Web Site for Tony's Chips - Case Study Example

Web Site for Tonys Chips Introduction Tonys Chips has been sold to an independent company and wishes to move its website from its current Internet Service Provider (ISP) to host the website in-house. This paper identifies the process to be followed in making this move and defines the overall solution. Server Architecture The server architecture for a website consists of four components: Server Operating System, Web Server, Database and Web Application Operating System The main operating systems are Windows and various UNIX variants such as Linux, FreeBSD, AIX (IBM), iOS (Apple). Linux is the most common, with Windows in second place. Linux is open source and free, and can scale from small Netbooks up to multi-server clusters. It is well supported by a large community, and support packages can be bought. It generally requires a knowledgeable specialist to set up, even in the simpler situations. Windows is sold under license, and these licenses can be expensive for the more powerful servers. Support is also widely available on the internet and a support package can be bought from Microsoft. Windows can be installed in a local PC by a relative novice, but it does require specialists when used in a multi-server environment. Web Server There are a number of open source web servers available such as Apache, Lighttpd and Nginx, while Microsoft provides Internet Information Service (IIS). Apache will run on Windows or Linux. It has by far the largest installed base of web server software. It does require some expertise to install for a small site, and specialists are required for large sites with many web pages and high hit rates. Support is widely available on the internet. Microsoft IIS which forms part of the Windows Operating System is second most popular web server. It is easy to install from the Windows Control Panel by a novice, but specialists are required for a multi-server site. Support can be purchased from Microsoft as part of the Windows Support package. Database A database is required for a website if there is to be any form of long term storage, or transaction based processing such as placing orders. Open source offerings such as MySQL or PostgreSQL are readily available and free, Microsoft provides SQL Server for Windows and there are other chargeable products such as Oracle (which runs on Windows or UNIX/Linux). MySQL runs on Windows or Linux, has a major market share and supports large websites. It requires minimal expertise to install, but does require SQL expertise to implement a database. While being very fast, MySQL has limitations in terms of transaction integrity. PostgreSQL is comparable to MySQL and provides better transactional security if this is required, although not the speed that can be achieved by MySQL (Stackoverflow, 2011). MS SQL Server is sold under license by Microsoft as a separate product. There is also SQL Server Express which can be downloaded for free and is suitable for small websites. Web Application PHP, Perl and Python are the generally used languages on the open source platforms, although they can also be used on a Microsoft platform. For Microsoft platforms, ASP.NET is the preferred language, but other .NET languages also work. Disaster Recovery Although the brief is to "… provide a disaster recovery solution to ensure the site is always available", this is too onerous on a small operation like Tonys Chips. The scope of disaster recovery covered here is where the web-server does not respond to requests, recovery will be automated and short periods of downtime (minutes) will be tolerated. It does not cover: External network faults, such as the cable being dug up - this would require a redundant network connection via an alternate route (such as wireless) to backup the fixed cable, as well as alternate domain configurations on the switches of the major carriers (DNS failover). Significant power outages, beyond the scope of a small scale Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Installing a diesel generating unit in a food shop will probably contravene planning and health ordinances and be very expensive. Physical disasters such as a fire. To cover this option will require a remote Disaster Recovery site, which will bring headaches in terms of cost, maintenance etc. The Disaster Recovery solution will consist of the following: A secondary (backup) server co-located in the shop. An Uninterruptible Power Supply. Duplicate databases, one in each server, either configured as RAID 0 (mirrored) or using a utility such as rsync to synchronize the data in real time. A failover application such as Neverfail (www.neverfailgroup.com) to manage the automated failover if the primary server fails. Alternatives to self-hosting the website There are various scenarios to consider if not hosting the website Full outsourcing The responsibility for hosting and developing the website is outsourced to a website specialist. This is a one-stop service and they do everything for you. This option makes most sense when the website is a new one and the customer does not want to take any responsibility. Hosting only outsourcing The hosting of the website is outsourced, often to the ISP who takes care of the issues of network availability and service disasters. The ISP is also responsible for the registration of the domain name. Development of the website pages is the responsibility of the customer who can do it himself or can pay someone else. As an alternative, the hosting can be contracted to a cloud operator. It is cheaper than self-hosting, but there are still questions about the reliability (Website Magazine, 2011). This option makes most sense when the customer knows what he wants from the website, but does not want the responsibility of keeping his server up and running continuously. Evaluation For a small business to host its own website, it will either have to employ someone with the necessary expertise or to contract with a service provider. It does not seem to make sense for a small business like Tonys Chips to self-host, especially if the cloud option is cheaper. Proposed Website Architecture The most common website server architecture is LAMP which consists of Linux operating system, Apache Web Server, MySQL database and PHP (or Perl or Python) programming language for the web application. This architecture powers many web sites today. However it does require skills which are in demand, and so are expensive to hire. However, there are concerns about the transactional integrity of MySQL and Tonys Chips will be taking orders, so the use of PostgreSQL is preferred to MySQL (LAPP). An alternative is the pure Microsoft solution of Windows, IIS, SQL Server (or SQL Server Express) and ASP.NET. This requires less knowledge to set up a small website, but the overall cost will be higher and it is unlikely the overall system could be configured for disaster recovery without a skilled technician. It is proposed that LAPP architecture is implemented (see Figure 1) as it is cheaper than the Microsoft solution, PostgreSQL provides transactional integrity and all solutions will require some technical expertise to set up the website, including the disaster recovery configuration. (CNET News, 2009), (Stackoverflow, 2011) Project Plan Please refer to Figure 3 Use Case: Buying Chips Please refer to Figure 2. Select item(s) from menu. The customer logs onto the website using either his PC or iPhone. He browses the menu, selects the item(s) he wants, clicks on the submit button which sends the order to the website. The server then prints the order for the cook and displays the order number and confirmation to the customer. Prepare items. The cook takes the order from the printer. If he needs more chips, he fries another batch; otherwise he packs the order and places in the shop warming oven with the printed order Complete sale. The customer arrives at Tonys Chips and asks for his order by number. The clerk gives him the order, accepts the money and rings up the sale. Website support The website will require the following support operations to keep running: General housekeeping. Daily or weekly attention covering reloading ink cartridges for the printer, backing up the primary server, testing failover, drawing statistics on system performance and orders placed and general cleaning of equipment. Scheduled maintenance. Monthly or ad-hoc application of patches, bug fixes and changes to the system and application software. Emergencies. If the primary server fails or is suspended, the root cause must be identified and put right. If the network fails, it must be reported to the network operator or ISP and followed up until resolved. If the power fails, an electrician must be called in to repair, or an external fault reported to the power company. Evaluation Performance evaluation will be done from the monthly statistics drawn by the support technician. Performance will be measured in terms of availability of website, throughput of transactions, number of page hits, response times and network availability. Success of the project will be measured in terms of cost vs. budget, slippage, completeness of features and quality (number of bugs) Bibliography CNET News. (January 2009). Linux vs. Windows: Which is a better Web host? Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10144206-16.html Stackoverflow. (October 2011). Would you recommend PostgreSQL over MySQL? Retrieved from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/110927/would-you-recommend-postgresql-over-mysql Website magazine . (December 2011). Is the Cloud Ready for Business? Retrieved from http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/12/22/clouded-judgment-is-the-cloud-ready-for-business.aspx Figure 1: Web Server Architecture Figure 2: Use Case: Buying Chips Figure 3: Project Plan Read More