Information Technology
In the first years, Amazon intentionally kept its Web site systems separate from its order-fulfillment system. The separation was partly due to the fact that the programmers did not have the technical ability to connect them, and partly because the company wanted to im-prove security by keeping the order systems off the Web.
By 1997, Amazon’s sales had reached $148 million for the year. The big book data-base was being run on Digital Alpha servers. Applications were still custom written in