The Commerce Server, a product from software giant
Microsoft, is targeted at reducing complexity and building scalable Business to
Business (B2B) and Business to Commerce (B2C) applications. Using Commerce
Server, you can develop and deploy enterprise level e-commerce applications
efficiently and manage transactional and backend data for such applications
seamlessly. Microsoft Commerce Server is a scalable platform for developing,
deploying, monitoring and even upgrading e-commerce applications seamlessly.
MSDN states, "this extensible platform enables you to build solutions that
scale with business needs and integrate with existing systems and data."
The following are some of the basic features provided by
Microsoft Commerce Server.
·
Provides a scalable, extensible data warehouse and its management
and configuration tools.
·
Provides a scalable, flexible, dynamic profiling system.
·
Provides event logging, performance monitoring and single sign on
support.
·
Provides a flexible, extensible content selection framework and
support for multilingualism.
·
Provides powerful user and catalog management systems.
You can use the Commerce Server for a "seamless
connection to internal and partner applications and systems such as Microsoft
Dynamics, SAP, JD Edwards, and others through Microsoft BizTalk Server
adapters." According to Microsoft, "Commerce Server enables you to
create full-featured Web business applications and extend your business across
networks, while allowing you to integrate e-commerce solutions within your
existing infrastructure." There is an excellent article from Microsoft
that discusses the architecture of Commerce Server in its entirety. You can
find this article at Commerce Server
Architecture.