eCommerce applications are developed for different purposes, each with their own distinctive business drivers. Business-to-consumer (B2C) sites are becoming strategic marketing channels for almost any product or service imaginable. At the same time, businesses depend on business-to-business (B2B) connections more than ever to streamline their supply chains and reduce operating costs. While they have different purposes, both B2C and B2B drive differentiation and are having a profound impact on company growth and profitability.

This paper outlines the primary steps to building successful eCommerce architectures which include:

• understanding the business drivers and IT challenges,
• creating a demand model, and
• translating and incorporating both into the eCommerce architecture.

With the mainstream adoption of e-commerce applications for Internet banking, online insurance, e-auctioning, online travel booking and e-trading, enterprises are facing extremely demanding levels of performance, scalability and availability.