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com October 18, 2000

Portals: An Architectural Approach

RFG believes IT executives who are contemplating extending their enterprise out into the Web need to
integrate planning and implementation of online portals tightly with other key elements of their IT
infrastructures. In some environments, this may be best accomplished with portal offerings from currently
established vendors of other key enterprise IT infrastructure components, instead of or in addition to
offerings from vendors focused solely on portals.

Business Imperatives:
• Portals should be fully integrated with both an enterprise's business goals and other important
elements of its IT infrastructure. IT executives should make sure that every portal decision is driven
by these two critical requirements, to increase the probability of maximum technological success and
business value.
• Many portal offerings and vendors have attractive and compelling features. However, many of the
vendors are also relatively new, small, unproven, and focused almost exclusively on portal
technologies. IT executives should weigh the potential value of such vendors' offerings carefully
against those of more established enterprise IT providers. Important factors to consider include the
likelihood of each candidate vendor to grow, thrive, and forge solid client and partner relationships.
• While point solutions may solve initial portal requirements, IT executives should consider looking
beyond portal-specific vendors to those with the breadth of resources, experience and proven abilities
to act as trusted advisors across a broad range of issues. Established enterprise IT vendors such as
Computer Associates (CA), IBM and Oracle may offer many IT executives portal offerings that are
more enterprise-class. They may also offer greater integration with IT infrastructures, and more
proven abilities to apply technologies to business goals effectively.

Portals, whether focused on internal users or e-commerce, are becoming more and more important to
enterprises of almost every type. (See the RFG Research Notes "Enterprise Portals Open the Door for
Information Consolidation," March 21, 2000, "Portal Strategies: Select Vendors and Offerings," July 19,
1999, "Portal Nuts and Bolts: Specific Issues and Considerations," July 13, 1999, and "Portal Nuts and
Bolts: Strategic Considerations," June 29, 1999.)

IT executives and other senior managers are increasingly challenged to derive and deliver business value
from their prodigious IT investments. Enterprise network users, meanwhile, are increasingly challenged to
gain tailored access to the IT resources they need to succeed in their jobs and careers. At many enterprises,
portals are helping to address both sets of needs, and to deliver competitive advantage to the enterprises that
are building and using them successfully.

One sign of the importance of portals is pursuit of the portal market by more established and traditional
enterprise IT suppliers. IT executives should look closely at the portal products and services proffered by
these vendors. Such vendors can often provide broader and deeper offerings and higher levels of enterprise-
class expertise and experience than smaller, newer purveyors of more limited solutions. However, IT
executives should recognize that even established, respected enterprise IT vendors can bring product-driven
biases to the negotiating table.

CA has just announced availability of a new release of its Jasmineii Portal. This offering is based on Eureka:
Portal, an enterprise information portal product marketed by Sterling Software before CA acquired the
company. (See the RFG Research Note "CA Aims to Polish Sterling," Feb. 15, 2000.)
Portals: An Architectural Approach Wednesday, October 18, 2000

CA's new portal solution includes features for dynamic personalization and other services, as well as
powerful data and application integration abilities via an open application programming interface (API).
However, IT executives can gain broader enterprise application integration (EAI) features by combining the
Jasmineii Portal with CA's Jasmineii infrastructure platform.

Jasmineii supports the Common Object Model (COM/COM+), the Common Object Request Broker
Architecture (CORBA), Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), Java, and the eXtensible Markup Language (XML),
and offers easy integration with leading enterprise applications, databases, directories, and other resources,
according to CA. This support for standards-based access methods and interfaces, combined with Jasmineii's
ability to treat almost any IT resource as an object, promises high levels of flexibility and interoperability
with other vendors' solutions.

The Jasmineii architecture is analogous to a PC motherboard. It provides a common foundation atop which
other IT resources and tools for access to other resources can be linked to one another and to services
provided by Jasmineii. The environment's shared services range from authentication and encryption to
publish/subscribe support and transaction management.

By delivering a portal solution that combines a proven portal engine with this flexible and robust foundation,
CA should enable many IT executives to build, deploy and tailor portals rapidly. In addition, the Jasmineii
Portal offers tantalizing prospects for broad integration with other IT infrastructure elements, given CA's
history of delivering such integration for offerings such as its Unicenter enterprise IT management solutions.
More information about Jasmineii and the Jasmineii portal is available at the CA Web site.

