Page 9 - DCAP408_WEB_PROGRAMMING

Unit 1: Internet Fundamentals

Notes
Figure 1.1: Structure of Internet

A few computers can be interconnected to share resources and exchange information using a
number of network technologies. Further, such networks can be interconnected to form even
larger networks. The Internet is a similar network that connects millions of networks worldwide.

Notes Note that we use “The Internet”, with definite article “The” and not just “Internet”.
This is because though there are many networks existing today the one we call “Internet”
is a single network consisting of all the participating networks.

The first business computer appeared in 1960 and since then information technology has changed the
way business or commerce is conducted across the globe. Companies are re-orienting themselves in
the present competitive era where product life-cycles are coming down everyday. Globalization of
markets is taking place with formation of trade blocks across the globe, and world moving towards
a global village. Complex issues of cultural divide within even the same trade block forces the
businesses to learn more about the customer, if possible to an individual level.
From mainframes to accounting systems, the Personal Computer (PC) revolution, local area
networks, electronic data interchange, client/server design, and enterprise resource planning
have all had a hand in shaping today’s business organization. The past few years have been
Internet years, however, when companies worldwide have embraced a change without equal. It
is a change that promises to have more impact and be more lasting than anything we have seen
to date. Technology is setting the pace for how a company does business, how it launches new
products and enters a new market, how it deals with suppliers, and how it communicates with
customers and others in the new marketplace.
We are now living in the ICE (Information Communication of Entertainment) age which reflects
synergetic combination of Information, Communication and Entertainment. The primary
technology for this transformation is Internet-the global data network. The customer has become
more important with the advent of Internet and Worldwide Web (WWW). These customers fall
in the high-income groups and are more demanding on quality and price. This makes the
business very unconventional and highly unpredictable.

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