Papers in PDF format

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5.2. Quality Characteristics and Consulting
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Figure 2: service usage
With respect to our quality characteristics [Quality of Service] the average CPU utilisation is around 30%.
Even for a Web server with such a number of requests this is a high value. It is caused by the dynamic creation
of HTML documents. Most of HTML pages are individually constructed from a msql database. msql is a public
domain database software. For the costs of a higher CPU utilisation the advantages of using a database is the
high flexibility in serving different user interests and an easier way to manage the Web content [Baker et al.
94]. The disk utilisation is smaller than expected because DW‘s Web offering only contains a limited number
of multimedia files. But this will change in the future. The used bandwidth increases steadily.
In addition to setting up the server machine and to maintaining the services we had to support the external
users as well as the DW employees. Normally the Web users send error messages via email to accounts like
webmaster or ftpmaster. Many problems depend on user and configuration errors on the client side. If possible
we offer help for solving these problems. Questions about the contents and representation of the pages or
problems with cgi-scripts are solved by gekko.
To prepare the server migration, we have to train Deutsche Welle‘s system managers. Beside knowledge about
the software, its configuration and the requested system resources a basic understanding of the Internet is
crucial. In addition to training the administrators we have to support the information providers and users
within DW - especially the editors. Traditionally they have no experiences with the Internet and its
applications (like FTP and email). They need advisory how to configure the client software and to use the
services. Further more they need support about security in general, personal email accounts, and secure
passwords.
6. Conclusion: The Future
The choice of two external co-operation partners speeded up the process and minimised the risks and costs for
the Deutsche Welle due to the Internet and WWW experience of the two companies involved which by
themselves also learnt a lot [The Internet Reality]. The distribution of responsibilities has proved useful in the
day-to-day business.
In spite of the pressure from the market and the competition it is very important not to start in a hurry but to do
a careful planning of the activities and the service to be offered. Once you have started a Web-based service