Chapter 1: WebSphere Portal Architectures

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In this chapter we introduce WebSphere Portal Enable V4.1 on the z/OS and OS/390 platforms. We give a general discussion of the logical tiers and architectures that is applicable to a portal running on zSeries. We wrap up our discussion with a description of physical architectures and also the architectures we used during this project.

1.1 WebSphere Portal

IBM WebSphere® Portal helps to improve employee productivity and strengthen relationships with customers and trading partners, by allowing users to interact in a personalized way with dynamic information, applications, processes, and people.

Some of the key features of the IBM WebSphere Portal offering are:

• It delivers a single, universal point of access that is integrated, highly customizable and scalable to interact with key applications, content, people, and business processes.

• It offers numerous portlets for e-mail, calendars, syndicated news, industry applications and many other functions.

• The WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms includes three editions:

  • Portal Enable is the base offering, easily scalable to more advanced portal offerings as need may dictate.

  • Portal Extend features powerful collaborative, extended search and Web analysis features.

  • Portal Experience is a comprehensive solution for developing, deploying and maintaining enterprise portals.

This redbook covers the WebSphere Portal for z/OS and OS/390 product, which has portal solutions for enterprise customers needing the highest performance and reliability. At the time this redbook was written, the WebSphere Portal for z/OS and OS/390 product is based on the WebSphere Portal V4.1 Enable edition.

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