IBM WebSphere is a set of software products that help customers develop and manage high-performance Web sites to ease the transition from simple Web publishing to advanced e-business Web applications.

A middleware product available from IBM for distributed component processing using Enterprise JavaBeans.

An IBM software product that provides the core software needed to deploy, integrate and manage e-business applications. HATS applications, when assembled and transferred to a server, run as WebSphere Application Server applications.

Web-application deployment software. WebSphere Portal Server runs as an application on top of WebSphere Application Server.

This combines the control and portability of server applications with Java performance and manageability to offer a comprehensive Web application platform. It helps companies manage the transition from simple Web publishing to advanced e-business applications, integrating a wide variety of enterprise software, including CICS, IMS, MQSeries, DB2, and SAP. IBM's industry-leading transactional applications server technologies -- TXSeries, Component Broker, Net.Commerce, and WebSphere Application Server--are now the WebSphere family.

IBM WebSphere Application Server is IBM's Java-based application environment for building, deploying and managing Internet and Intranet Web applications. Available in three versions ( Standard, Advanced and Enterprise), the Enterprise Edition, designed for enterprise e-business application developers and architects, allows the integration of EJB and CORBA components for building high-transaction, high-volume e-business applications. WebSphere 3.5, the latest version announced in July 2000, includes improved security, clustering, and availability.

The software platform (along with MQSeries) for WebSphere. Provides the core software needed to deploy, integrate and manage e-business applications, from dynamic Web presentation to sophisticated transaction processing, whether they are custom-built, based on integrated WebSphere platform products or non-IBM software products.