Summary

In this document, we have shown how the Microsoft Windows platform and other Microsoft technologies are effectively used to build a scalable, available, secure, and manageable site infrastructure. We have stressed keeping operations and application design of a large site simple and flexible, and have emphasized how a dot-com can successfully deploy and operate a site based on the four goals of the architecture:

• Linear scalability: continuous growth to meet user demand and business complexity.
• Continuous service availability: using redundancy and functional specialization to contain faults.
• Security of data and infrastructure: protecting data and infrastructure from malicious attacks or theft.
• Ease and completeness of management: ensuring that operations can match growth.

We anticipate that this will be the first of many documents covering the breadth and depth of designing, developing, deploying, and operating great business Web sites that use Microsoft's products and technologies.