Domino, WebSphere Ties Strengthened

A move by Lotus Development Corp. to strengthen the ties between its Domino development platform and corporate parent IBMs WebSphere application server and DB2 Universal Database may lead to more scalable collaborative e-commerce applications, some IT managers said.

The forthcoming release of Domino, code-named Rnext, will add support for JSP (JavaServer Pages), one of the primary ways developers build applications in WebSphere, Lotus announced last week.

The JSP support in Domino Rnext, due next year, will also allow developers to use a shared execution environment for Domino and WebSphere. That means users will need only one server to administer Domino and WebSphere applications, and the applications can share a common JSP tag library, according to Lotus officials in Cambridge, Mass.

In addition, Lotus K-station knowledge portal will be bundled with the WebSphere Portal Server, effectively giving WebSphere a graphical interface. The first phase of this integration is expected by the fall, while other Lotus collaborative applications—such as Sametime and QuickPlace—will be integrated with the WebSphere Portal Server early next year.

"Theres a lot of potential in the market for integration between Dominos collaborative capabilities and WebSpheres high-volume transaction capabilities," said John Dubois, chief technology officer at Cutting Edge Strategies Inc. "Domino can enable collaboration across high-volume transactional systems. Its part of a trend toward collaborative e-commerce."

Such collaborative e-commerce applications could aid business-to-consumer users by improving customer service in e-commerce applications and enhance business-to-business applications by improving supply chain efficiencies through enhanced collaboration between sellers and their suppliers, added Dubois, in Austin, Texas.

"JSPs clearly are a good way to build a Web application from scratch using a Domino back end," said Alaa El Ghatit, KM Technology Development group leader at Hewitt Associates LLC, in Lincolnshire, Ill. "They do seem well-suited to creating scalable applications with less reliance on Web agents."