A trading community typically revolves around a hub--an
enterprise that acts as the Community Manager. Community participants
of various sizes connect to the hub through the Internet. Participants
themselves can act as hubs.
Figure 1. A trading community consisting of a Community Manager and a number of trading partners.
Partner Gateway provides a solution for each type of participant
in the trading community.
- WebSphere Partner Gateway, 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 Partner Gateway, 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 Partner Gateway - Express is ideal for the smaller
enterprise that needs a quick and easy way to connect to a limited
number of community members to exchange business messages. This
type of enterprise acts as a community participant.
The remainder of this document focuses on Partner Gateway -
Express. For information about Partner Gateway, Enterprise and
Advanced Editions, see the Information Center for WebSphere Partner
Gateway, Enterprise and Advanced Editions.
