What is a Portal?

For our purposes it is a Web based application that allows a user using only a Web Browser, possibly via the Internet (in which case we call it an Extranet), to:

• access Web based corporate applications in a consistent and unified way

• lets users customize their personal portal pages so they can easily and efficiently access the applications they use most often

• run legacy (client/server) applications remotely

• audit usage of these applications

• provide a SIngle Sign On (SSO) capability for unified access to corporate applications both on the Intranet and Extranet

Why would you want one?

• Save time and money with a unified way to access corporate applications

• Retire those expensive applications that no one uses any more

• Save $$$ by allowing remote office access via the Internet and get rid of those expensive Frame Relay or leased lines

• Save even more $$$ by allowing executive access to the Intranet from a browser even from an Internet café

• No more security breaches when someone loses their laptop

• Improve employee moral and productivity by permitting telecommuting, especially on heavy snow days

• Enhance productivity by reducing the number of signons required

• Eliminate security issues ralated to having to remember many passwords for different systems

• By encouraging user database consolidation, reduce maintenance and risk associated with defunct user accounts. This also leads to:

• Remove entitlements creep. When employees are promoted or move to different groups, their entitlements should be modified in one place

• Keep those customers! Allow them to:

• get the latest product information customized for their needs when they need it

• get their current account information

• track their orders and shipping

The iPlanet (Sun-One) Portal Server has some unique features and capabilities - to get the full picture you should visit the iPlanet website - but here are some features

• Very secure, rubust, and scaleable due to the use of a Java proxy that runs in the DMZ of a firewall. It protects the web server and does URL rewriting to completely hide the web server and other Infrastructure components from the Internet.

• Supports a wide variety of authentication methods, especially methods that support the "something you have, something you know" paradigm (2-factor) such as RSA SecurID ($80 per user) and SKEY (no per-user charge).

• Legacy client/server applications can be proxied by a signed Java Applet that runs on the client (i.e., Browser JVM) which can tunnel TCP connexions via an HTTPS (SSL) session. (See Netlets for more detail about how this works).

• With the optional server side proxy in place there's no need for any additional holes to be made through the inside firewall from the DMZ

• The Portal filters connections down the level of an individual URL so this is the ultimate in access control

• Uses industry standard LDAP accessed database to store user profiles.

• Very flexible and easy to use Web based administration. Attributes (e.g., Time Zone information) can be applied to all users in a group or individually.

  There's a list of URLs to examples of Sun-One based portal sites on our links page that are well worth a visit, escpecially the New Jersey State site.

Conclusion

Use of a Portal Solution can contribute significantly to the corporate bottom line in improved productivity, direct cost savings, and reduced adminstrative costs. It also allows a customer to have a secure, customized interface to the corporate Infrastructure (e.g., to account balances, order status, etc.) for a single easy to use web browser. Needless to say, ApogeeCT would be only to happy to assist your organization in implementing this solution, which, of course, also brings all the other benefits of a Portal.

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