CMPE 472

1
CMPE 472

• Case in e-commerce infrastructure

2
E-commerce Infrastructure

• E-commerce is described as a new paradigm
• Innovation
• Application
• It does not happen without the infrastructure
  electronically linking IS and their users

3
Case 1 HighWired.com

• HighWired.com provides high school students and
  teachers a range of free services to enable
  school interaction on a personalised school
  website.
• Free unlimited website hosting
• Publishing tools
• E-mail and messaging
• Sports related team management tools
• They aim to aggregate the largest community of
  high school websites in order to attract
  corporate sponsors and vendors interested in
  accessing high school market.
• The goal was
• To reach 30mm page views up from 10mm now.
• Grow revenues from 5mm in 2000 to 15mm and
  30mm in 2001 and 2002 respectively

4
Case 1 HighWired.com

• Capacity issues
• Network grew from 1000 member high schools to
  over 12000 in 50 states and 72 countries in 13
  months.
• The only company that combined four communities
  school, sports, alumni, educators.
• Articulate, implement and finance a strategy
• Designed to be easy for students and teachers
• Point, click and publish
• Employed 120 people
• 40 engineers
• 5 hardware, 35 product development

5
Case 1 HighWired.com

• VP of Product Development
• Directed all technology related initiatives
• Development, engineering, QA, network and DB
  architecture
• He was CTO of Softbank and GM of Info Access
  Centre
• His BS is in math
• HighWired Products
• School life classrooms, guidance offices,
  newspapers, sports teams, student activities
• Simplified publishing tools, unlimited server
  space, message boards, free e-mail
• NYC board of education pilot

6
Case 1 HighWired.com

• Growth and Venture Capital Financing
• In 1999 1000 members from 50 states and 18
  foreign countries
• Launched 2 new website building tools
• Partnership/ sponsorship agreements with 4
  companies
• Raised 7mm in venture funding by 2 venture
  capital firms
• Reached 1900 schools in 50 states and 32
  countries
• Reached 5000 schools in 2000
• Raised 2nd round of 30mm in 2000
• Launched sports
• By mid 2000 reached 12000 member schools

7
Case 1 HighWired.com

• History of technolgy decisions
• Initially chose Intel based hw running Windows
  NT3 and used Microsofts SQL server (1000) as a
  DB.
• Main application was Vignette StoryServer
• Within first few months moved to Sun Solaris hw
• Vignettes sw support personnel was familiar with
  Sun
• Brought on board 2 Sun E250 servers to run web
  server and story server with a connection between
  the 2.
• Stable platform
• Faster and less expensive altenatives existed
  (Dell, Intel, Compaq)
• Hosting was done by Exodus Communications
• Huge data centre, internet bandwidth, fire
  suppression, high security, redundant power,
  air-conditioning.
• Fixed costs were paid on per sq meter

8
Case 1 HighWired.com

1. Page request

1. Page is served to viewer

Linux Box (Packet Filter)

1. Undamaged packets proceed

Local Disk Storage
Local Disk Storage
Web Server 1
Web Server 2

1. Page Requested

1. Page is retrieved

Local Disk Storage
Database Server
Current HighWired.com Hardware Configuration
9
Case 1 HighWired.com

• History of technolgy decisions
• There were not any non-critical hw components
  all linked to one another
• Service distinction internal versus external
  requests
• Bandwidth was the only variable cost
• Charged by Exodus for one megabit per second
  treshold, sampled every 15 minutes
• Cost ranged in the hundreds of dollars
• Not significant relative to hw costs

10
Case 1 HighWired.com

• Site performance metrics
• Response time
• Used a third party performance measurement
  system Keynote
• Noted the amount of time it took for their
  requests to be filled
• Played a role of an end-user
• Results were benchmarked against 40 companies
• Down time
• Targeted to be up 99.8 of the time
• Scheduled
• Unscheduled
• A third party service (Red Alert) monitored the
  site from a service perspective.

11
Case 1 HighWired.com

• Server configuration options
• To minimise response time and down time
• Utilise sw to make the current complement of
  servers more efficient
• Purchase a big box server
• Replicate data onto separate servers
• Divide data between separate servers
• Geographically locate replicated servers,
  allowing for regional handling of data requests