eBusiness Systems Architecture
William Whyte · 2004
Complete eBusiness involves complex end-to-end integration of heterogeneous hardware and software distributed-computing and communications platforms and integration of automated processes, human-machine interaction and computer-supported, co-operative working. Increasingly, virtual private networks, intranets and extranets are provided by the Internet protocols of TCP/IP, supplemented by security processes. N-tiered client-server architecture dominates, with object-oriented components, exemplified by CORBA, DCOM and JavaRMI. Distributed critically important data operations run within a distributed transaction-processing model. Distributed teams achieve a level of empathy by using multimedia conferencing tools that allow a degree of empathy between distributed teams. Heterogeneous documentation, synchronised and under-version-control is managed across the enterprise, increasingly Internet based. Automated workflow processes remove many manual re-keying and scheduling tasks. Wide-area directories assume a central role.