The following is taken from an SCT white paper:

Why SCT Luminis over uPortal? Many institutions are seeking easily deployable, customizable, and personalizable institutional portal technology. JA-SIG’s uPortal specification seems to meet that bill; and while it is an alternative to vendor portal technology, its costs are hidden. Institutions that receive uPortal directly from JA-SIG will incur costs to bring their uPortal implementation to fruition. These costs may include the following:  Development and license costs for the infrastructure and applications required for a robust uPortal implementation  Diversion of development resources from existing IT projects to support the implementation  Expenditures for implementation services consultants if IT resources are unavailable  Significant costs related to the testing, maintenance, and ongoing support of the project

Although the SCT Luminis Platform III incorporates uPortal 2.1, SCT Luminis provides significant features and functionality that uPortal does not. By running the Luminis Platform III and uPortal components against 6,000 testing scripts, SCT Luminis offers full testing, services, and support for each release of the product, which uPortal, as an open source initiative, does not supply. Implementing uPortal alone requires a significant amount of development time and resources to create a production class system, as well as a notable amount of effort necessary to maintain the environment in the absence of vendor support.

For example, most would agree that a production-ready system would include at minimum a portal server, an application/development environment, a directory service or relational database system, and a set of internal and external applications. The resources and time required to upgrade and test new versions and patches for these components should be made a priority. Who is responsible for taking the patch and upgrading the system, then testing again before rolling it back into production? Who has to maintain the vendor relationships for each of the components required to run the environment? How is knowledge management propagated throughout the IT team?

Using limited IT resources effectively has become a larger part of measuring the overall success of the institution. Whether or not to use IT staff to support this almost constant cycle is an important decision facing everyone within higher education. SCT Luminis customers always receive the latest component releases, patches, and new code rolled into a tested, production-ready package. This allows an institution’s IT talent to focus less time on maintaining infrastructure and more time focused on developing end user-focused applications that aid the institution’s learning and research mission.

Other differences between uPortal and SCT Luminis include:

 Widespread adoption of SCT Luminis The SCT Luminis product family is the most widely deployed platform and portal technology developed specifically to meet the needs of institutions of higher education. Over 200 institutions worldwide have implemented SCT Campus Pipeline™ and SCT Luminis technologies for their Web platforms and portal solutions. While uPortal is currently in production at a number of institutions, many of those institutions chose to implement uPortal through the SCT Luminis product family. SCT has experience in aggressively testing, implementing, maintaining, and supporting the Luminis Platform III, which includes uPortal.

 Strength of Luminis infrastructure and integration technologies uPortal itself is simply a framework of classes, interfaces, XML data files, and XSL style sheets available for use as a starting point when developing a customized portal.

In contrast, SCT Luminis provides not only the functionality and features of uPortal, but also a sophisticated set of directory services, security services, integration components, and single sign- on processes that are not native to uPortal. These components include:

Directory Services: The SCT Luminis Platform III contains an enterprise implementation of Sun™ ONE LDAP Directory Server for user/group, authentication, access control, and data management. SCT has refined the Luminis Platform’s user/group, authentication, access control, and data management capabilities over the past four years. Institutions implementing uPortal from the open source network must devise their own user/group credential schema from scratch instead of leveraging SCT’s experience curve in these areas.

Integration Components: The SCT Luminis Platform III incorporates interfaces and associated system code to maintain datalevel integration with external systems that use JMS, XML, HTTP, and SOAP. As events are passed into SCT Luminis, significant code has been written and is continually maintained to process upon these events. This event processing is unique to SCT Luminis and provides value through programmatic creation of course and group lists, automated e-mail event notifications, calendar event and task population, user/group data synchronization, and much more. Other examples of SCT Luminis’s strength in this area include: o The SCT Luminis product family enables data integration with SCT student information systems and applications and with specific third-party vendor systems, including those from Blackboard, WebCT, Datatel, and PeopleSoft. uPortal does not provide data integration for systems and applications from these providers. o SCT Technical Services employ best practices and provide tested custom adapter packages for almost any ANSI-SQL-compliant system. uPortal does not have a technical services team and does not provide custom integration adapters or integration services. o SCT runs parallel development cycles for the Luminis product family and SCT Banner®, SCT PlusTM, and SCT Self-Service (Web) applications for supported data and application- level integration. uPortal does not run parallel development cycles with SCT administrative solutions. o The Luminis product family unifies the digital campus with a proven, JMS-based integration framework for easy integration of higher education-specific applications and databases. uPortal does not incorporate a framework for data integration of applications and databases.

Single Sign-on Processes: o SCT Luminis incorporates an established URL-based API for single sign-on, session management, and user interface integration. uPortal does not include URL-based APIs for single sign-on, session management, or user interface integration. o SCT Luminis includes packaged single sign-on adapters for SCT Self-Service (Web) applications, Blackboard, WebCT, and specific online library systems. uPortal does not provide single sign-on adapters for third-party applications.

