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accounting, MIS reporting, store inventory management, and e-commerce inventory manage-
ment requirements of an entity like Panthera. Unfortunately, Panthera realizes that integration
of the e-commerce application with the inventory application is not possible, as the e-commerce
application is highly proprietary in nature and does not provide integration capabilities required
for integration with modern-day applications. An expensive and tedious procedure is required to
port data periodically between both these applications, and since inventory management is critical
for a merchant like Panthera, they end up performing several more redundant tasks to make sure
that their inventory records are updated. Integration is also one of the priorities for Panthera.
4.1.1.6 Capacity Issues
he current application is one that was designed in the year 2000. he Internet has grown by
leaps and bounds since then, and Panthera has not managed to keep up with the e-commerce
revolution. he current application is not able to handle a large amount of traic and transaction
volume. he application is extremely slow and cumbersome to use and manage when there is a
high volume of transactions. Although Panthera has consistently upgraded its hardware, the speed
and reliability of the application have only increased negligibly. Several customers have already
complained to Panthera about this problem, and Panthera is seriously concerned about its famed
reputation for customer service.
4.1.2 The Existing Application Environment
he current e-commerce application being used by Panthera is called Merchant Plus E-Commerce
Pro. his application was implemented in the year 2000 at the height of the dot-com and e-com-
merce boom. For several reasons, as listed previously, the application is grossly inadequate for
Panthera's current needs. Panthera's management has taken the situation seriously after several cus-
tomers have raised complaints against the organization based on their experiences with Panthera's
e-commerce application. he current application consists of the following components:
◾
Database server
Web server
◾
◾
Email and messaging server
4.1.2.1 Web Server
he e-commerce application hosted at Panthera is running on an operating system that is pro-
prietary in nature. he Web server is an outdated server version, for which the server platform
vendor has disabled support. Furthermore, Panthera's systems can only support limited oppor-
tunities for scalability, availability, and manageability issues of the system. he systems can only
be upgraded in terms of primary or secondary memory requirements. Only horizontal scaling is
possible because of the nature and limitations of the existing systems.
In terms of the application performance, Panthera wanted to upgrade the application to the
latest version of the Web server, but the existing e-commerce application vendor has indicated
that the application does not support future versions of the same operating system and Web server
platform. he e-commerce application vendor has indicated that there would be a large cost impli-
cation if the application has to be reengineered to support the latest operating system and Web
server platform. his situation has weighed heavily on the minds of Panthera's management. Due
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