Feature Story

Bidding on the Java platform.

Sun helps eBay create technology architecture for the future.

By David S. Marshak, Patricia Seybold Group

24.June.03--In 2000, eBay, the leading online marketplace and possibly the most successful Web-based enterprise in existence, faced a serious challenge. Its business was growing so fast that it threatened to tax its existing two-tier technology architecture in areas of scalability and maintainability. At the same time, eBay was exploring new marketplace models to supplement its traditional auction model and found that its infrastructure was not flexible enough to support its new initiatives and its long-term strategy of becoming a marketplace that supported all models of commerce. The company turned to Sun Microsystems, Inc. to come up with a solution.

New Architecture

A number of efforts had been made in 1999 and 2000 to shore up the existing infrastructure and, importantly, users of the site were not yet impacted by the infrastructure limitations. However, eBay decided in late 2000 that a completely new architecture would be needed to meet future quality-of-service requirements. The key would be to move from a monolithic application architecture to a services- and component-based architecture that would take eBay into the future.

eBay evaluated two architectural platforms: Microsoft's .NET initiative and the industry-standard Java[tm] 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition J2EE[tm] platform. According to Chuck Geiger, vice president of Architecture and Technology Strategy at eBay, eBay decided that "Java [technology] had finally matured with J2EE [technology] to the point to which large-scale velocity could be considered." Sun played a key role in assuring eBay, including demonstrations of successful deployments of J2EE technology-based platforms for high-volume destinations such as J.Crew, Ford Credit, and Charles Schwab.

Help from Sun Services

eBay then turned to Sun Services to help with its J2EE technology-based architecture design and implementation. As part of this process, Sun mentored and trained eBay developers in development best practices based on the SunTone[sm] Architecture Methodology. The Sun team also served as a "watch dog" to help insure that the implementation would remain based on J2EE technology standards rather than become proprietary to any specific vendor.

In June, 2002, eBay completed the second phase of the three-phase roll-out of the new architecture, which it dubbed "V3." Phase One was a production-quality design concept and was successfully completed at the end of 2001. Phase Two moved the bulk of user activity to the new architecture--proving the scalability of the new architecture. And Phase Three--the long-term migration of virtually all eBay functionally to the new architecture--is scheduled for completion mid 2004.

The Bottom Line

Thus far, the results have been very positive. A number of large and mission-critical functions is now on the new architecture. Currently, over 75 percent of user traffic are on the new architecture, with no negative impact on the experience of more than 62 million registered users. eBay has also seen performance improvements. In addition, eBay is expecting a much improved time to market for the deployment of new initiatives through more than 25 percent reuse of architectural frameworks and design patterns, with measurable gains in productivity and availability. Most importantly, eBay is now on the road to a more viable, flexible, and scalable architecture upon which to build its future.

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