Nirvana - A Java based project by IBM

When applying the reference architecture with WebSphere Portal (WPS) we get the architecture as illustrated above.
The user will access the Portlets running in WebSphere Portal and use the custom SuperOffice Portlets. The user may be an internal user or external user, may be authenticated in Portal or not, all depending on the functional requirements. Both Portal and SuperOffice have user registered and will have separate user registries.
The Portal will act as a Web Services client to the SuperOffice NetServer, utilizing WebServices in SuperOffice. The WebServices will hide all implementation details for the Portlet implementation.
SuperOffice offer the possibility to store documents on a file server, but SuperOffice does not contain any WebServices to fetch documents, only document references so the Portlet implementation will access the file store directly to fetch documents.

NetServer is a business layer over SuperOffice data with the following responsibilities:
• Keep users state related to business processes
• Storing all data related to SuperOffice
• Transaction control related to business processes in SuperOffice
• User authentication and security related to SuperOffice business processes and data

WebSphere Portal is the presentation layer implemented on WebSphere Portal, using J2EE – running on WebSphere application server. The Portal server is responsible for:
• Authentication of the user and storing the SuperOffice credentials for the SuperOffice users
• Rendering the user interface, keeping users state in the presentation layer and navigation, including SuperOffice session ID
• Graphical design for the portal and Portlets implemented for SuperOffice
• Any integration to other part of the portal (like Instant Messaging and user registry)