Both current CA customers and IT executives building e-businesses should find the Jasmineii Portal worthy
of serious consideration. Moreover CA's legacy and enterprise users' requirements drive the company to
focus on interoperability, flexibility and ease of integration with other vendors' e-business and enterprise IT
technologies and offerings. (See the RFG Research Note "Computer Associates: From Infrastructure to
"Ultrastructure" for the Next Wave of E-Business," April 17, 2000.) The Jasmineii Portal is both a prime
example and result of this focus.

In June of this year, IBM announced version 7.1 of its Enterprise Information Portal (EIP). Based on IBM's
DB2 Universal Database, EIP supports a variety of operating environments, databases, and applications. It
also includes a Unified Content Application Programming Interface (API), designed to support rapid
development and deployment of EIP applications, according to IBM. The API supports all leading Web
development environments, including ActiveX, C++, Java, and JavaBeans, IBM said.

IBM is forging a growing list of partnerships around its portal offering. IBM is also touting the integration
of EIP with other IBM offerings, such as its WebSphere Application Server and MQSeries Workflow
software. IBM is also focusing the strengths of its Global Services group in the portal market. IBM Global
Services has built a Community Knowledge Portal using EIP. This Portal is designed to showcase EIP, and
to connect people, groups and businesses with common interests.

Based on its features and IBM's market position, IT executives will likely find the company's EIP offering to
be robust, flexible and relatively easy to integrate with IBM and some non-IBM environments. However, IT
executives are likely to be subject to repeated emphasis by IBM on the synergies between IBM's EIP and its
other software and hardware offerings. IT should therefore get the maximum available pre- and post-sale
support from IBM Global Services, to assure the best possible integration with existing and future IT
Portals: An Architectural Approach Wednesday, October 18, 2000

infrastructure elements, whether provided by IBM or not. EIP 7.1 is available now, with more information
available at the IBM Web site.

Also in June of this year, Oracle announced Oracle Portal, a revamp of an offering formerly known as
WebDB. Oracle positions Oracle Portal, part of the Oracle Internet Platform, as a single Web-based
environment for integrated, managed access to and delivery of enterprise information, applications, and
services. Interface components called "portlets" are used to Web-enable these resources, and can be created
internally or obtained from third parties, according to Oracle.

This approach to portal building and management likely offers tight integration with incumbent databases
and other enterprise information resources, especially those running on Oracle software platforms. In
addition, Oracle is forging partnerships with content providers and aggregators, Internet service providers,
system integrators, and other vendors. These partnerships are designed to extend the functionality and
flexibility of Oracle Portal.

The Oracle Portal leverages the other key Oracle offerings. However, it seems to offer little if any
integration or potential for integration with IT asset management solutions or other key IT infrastructure
elements beyond those sold by Oracle. IT executives should evaluate the need for such integration and its
potential cost and difficulty before taking this route to portal building and management, even in
environments heavily reliant on other Oracle offerings. RFG expects Oracle Portal to become generally
available this fall, a delay from Oracle's originally announced plans for general availability this summer.
Demos and a "test drive" of the software are available now at the Oracle Web site.

Beyond technologies and products, IT executives need vendors with sufficient enterprise experience and
resources to act as trusted advisors and partners. Such collaboration can assist IT executives in the
selection, building, and management of portals. Perhaps more important, such companies can help IT
executives make sure their portal decisions are appropriately integrated with enterprise IT and e-business
infrastructures, and with overall business goals.

CA, IBM, and Oracle all have extensive industry partnerships and teams of professional services providers.
Lotus, Microsoft, and other enterprise solution vendors are also combining an increased focus on portals
with growing rosters of partners and support providers.

However, IT executives may find that CA's partnerships and professional services teams are more
experienced in diverse, heterogeneous enterprise environments than those of its competitors. This could be a
significant boon to IT executives in environments not dominated by a single vendor's offerings, as well as to
those attempting to rely more on solutions based on open architectures and industry standards. Such
considerations are at least as important as technological strengths and differences, if IT executives are to
succeed at creating portals that not only perform well, but deliver clear business benefits to their enterprises.
Portals: An Architectural Approach Wednesday, October 18, 2000

RFG believes IT executives should evaluate all relevant portal offerings fairly, but should not evaluate such
offerings on their technological merits alone. When other current and planned IT and e-business
developments are considered, many IT executives may find larger and more established enterprise IT
vendors better equipped to deliver complete, integrated, complex portal solutions and trusted business-
oriented advice than even the most technologically sophisticated portal-focused vendor.

Copyright © 2000 Robert Frances Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Agenda products are published by Robert Frances Group, Inc.,
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