ABSTRACT
Introduction ........................................................................................................ 374 Web-Based Architectures ................................................................................... 374 Standard Protocols for the Web .......................................................................... 375
Internet Communication Protocols ........................................................... 376 XML: An Open Document Standard ........................................................ 376 HTML Publishing Tools ........................................................................... 376
Web Limitations and Challenges ....................................................................... 377 Is the Web Suitable for Mission-Critical Business Applications? ............ 377 Is the Web Data Structure Adequate to Support Information
Reporting and Query Responses? ................................................. 377 Can Enterprise Data or Legacy Data Be Available on the Web? .............. 377 Can the Web Be Leveraged for Automatic Queries? ................................ 378
Web Applications ............................................................................................... 378 E-Commerce Applications ........................................................................ 378 Intranets .................................................................................................... 379 Web 2.0 Applications ................................................................................ 379
Data Integration with the Web ........................................................................... 380 Migrating Enterprise Data to Relational Data .......................................... 380 Migrating Unstructured Data to XML Data ............................................. 380 Unifying XML and Relational Data ......................................................... 381
Application Integration with the Web ................................................................ 381 Augmenting XHTML Programs ............................................................... 381 Web-Enabling Enterprise Applications ..................................................... 382
Strategy and Planning ........................................................................................ 382 Maintaining a Strong Presence on the Web .............................................. 383 Expanding and Enhancing the Web Site Functionality ............................. 383 Structuring Web Content as an XML Database ........................................ 384 Building Intranets, Extranets, and Web Applications ............................... 384 Preparing for Electronic Commerce ......................................................... 384 Planning a Make-or-Buy Strategy ............................................................ 385 Education and Training ............................................................................. 385
Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 386
References .......................................................................................................... 386 Appendix A: Products Mentioned in the Chapter .............................................. 387 Appendix B: Companies Mentioned in the Chapter .......................................... 387
The growth of the World Wide Web, the Web in short, for electronic business has been phenomenal since graphical user interface (GUI)-based browsers became available in the middle of 1990s. The Web has evolved from the original concept of being a static poster for existing content to a delivery platform for enterprise applications, business-to-business (B2B)/business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, and electronic publishing and interactive collaboration. Increasingly Web applications by way of B2B/B2C are being incorporated within the Web 2.0 to provide users with more seamless integration across enterprise-wide systems in order to advance customer and partner connection and to encourage participation. A report by a McKinsey global survey conducted in 2007 found that more than 75% of organizations are already investing in Web 2.0 [1].
