The Four Hundred--WebSphere Portal Express Comes to OS/400

As IBM's monolithic WebSphere strategy unfolds, the latest nugget for the OS/400 platform is Portal Express, a product that was announced last week and will be made available December 4. It's not the first portal technology available to OS/400 shops, but it's likely to be the one you hear the most about as the mountain of WebSphere marketing casts its long shadow. If you are on board with WebSphere, Portal Express could grab your attention, and even if you're not, it's an interesting indicator of where cross-platform-integration technology is going.

If you really know your WebSphere, you may have heard of IBM's Portal Enable, a high-priced tool introduced in 2002 that has been available for OS/400 but has seen little action thus far. Part of the reason why this tool hasn't taken off is that portal technology is still building momentum. Another reason why portals have not taken the market by storm is that organizations have needed a budget that could swallow an $80,000-per-CPU price tag, as well as ancillary costs and probably enough manpower it took to build several of the Great Pyramids at Giza.

Now along comes Portal Express, and like the other IBM Express products, it has a lower per-user price tag and a much easier wizard-driven means of implementation. For OS/400 shops that have been wrestling with WebSphere projects--particularly small and midsized businesses--Portal Express should be welcome news. Those who spent money and time on prior IBM portal tools will probably be a bit grumpy, but that's the price of progress in the computer business: Once you start, you are behind.

Portal Express is an evolutionary step for those who already have some WebSphere skills and, most likely, some familiarity with WebSphere Application Server Express. WAS Express for iSeries debuted in February 2003 and supports OS/400 V5R1 and V5R2. WAS Express is part of the iSeries hardware bundle for the OS/400 Standard and Advanced editions of the iSeries Model 800 server and for the OS/400 Enterprise Editions of all other new iSeries servers (Models 810, 825, 870, and 890).

While the main job of a Web application server is to enable development teams to create and deploy Web applications that access back-end databases, as well as to create and consume Web services, a portal creates the environment for integrating multiple applications at the browser level. For OS/400 users, a portal provides two things. The first is access to RPG, COBOL, Java, PC, and other host-based applications. The second is the integration of all those applications in a portal environment that provides a personalized approach for users. The end product is a user interface (deployed from an iSeries or AS/400) that has the look and feel of a Web site, whether it is set up for use as an intranet for employees and an extranet for partners or is available on the Internet for consumers.

Most OS/400 shops are expected to move into portal technology slowly, with the first step most likely being an intranet environment, with applications dealing with human resources and payroll the first to be placed in the portal. After some familiarity and proficiency is established with the productivity applications, companies may then decide to make business applications available to suppliers and customers. As portal-building skills improve, it becomes possible to provide personalized Web interaction within the portal environment.

In the IBM WebSphere on iSeries version, other software products will play key roles. One is iSeries Access for the Web, which allows 5250 applications to be rendered in a browser and makes those applications portal-enabled. IBM says that approximately 90 percent of the iSeries installed base has iSeries Access for the Web, because it's part of Client Access, but there are no known figures related to its use, which is dependent on Tomcat or WAS. Another piece of IBM software that is instrumental in the Big Blue scheme of things is the WebFacing tool.

WebFacing is pretty basic. It takes green-screen applications and converts them--screen for screen--to a Web environment. Those who want to customize the green-screen applications use WebSphere Development Studio. This has proved to be enough for many OS/400 shops that are just finding their way into Web development. However, this approach is not state-of-the-art Web application development. That's not meant to be a knock on WebFacing, but the distinction needs to be made. The fact remains that Web technology in OS/400 shops lags behind most other platforms, and the adoption of portal technology is equally slow.

"I think the interest in portals is ramping up dramatically," says John Quarantello, IBM's eServer Solutions marketing manager. "Studies from consultants indicate this opportunity in the 2004 timeframe is close to a quarter trillion dollars. There is a fair amount of hype around it now. We have to bring real solutions to the market. That's why we are focused on the ISVs [independent software vendors]. Many ISVs are going to have to build portlets that enable their solutions to be a portal environment. As more ISVs modernize their solutions, will they choose to be part of a portal environment? We think they will, because it is going to be the most pervasive over the next several years."

A portal environment has two important characteristics. It gives users a common look and feel, and gives a corporate-wide framework that lets users plug in and integrate various applications. Each portal can be configured differently, with links to existing applications or Internet applications. "You could link to Yahoo!, but most business users are going to want, for instance, a section for 5250 apps, a section for collaborative apps, a section for WebFaced apps, and for my PC apps," Quarantello says.

"With WebSphere Portal Express, you get a copy of WAS, a framework for building diverse, personalized applications. Depending on what you have, iSeries-wise, you could snap into the framework iSeries Access for the Web and WebFaced applications. SSA Global and Clear Technologies applications, for instance, are portal-enabled, too, Quarantello points out. Hundreds of ISVs are certified in WebSphere technology and are capable of implementing their applications using WAS Express and Portal Express, according to Quarantello. Well-known names like LANSA, MAPICS, and Relavis are on that list.

What about the cost factor? WebSphere Standard Edition is way up there, affordable to only the world's biggest corporations. The Express family of products has brought that price down considerably, and the next year should shed some light on whether the cost hurdle has been removed.

Running Portal Express--and therefore WebSphere Application Server--on the iSeries, compared with running it on an Intel-based server running Windows or Linux, is going to be more expensive when comparing the solution costs. Quarantello will tell you, however, that the iSeries has the advantage of such things as a native database and directory and security servers. It also lets multiple workloads run from a single point of management. If total-cost-of-ownership is factored in to the decision, IBM believes the iSeries has a good story to tell. Of course, each shop has its own budget and conditions to consider.

WebSphere Portal Express pricing on OS/400 Version 5 is the same as pricing for Intel platforms. And just like the Intel version, there is a choice between the standard edition of Express and an "express plus" edition. Portal Express Plus includes the Lotus collaboration tools Sametime and QuickPlace.

"One of the value propositions of portals is collaboration," Quarantello says. "An instant-messaging environment and a central Web site to store presentations and team rooms is something that will become more valuable as people start to use those features more. A single point of interaction between legacy applications, new applications, collaboration, as well as PC apps using either Citrix or Windows Terminal Server, should appeal to a lot of people. Those who are already using Sametime and QuickPlace today will be the first to use Portal Express Plus."

Portal Express is priced at $85 per user or $33,000 per CPU. Meanwhile, Express Plus is $135 per user or $53,080 per CPU. Most organizations are expected to start out with the per-user approach while they create beta applications. The break-even point (where the per-user cost equals the per-CPU cost) is 388 users per processor for Portal Express and 393 users for Portal Express Plus. Processor-based pricing allows for unlimited users, of course. So after these many users, the per-user licensing doesn't make sense.

For those not yet running WebSphere, take note that minimal system requirements are 750 CPW and 2 GB of memory. With that kind of power, Quarantello says, the performance will be good for 100 users or less.

"I think we are going to have the kind of focus in 2004 that we had in 2003 for WebSphere Application Server Express," Quarantello says. "We will be trying to move our customers and ISVs and tool providers into an area where they understand what portal is all about and why they may or may not be a prospect for it."