Objectives of knowledge management

Dedicated server
Server contains only 
content and applications 
for a single company.
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Chapter 3
Managing digital business infrastructure
widely used service is Akamai (www.akamai.com). These are used by companies such as 
Yahoo!, Apple and other ‘ hot- spot’ sites likely to receive many hits.
The speed is also governed by the speed of the network connection, commonly referred 
to as the network ‘
bandwidth
’. The bandwidth of a website’s connection to the Internet and 
the bandwidth of the customer’s connection to the Internet will affect the speed with which 
web pages and associated graphics load. The term is so called because of the width of range of 
electromagnetic frequencies an analogue or digital signal occupies for a given transmission 
medium.
As described in Box 3.5, bandwidth gives an indication of the speed at which data can be 
transferred from a web server along a particular medium such as a network cable or phone 
line. In simple terms bandwidth can be thought of as the size of a pipe along which informa-
tion flows. The higher the bandwidth, the greater the diameter of the pipe, and the faster 
information is delivered to the user. Many ISPs have bandwidth caps, even on ‘unlimited’ 
Internet access plans, for users who consume high volumes of bandwidth.
Bandwidth
Indicates the speed at 
which data are transferred 
using a particular network 
medium. It is measured in 
bits per second (bps).
Box 3.5
Bandwidth measures
Bandwidth measures are in bits per second where one character or digit, such as the 
number ‘1’, would be equivalent to 8 bits. So a modem operating at 57,600 bits per 
second (57.6 kbps) will transfer information at 7,200 characters per second (57,600 ÷ 
8). When selecting an ISP or hosting provider it is important to consider the bandwidth 
of the connection between the ISP and the Internet. Choices may be:
● 
ISDN – 56 kbps up to 128 kbps
● 
Frame relay – 56 kbps up to a T1 communications channel (1.55 Mbps)
● 
Dedicated point-to-point – 56 kbps up to T3 (45 Mbps): connected to the Internet 
backbone.
kbps is one kilobit per second or 1,000 bps (a modem operates at up to 56.6 kbps)
Mbps is one megabit per second or 1,000,000 bps (company networks operate at 
10 or more Mbps)
Gbps is one gigabit per second or 1,000,000,000 bps ( fibre- optic or satellite links 
operate at Gbps).
A major factor for a company to consider when choosing an ISP is whether the server is 
dedicated
to one company or whether content from several companies is located on the same 
server. A dedicated server is best, but it will attract a premium price.
Availability
The availability of a website is an indication of how easy it is for a user to connect to it. In 
theory this figure should be 100 per cent, but sometimes, for technical reasons such as fail-
ures in the server hardware or upgrades to software, the figure can drop substantially below 
this. Box 3.6 illustrates some of the potential problems and how companies can evaluate and 
address them.
Box 3.6
Preventing wobbly shopping carts
The extent of the problem of e-commerce service levels was indicated by 
The 
Register
(2004) in an article titled ‘Wobbly shopping carts blight UK e-commerce’. The 
research showed that failure of transactions once customers have decided to buy is 
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Part 1
Introduction
often a problem. As the article said, ‘
UK E‑commerce sites are slapping customers in 
the face, rather than shaking them by the hand. Turning consumers away once they 
have made a decision to buy is commercial suicide.
’ The research showed this level 
of problems:
●