eCommerce Software

[vfb]

I was wondering if anyone could point me to some great eCommerce software that could be used without being hosted. I want to design my own site and host it myself. Thank you.

[InfoSourcing]

Check www.storefront.net and www.aspdotnetstorefront.com and see if that works for you if you are looking for enterprise wide which is integrated solution then look at Everest software www.EverestERP.com site ...

[jazzcat]

I was wondering if anyone could point me to some great eCommerce software that could be used without being hosted. I want to design my own site and host it myself. Thank you.

Greetings,

What exactly do you mean by 'hosting it yourself'? Do you want to host it on your office server via a DSL line? Or do you have a colocated server in a data center? Or host it from your home PC?

Do you know how to properly secure the computer on which your site will be running? Security can be so complex, and there are so many vulnerabilities out there, that even sometimes the hosting professionals have issues. Your question seems to me to indicate that you don't have much experience in this area; if that's the case, you should probably hire a consultant to create a secure site for you.

Happy Trails,
-JC

[InfoSourcing]

Adding to Jazzcat comments few more pointers, not that I want to scare you ...

1. If you are hosting in-house, never host your web server on DSL line your bandwidth won't be enough for a decent traffic (unless you are expecting 10-100 hits a day)
2. Always go for a co-location so your webserver/ecommerce server is hosted at ISP hooked to their dedicated T1/T3 backbone and they take care of security updates and patches
3. Buying a software and customizing it takes time and effort, unless you have the skills or staff to do that don't venture into it, coz you are touching product catalog mgmt, payment and order processing functionality..
4. If you budget permits you to do all the above then only consider to host on your server else looking for a hosting e-commerce provider is the best option
5. If it is a "all-in-one" software like netsuite or Everest then you have no alternative option but to host it yourself, if it is independant ecommerce solution then there are several others ...

Bottomline, weigh your options and see what you want Vs what you wish and do the ROI math, it will be very clear which solution you need...

[vfb]

You are right, I don't know a lot about this and it is new to me. However I work at a Community College who just got a grant to help businesses around the area start using ecommerce. We would set up there website and then turn it over to them. We would like to host on the Community College server. I am still open for tips please!

[jazzcat]

However I work at a Community College who just got a grant to help businesses around the area start using ecommerce. We would set up there website and then turn it over to them. We would like to host on the Community College server.

VFB,

There are many, many questions you need answers to before you can embark on this voyage. These are questions that any consultant or service provider has to answer. Questions like:

1. "Community College server": How many servers does your college have? What operating system do they run? On which server do you want to run these websites? Does it have the ability to handle all of this extra stuff? You may need both a database server and a web server. Do you want to run this on the same server that houses data and files for your community college? Or did you purchase additional servers to run these sites? If so, what OS was chosen and why?

2. Who will handle the patching of the operating system when updates come out? Who will test all of the patches against the applications you have installed for your clients? Note that you'll need at least a Development and Production environment, preferably a QA environment as well, because operating system patches may break things and you shouldn't break your clients' websites by patching. Also, if you find that a patch does break a website, who will handle that and how?

2.5. Who will handle backing up and restoring data if your server breaks? What happens if someone's website is inoperative at 2 AM on a saturday morning? What happens if your server bursts into flames - do you have a disaster revovery plan?

3. Who is liable for infringing on state or federal law? If you are housing these sites (or their databases) on servers that also house data for your college, or even on the same network as those servers, you will probably violate several federal laws governing how students' data is used and to whom it is disclosed. How will you isolate the servers housing your clients' websites from the normal college servers? Also, several states have laws requiring that any security breaches be reported to people whose data is lost. How will you handle those events if they occur? How will you protect against those events?

4. Who is liable for civil damages? eCommerce usually means payment transactions, either through PayPal or credit card processing. VISA has very, very strict rules governing what you can and can't do with this data. How will you ensure those rules aren't broken? What will you advise your clients with regards to those rules? Who will be liable for chargebacks when (not if) they occur?

Having said all that, it's probably best if you partner with a local computer consulting firm. In order to avoid liability you need to keep the servers housing websites off of the college network; as InfoSourcing suggested, it may be in your best interest to buy a couple of servers and house them at a colocation facility - but this will probably cost at least a hundred or two per month. At the very least, if you are dead-set on housing the servers at the college, you'll need a dedicated network or 'DMZ' as it's called in practice to connect the servers to the internet. And you will need to buy at least one, preferably two servers. (Actually the best solution is four: one for production web server, one for production database, one for development web, one for development database.)

Then you have to choose the operating system, and this will govern what kind of eCommerce software you can use. Windows is easier to use and set up, but it's more expensive, requires more maintenance, and the patches break things more often. Linux is 'different' and so it requires a bit of learning, but once you learn it's as easy to use as Windows; plus it's also free and requires less maintenance. Either one can be a good choice or a bad choice depending on how much work is put into configuring it properly.

I hate to rain on your parade, but this stuff isn't easy. However, if you master it, you will provide a valuable resource to your community - so good luck!

[bluegrassjeff]

Depending on the type of grant, you may now be required to make this work, even if you aren't ready to take this on with on-site servers. There are companies that lease dedicated servers...might be something to consider. You can find a provider that will manage the hardware, patches, backups, etc...take a lot of the headache off you...you still have to manage the server, user accounts, permissions, db hangups, etc. etc. But it's a lot less than setting up completely on-site.