Problems infrastructure software fails to effectively solve for
                 large, global retail businesses

                          ABSTRACT

The panel discussion is on the problems encountered in building scalable, highly 
available, and cost efficient systems for large retail businesses.  The focus will 
be on where current technologies have not effectively solved some of the problems. 
Retail businesses fall into three broad categories -- traditional brick-and-mortar,
catalogue based, and e-commerce. This panel will include members from all three 
segments. The outcome of the panel discussion will result in highlighting two or 
three burning issues that are central to large retail businesses but are not 
effectively solved by existing infrastructure software.