E-commerce Architecture Evaluation Through Web Stress Test

웹 스트레스 테스트를 통한 전자상거래 아키텍쳐 평가

  • 이영환 (한국외국어대 경영정보학과) ;
  • 박종순 (서일대학 전산학과)
  • Published : 2001.12.31

Abstract

Of critical importance to the success of any e-commerce site are the two factors: rapid application development and quick response time. A three-tier architecture composed of presentation layer, business layer, and data access layer emerges to allow rapid changes in user interface, business logic, and database structures. Too often, such a logical three-tier architecture is considered as requiring a three-tier physical architecture: Web server, application server, and database server running on separate computers. Contrary to the common belief, a Web stress test reveals that the three-tier logical architecture implemented on a two-tier physical platform guarantees a quicker response time due to the reduction in cross-machine communications. This would lead business firms to economize their spending on e-commerce: increasing the number of physical servers to expedite transaction is not necessarily the best solution. Before selecting a particular hardware configuration, a Web stress test needs to be conducted to compare the relative merits of alternative physical architectures. Together with capacity planning, Web stress test emerges as a powerful tool to build robust, yet economical e-commerce sites.

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