This is a book written, edited, and researched by me and many other people associated with PC Magazine. It contains text that was published in various issues of the magazine and a great deal of text and illustrations never seen before. Certainly, this much work describing the who, what, why, and how of e-business has never been brought together in one place before. I?m happy to say that PC Magazine doesn?t look at e-business coverage as a series of personality profiles or even as a series of business reviews. We view it as a combination of technology, investment, and relationships. Indeed, in the end, e-business is more about relationships than anything else. We take you through the relationships your company can have with other companies (B2B, e-purchasing, e-procurement, and vortals), with its customers (B2C, CRM, and e-tailing), and with its employees (B2E, corporate portals, access, and infrastructure). As we go through these topics you will learn about leading corporations and suppliers in each area and what their products can do for you. We illustrate important points with case studies and diagrams. We always talk about alternatives and decisions. Because we understand the technical side of the systems, we understand that you can?t build a house without a foundation. In Chapters 6, 9, and 10 we take you through the infrastructures you need to support e-business. In the software infrastructure we include authentication, directory services, and VPNs. Our guide to the hardware infrastructure describes load balancing, clustering, and other techniques for high availability.