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IBM has released Amazon Machine Instances (AMI's) for the WebSpher Portal V6.1 and Lotus Web Content Management. There is an AMI also available for WebSphere sMash V1.1. 

The AMI's allow the developers to develope portals using the Amazon Services. Idea is to utilise the existing investment that an organisation might have already made on applications that already hosted on the Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

Some of the area's where the Portal makes sense is

* developing self contained web sites

* aggregation on EC2 ( Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud)

* aggregation of robust  web services

Check out more details here.

Consider using SOAP over HTTP for:

• Externally facing web services (e.g. B2B scenarios) 
• For simple point-to-point and stateless services 
• Where you need a thin client with no message oriented middleware installations 

Consider using SOAP over JMS for: 

• when you require high-volume distributed messaging 
• Asynchronous messaging 
• Where a transaction boundary is needed in the middleware 
• Where the message consumers are slower than the producers 
• Guaranteed deliver and/or only once delivery of messages 
• Publish/subscribe mode
• Distributed peer systems that might at times be disconnected 

IBM is working on an initiative to provide a framework that dynamically integrates and synchronizes people, processes and assets associated with software development projects. Jazz is an initiative to transform software delivery making it more collaborative, productive and transparent.

• Jazz separates the implementation of tools from the definition of and access to the data. 
  
• Jazz federates data across independent databases using Internet protocols. 
  
• Jazz can access and integrate data where it resides - Jazz does not need to import and export data between tools or repositories
  
• Jazz assumes an open, flexible, distributed data model. 
  
• Jazz allows tools to be implemented in any Internet-aware programming language or platform. 
  
• Jazz supports multiple client technologies. 
  

The Jazz Integration Architecture (JIA) is based on the industry initiatice called Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC). At the center of the Jazz Integration Architecture is the Jazz Team Server (JTS). The JTS implements the Jazz Foundation Services described by the JIA, which enable groups of tools to work together. These services include user and project administration, security, collaboration, query, and other generic cross-tool capabilities. When installed, tools are associated and work in conjunction with a particular JTS.

Jazz is being developed as an open intiative. More details on how to download and start using the jazz platform can be found here.

Wipro Web2Works is a Mashup framework that enables rapid synthesis and rollout of new business services. It is based on the gadget/widget philosophy of empowering communities to create, publish and mix content, using a standard Web browser. It enables semi-technical business analysts to rollout new lines of services and customized interfaces by simple drag-and-drop. It enables end users to personalize their Web Interfaces per individual preference. 

Festa is a reference implementation of Web2Works (W2W). 

Check it the framework and the reference implementation out here.

Download a free trial version of WebSphere Portlet Factory V6.1.2 and experience firsthand how Portlet Factory's ease of use and advanced development features supercharge and dramatically streamline the entire portlet, widget, Web and rich client application development process.