eCommerce in the Cloud

Chapter 8. Architecture Principles for the Cloud

Cloud computing shouldn’t be all that challenging to adopt, provided that your organization is competent, willing to make changes, and has the resources to do it. If you’ve already embraced the principles found in the first two parts of this book, it shows you’re both competent and willing to make changes and should therefore have few problems embracing cloud computing. More fully adopting cloud computing is an enormous undertaking, but one that can be fairly painless when done properly.

The problem with more fully using cloud computing is that it greatly exacerbates both organizational and technical deficiencies. If you’re already struggling with keeping your platform up today, a cloud is almost certain to make your problems worse. On the other hand, a cloud can be equally transformational in the right hands. Cloud computing is powerful, and those who master it will have a competitive advantage for years to come.

In this chapter, we’ll discuss how ecommerce is unique from an architecture standpoint, followed by how to architect ecommerce for the cloud. Extra attention will be focused on what scalability is and how to achieve it. Subsequent chapters in this part of the book will discuss how to actually adopt various forms of cloud computing.

Why Is eCommerce Unique?

Let’s explore a few of the ways ecommerce is so unique. These reasons are why eCommerce platforms are architected and deployed different than most other systems.

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