Reusable architecture assets and IBM Portal Accelerators

Before we get into the A2Z Bank portal's physical and operational architectures that can be deployed to both traditional and cloud-enabled IT, let's take a look at some of the out-of-the-box assets delivered by IBM and other teams. They have created a plethora of different portal assets via IBM Toolbox, IBM Portal Accelerators, Lotus Portlet Catalog/Lotus Greenhouse, and IBM Content Templates Catalog, to name a few. Finding large reusable assets, both internal and external to the enterprise, is a mandatory step for all stakeholders involved in a portal initiative. The idea is to map requirements to existing portal assets that allow them to be architecturally extended, adjusted, and reusable to one's custom needs.

One of the great advantages of portal is to be able to integrate at the glass with other applications and data sources. The entire involved group benefits from reusability. As a portal architect, one wants to make sure...