All:
Pointer to article:
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/erp/story/0,10801,104263,00.html?source=NLT_ERP&nid=104263
Kobielus kommentary:
I find this headline more interesting than the story it reports.
This notion of pure-play portal vendors is so obsolete. It became clear several years ago that the pure-play portal vendors were all going to be acquired or killed by the superplatform vendors—IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and BEA--chief among them. This notion of a “portal” as a discrete product segment is pure mid-90s. Architecturally, the key concept is the “presentation tier,” and, specifically, a presentation tier in which the principal client is the browser and the principal server platforms include the Web server, application server, and, pretty much, any other server that presents a Web user interface via HTML, JavaScript, etc. In this context, a “portal” is, essentially, any presentation server that aggregates pointers to contents, applications, and other resources hosted elsewhere. In the context of a superplatform, the portal server is usually bundled/integrated with application servers, integration brokers, DBMSs, development tools, and applications galore.
This particular portal vendor has definitely seen better days, and had long ago been marginalized as a market has-been. That plum done fallen from its tree and shriveled.
Jim
