent to focus on the following aspects of E-Commerce Infrastructure:
 Monitoring and Reporting on Web and other e-Business Applications, and the Response Times for Web
transactions
 TCP/IP Performance focusing on End-to-End network response times and the Effects of operational
performance control
 Network Routes and Equipment focusing on the End-to-End route response times, Identify route
patterns and defects and Identify and minimize loss of data in the network
 Other important dimensions include adequate site capacity, Scalability and Fault-tolerance.
Basic Question for the evaluation would attempt to address the key question: What portions of my “service-
product” are popular? This would need renewed focus on the Capacity Issue and the Method of Analysis
Capacity Issue:
 Which files are being requested frequently?
 Which content configurations are requested frequently?
 Which processes deliver that content?
 Am I paying too much for my ISP service contract?
 Can I get by on a lower-bandwidth contract?
Method of Analysis:
 Site log file analysis
 Add up all http: transactions made to your web site during some time period
 Visitor on site trend analysis
 Purchase trend analysis
Capacity planning would address these requirements through a cycle of workflows of analysis in a multi-stage
approach.

During the Business & Functional Planning, focus would be on the following components:
 Interaction Model: It focuses on how a user interacts with the e-Business site to execute the function.
Example: two consecutive HTML forms may be needed to implement the function of online application to a
course.
 Web Technology Used: Different technologies may be used to implement an e-Commerce function.
E.g. HTML forms, Java Applets, Active X controls. Suitability of technology chosen to fulfil functional needs
would have paramount importance.
 Use of User Credentials for Authentication: This information specifies if an authentication protocol
such as SSL is used to implement the e-Commerce function. This would have significant importance in terms of
security and information assurance.
The Customer Behaviour Planning would comprise predominantly on the Business Intelligence aspect to mine
the customer’s preferences and purchase behavior and make suitable recommendations. Techniques like
classification, pattern association and sequential rule mining may be used to meet the requirements of this stage.
The IT Resource & Infrastructure Planning would focus predominantly on the specification of
the workload model. This would entail a series of activities focusing on workload estimation, workload
specification, performance modeling and calibration for validation. Further, based on the performance
modeling output, cost-benefit analysis of the system needs to be completed. Subsequently the IT Infrastructure
Evolution Plans can be drawn based on the completion of this analysis.

Ecommerce infrastructure categorization 
1. Ecommerce environment: This defines general guidelines and frameworks that will make your business
suitable for running ecommerce. It is a standard like technical tools, legal and regulatory frameworks,
and the involvement of service providers.
2. Infrastructure services: These are the services that specify ecommerce functions. One or more services will
work together to provide particular functions to the ecommerce business. Services like user authorization,
payment processing, order validation, etc., help in during products checkout by the user.
The infrastructure services can further be classified in terms of the services they provide to the user or an
organization. Network services, directory services, payment services, and security services are common
infrastructure service providers to the user. 
3. Ecommerce solution providers: They offer an end-to-end solution for ecommerce business who does not
have their implementation team.
Ecommerce infrastructure components 
Ecommerce infrastructure identifies each functionality of the hardware, software, and network with their key
role. When you know about the functionality of the components in ecommerce, then you can organize
the ecommerce platform more efficiently. 
Hardware:
Hardware does several things, which includes allowing you to connect to your network and have access to the
outside world. It allows you to store data, recover and use your data. Some important hardware components
are: 
Devices: Computers, hubs, routers, data centers, etc. 
Servers: Server provides the necessary functionality for other programs. It can be a computer
program or a device and can be used for different purposes. Some common servers are a proxy server, web
server, application server, etc. 
Software:
Software components include services like system management tools, analytic tools for estimating your
business and service providers. 
Management services: When you run an ecommerce business you need to manage various services like
content, database and resources. Enterprise resource planning, content management, and data centers are some
software services that help in managing the resources of the company efficiency. 
Analytics: Ecommerce business is more competitive since it is growing day by day. So, it's important to
analyze your capacity, which helps in improving your system to perform better. Web analytics and text
analytics tools will help in estimating your ecommerce site. 
Middleware: Middleware is an intermediate between service providers and service users. It could be data
access for components, communication protocols, specialized servers, or a mix of all. 
API: An application program interface is a protocol or a tool for building the software applications. It specifies
how a software component should interact with each other. 
Network: 
Network provides the communication path and services between users, processes, applications, services, and
external networks through the Internet. 
Internet connectivity: Establishing the connection between various devices and processes.  
Firewalls: Firewalls protect your networks from outside attackers. It enables you to specify what kinds of
traffic are permitted through, adding a layer of security. 
Security services: Even some times firewalls may lack in protecting against the hackers including security
services. 
Load balancer: It uses load balancers to distribute the overall load on your web or application servers. It
also distributes demand according to the kind of task to be performed. 
DNS: Domain Name System is naming a system for your website. They locate the internet protocol address for
your domain name. 
Criteria for choosing ecommerce infrastructure 
Choosing the right infrastructure to match your ecommerce business strategies enables your operations to run
efficiently and increase your revenue. 
Flexibility: An ecommerce environment must be easy to manage for all users. They must have the ability to
respond quickly for all the changes and must adapt the new technologies and features as a scalable factor. 
Usability: Usability is an important factor while you are choosing the services for ecommerce platforms. When
any one of the services fails, it will cause a major effect in delivering efficient performance. 
Scalability: Ecommerce grows rapidly where new technology and services get added regularly so it needs to
have an environment that does not collapse during additional services. The infrastructure should be scalable in
terms of technology, human recourses, high traffic, etc. Also, the performance of the system should not be
slowed down. 
Security: Ecommerce business is vulnerable to various sources like hackers, malware, security attacks, etc.
Your infrastructure must allow firewalls to protect your ecommerce from network attacks and other paid
security services. 
Effective planning and management 
As an ecommerce business owner, ignoring the importance of planning and developing an ecommerce
infrastructure is a major failure for a business in the long run. You need to have an infrastructure based on the
needs and priorities of your company. Even managing your ecommerce infrastructure is challenging, but well-
defined planning and management can reduce risk and ensure uptime.