A trading community typically revolves around a hub--an enterprise
that acts as the Community Manager. Businesses of various sizes, known
as community participants, connect to the hub through the Internet. In
addition, participants themselves can act as hubs. Figure 1 illustrates a trading community consisting of a Community
Manager and a set of participants.
Figure 1. A trading community consisting of a Community Manager and community participants.

Business Integration Connect provides a solution for each type of
participant in the trading community.
- WebSphere Business Integration Connect Enterprise Edition is ideal for the
larger enterprise that wants to connect to an unlimited number of trading
partners using a variety of transports and message formats. This
enterprise acts as the Community Manager, establishing the community, getting
partners on board, and monitoring the activity of all participants in the
community.
- WebSphere Business Integration Connect Advanced Edition is suited to the
customer who wants the flexibility of transport and message formats but has a
more limited number of trading partners. This type of enterprise can
act as a Community Manager (of its own smaller community) as well as a
community participant in a larger community. The right side of the
previous illustration shows an example of a client who is both a community
participant (to the Community Manager) as well as a hub to its own
community.
- WebSphere Business Integration Connect - Express is designed for the
smaller enterprise that needs a quick and easy way to connect to a limited
number of community participants to exchange business documents. This
type of enterprise acts only as a community participant, not as a Community
Manager.
The remainder of this document focuses on Business Integration Connect
Enterprise and Advanced Editions. For information on Business
Integration Connect - Express, see the InfoCenter for WebSphere Business
Integration Connect - Express.
