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Chapter Two: System Requirements and Specifications
The requirements in the marketplace translate into a very tough computer science problem
that is not easily solved via traditional approaches.
Having evaluated the direction of the Web marketplace and the genuine need for a
scaleable, high performance Web activity recording, accessing and reporting system as
requested by the marketplace, Andromedia has translated this request into the technical
requirements driving our architecture design.
Technical Requirements
1) 100% Capture
The system must fulfill 100% data capture. If a stand-alone system is to fulfill the
needs of the myriad of applications and satisfy the many classes of users needing
reports. The system must capture ALL of the information available. The system
must also accommodate the Web as it evolves, being able to capture new types of
data as it emerges.
2) High Performance Capture and Retrieval
• Must keep up with the retrieval demands during peak load periods:
As a website’s usage rises and falls, the system must be able to keep up
without having to reconfigure the hardware on a dynamic basis. If an
application is expecting real-time access to certain data, the system must be
able to provide this access consistently.
• Must provide no loss of data due to overflow:
If the system is not supporting any real-time applications it will be
acceptable to “catch up later”, as long as the catch-up period is within the
window in which reports on the data are being generated. In no case can
the system get so overloaded that it is not accepting any more data and
data is permanently being lost.
• Data must be available for retrieval immediately:
When real-time applications are depending on the data being made
available immediately, the system must maintain this level of support. If an
advertising management application is rotating local language versions of
their ads depending on the domain reference of the user, that domain
reference data must always be available.
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The Aria Architecture Page 9 Andromedia, Inc.
White Paper July 1996