Building an infrastructure for a powerful web presence

When discussing a Web presence, people often mention fancy graphics and enticing layouts. But effective administration of an enterprise's Web site requires more than creativity and a good set of Web authoring tools. It requires a Web site infrastructure that is based on technology that addresses how people use the site and that appropriately supports such usage. Determining an ideal infrastructure configuration for a particular site is as much an art as it is an exact science. Careful and independent weighing of several considerations will assist in selecting major infrastructure components. Knowing your traffic and users is key to building a solid foundation of Web servers, data storage networks, content switches, and Web caches.