As you will know, the
Internet
enables communication between millions of connected com- puters worldwide, but how does the seamless transfer of data happen? Requests for
information are transmitted from client computers and mobile devices whose users request services to server computers that hold information and host business applications that deliver
the services in response to requests. Thus, the Internet is a large-scale
clientserver
system.
Internet technology
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Chapter 3 E-business infrastructure
Internet
The Internet refers to the physical network that
links computers across the globe. It consists of
the infrastructure of network servers and
communication links between them that are
used to hold and transport information
between the client computers and web
servers.
Clientserver
The clientserver architecture consists of
client computers, such as PCs, sharing resources
such as a database stored on a more
powerful server computer.
Q. How do you measure ROI in Second Life? Ros Lawler, Random House:
If you were to measure it purely on books sold from direct links in Second Life, it would come out as a poor investment.
However, if you measure it in terms of reaching opinion-formers and as a publicity tool it can show real returns.
For example, a number of our regular visitors write for SL newspapers or influential blogs and their reporting of our events has an incredibly wide reach.
The event we ran for Richard Dawkins’ ‘The God Delusion’ at which God famously put in an appearance gained coverage in six UK newspapers.
The point of being there is to maintain a dialogue with the community so as virtual worlds develop we’re a part of the action, and not playing catch up.
Q. Are you planning any further Second Life projects in the near future? Ros Lawler, Random House:
Our island on Second Life hosts regular meetings for readers and writers, alongside book launches and competitions.
For example, this month you could attend a book group to discuss ‘Atonement’, hone your writing skills with the writers group, watch a live interview with Sophie Kinsella
or pick up some audio book samplers in our Valentine’s promotion. You can find more details of events on the blog.
Q. What proportion of books do you now develop digital content for? Ros Lawler, Random House:
To date we’ve been restricted by marketing budgets, and so primarily focus on creating digital content for lead front list titles. This includes
mini-sites, podcasts, games and so on. The launch of our widgets will mean we can easily create digital content for every
book, past and present.
Q. How big a contribution to sales do you expect from digital content versus e-commerce sales of print products?
Ros Lawler, Random House:
A Nielson Online survey recently found that books are the ‘most popular online buy’, as 41 of internet users had bought books online.
As sales of digital content are so new they are yet to show up on surveys of this size. However, downloads of audiobooks have increased by over 200 in the past
year and the arrival of Kindle and the Sony Reader will have a dramatic effect on the sales of ebooks.
The landscape could be very different in 5 years time.
www.econsultancy.comnews-blognewsletter3674random-house-s-ros-lawler-on-widgets-and-web-2-0.html
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Figure 3.2 shows how the client computers within homes and businesses are connected to the Internet via local
Internet service providers ISPs
which, in turn, are linked to larger ISPs with connection to the major national and international infrastructure or
backbones
which are managed by commercial organizations such as ATT, UUNET and Verizon. In the UK, at the London Internet Exchange in the Docklands area of east London, a facility exists
to connect multiple backbones of the major ISPs within the UK onto a single high-speed link out of the UK into Europe and to the world. These high-speed links can be thought of
as the motorways on the ‘information superhighway’, while the links provided from ISPs to consumers are equivalent to slow country roads.
Globally, there are many submarine cables which form the backbone between countries, which are susceptible to damage, for example in January 2008 a ship’s anchor severed a cable
in the Mediterranean resulting in a dramatic slowdown in Internet access for people in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Middle East.
Hosting of web sites and e-business services
While it is possible for companies to manage their own services by setting up web servers within their own company offices, or to use their ISP, it is common practice to use a special-
ist
hosting provider
to manage this service. For example, Rackspace Figure 3.3 describe itself as ‘Europe’s fastest growing hosting company’. Since 2001 Rackspace has been hosting
and supporting mission critical web sites, Internet applications, e-mail servers, security and storage services for over 4,000 customers. Rackspace also has US offices.
Figure 3.2
Physical and network infrastructure components of the Internet Levels IV and III in Figure 3.1
Local ISP
Access by: leased line or
phone line Local
ISP
LAN Home PC
client Business
e-mail or web server
Access by: phone line
or cable Global
ISPs Backbones
‘The Internet’
Business PCs clients
Part 1 Introduction
Internet service provider ISP
A provider providing home or business users
with a connection to access the Internet. They
can also host web-based applications.
Backbones
High-speed communications links
used to enable Internet communications across
a country and internationally.
Hosting provider
A service provider that manages the server used
to host an organization web site and its
connection to the Internet backbones.
