  urlLink Building an e- business foundation for a small- to- medium business,  Part 1:  Don't let the gorillas get you down Solution overview An infrastructure is the foundation of a business or organization,
 serving as the framework for internal and external communication,  processes,  and transactions.  The infrastructure's architecture determines how functional and extensible the system will be in meeting future requirements.  Using a solid system infrastructure ensures a trusted,  high-
performance solution.  Small business infrastructures must provide reliable,  efficient communications with business partners,  suppliers,  and customers.  They must also guarantee performance for critical,
 internal applications.  Figure 2 represents the scenario topology for our e- business infrastructure.  See Implementing the solution for definitions of each component.  Figure 2.  Solution topology You could benefit from a solution based on this topology if your business:
 Wants to extend its catalog presence to the Web Needs a way to track Web site traffic Needs a scalable,  highly available,  secure environment for e- business Needs to integrate existing and new applications Wants to advertise retail products and information on the Web Needs innovation in electronic communication to facilitate faster response times and lower costs The scenario has five stages:  Web presence Commerce Live chat Business- to-
business partner Site analysis In the first stage of the scenario,  Web presence,  we build the infrastructure for e- business.  We assume the business has a limited Web presence or needs to make its existing presence dynamic to attract more customers.  This stage lets customers easily find information about the business and contact it through a postal address,
 e- mail address,  or telephone number.  The infrastructure provides a strong,  secure,  reliable foundation on the path to becoming an e-
business.  It supports key industry standards such as HTML,  HTTP,  J2EE,  XML,  and Web services.
 In the second stage,  commerce,  we add e- commerce capability to the existing Web site,  providing the buying experience expected by online customers.  Customers can browse a catalog and view detailed product information,
 use a personalized,  virtual shopping cart,  and pay for purchases electronically.  This stage provides a secure,  reliable platform for conducting e- commerce,
 supports industry standards,  and seamlessly integrates with existing back- end systems like inventory databases.  In stage three,  live chat,  we extend the e-
business with human interaction to give it more responsive,  personal contact with its customers.  When a customer has a question about a product or about how to complete a purchase,  they can simply communicate with a customer support agent through an applet.  Agents can immediately contact internal product experts or accounting personnel and give quick answers to customers.  This instant messaging fulfills stringent security and availability requirements,
 and is easy for both customers and agents to use.  Smaller businesses can also benefit by electronically connecting to suppliers and resellers.  In stage four,  business- to- business partner,
 we implement business process integration and data sharing among trading partners.  This stage helps reduce integration costs and enables faster deployment of new processes and services.  It assures reliable message delivery and provides heterogeneous,  any- to- any connectivity through a standard API.
 After establishing Web presence and e- commerce capabilities,  the business will want to analyze site traffic to understand the complete view of customer Web activity and improve site efficiency and effectiveness.  In the fifth stage,  site analysis,  Swish Swash can analyze the preferences and trends of its site visitors.
 This stage identifies where visitors click and which paths they follow to determine if the site navigation helps meet the performance goals of the business.  The technical challenges are identifying and handling Web site congestion,  increasing content availability,  and improving overall performance.