Security Services: SCT Luminis includes a comprehensive security infrastructure that supports identification and authorization, access control, message protection, cryptographic mechanisms, credential “escrows” for lost passwords, etc. An institution implementing uPortal from the open source network would need to devise its own security framework and policies as uPortal does not contain a security infrastructure.

Comprehensive Set of Software Development Kits (SDK): uPortal currently offers minimal documentation of the system and its APIs and does not include the array of software development kits delivered with SCT Luminis, which enable developers to expand upon the base platform. o User Interface and Channel Development Kit o Security Software Development Kit o User/Group and Business Object Software Development Kit o Application SDK for applications such as Targeted Announcement Utilities

 Integrated enterprise applications The SCT Luminis Platform III contains enterprise applications integrated at both the data and application levels, including Documentum’s Web content management technologies adapted specifically for higher education. Platform III also contains the Sun ONE mail server, calendar server, and directory server. SCT has spent a considerable amount of time and money through programmatic operations easing the maintenance of users and group data within each of these areas. uPortal does not contain content management functionality, nor does it include enterprise distribution of mail, calendar, or directory.

In addition to enterprise applications, the SCT Luminis Platform III contains a suite of Luminis- specific applications including: o targeted announcement utilities, o course and group portals, o a Web-based administration console, o e-mail and calendar channels.

uPortal does not provide targeted announcement utilities that are integrated with the system, course or group portals, a Web-based administration console, or e-mail and calendar channels.

 Tested enhancements to the uPortal specification, some of which are given to the open source initiative In addition to full testing on its implementation of uPortal, SCT also tests the enhancements that it makes to uPortal and submits to the uPortal community. Features and functionality that have been tested and shared with uPortal include Aggregated Layout Management, Channel ARchive (CAR) support, and Web proxy and inline frame support. uPortal quality control is left to individual developers who contribute code to the community. Generally SCT has found the code to be of good quality; however, extensive testing policies should validate code prior to each new release. JA-SIG does not have the resources to test uPortal or the enhancements that JA-SIG members contribute to the initiative.

 Client support for implementation of uPortal In addition to its implementation and customization services, SCT maintains an online Support Center to provide institutions with access to information regarding and solutions for the SCT Luminis Platform III, including its implementation of uPortal. Higher levels of technical support that help clients better maximize the value of existing technology investments are also available from SCT. Beyond a fairly active listserv, uPortal does not provide support services for uPortal institutions. Summary While uPortal provides an excellent framework for creating a personalizable and customized portal, it does not contain those infrastructure and application components that are so vital to the successful deployment of an institutional portal. Institutions that implement uPortal themselves will face significant costs and resource diversions as they build or buy the infrastructure and applications necessary for a secure and service-loaded portal. Those institutions will find themselves working with an untested product and with minimal support.

The Luminis product family offers a fully tested, fully supported version of uPortal within an integrated infrastructure that provides enterprise-class and higher education-specific applications. With uPortal as an important component of its Luminis product family, SCT offers institutions all the features and functions of uPortal coupled with product enhancements, testing, and assurance from a dedicated higher education vendor. Component Description Luminis uPortal 2.1 UPortal 2.1 X X LDAP user/group/permissions X Supports LDAP integration Channel development X X Page constructs (tab, column) X X Customization/personalization X X Aggregated layout X X Channel archive X X Custom channel support X X Image channel X X Inline frame support X X Applet publishing X X Web services support X X Administrative tools X X Guest view Disabled for security X reasons Skins Disabled for UI and X institutional branding consistency Browser back button enabled X Framed tab support X Sun ONE Directory Server 5.1 X Infrastructure for: X o User/group management o Authentication o Access control o Data management o LDAP data replication o Directory searching Sun ONE Mail Server 5.2 X Email channel X X Automatic email account creation X Automated email event notifications X Packaged integration for MS Exchange, Web Outlook, X Active Directory Web Mail Client: X o Search o Full address book o E-mail address book lookup o Import/export utility o Auto forward o Configurable e-mail header o Password prompt o Group e-mail o Password changes o Attachment limit indication o Return receipt o Signature file o SPAM blocking o Message filtering Sun ONE Calendar Server 5.1.1 X Calendar channel X SIS event support X Automatic calendar set generation X PDA synchronization X Web Calendar Client: X o Event/task scheduling o Conflict resolution o Import/export utilities o Search utilities o Calendar grouping o Individual settings/reminders o Day/month/year views o Universal calendar publishing o Others Sun ONE Web Server 6.0 X Sun ONE Message Queue 2.0 X Integration X Messaging/broker service o JMS, XML, HTTP, SOAP o EAI

Integration X Packaged adapters/interfaces: o Full backward/forward compatibility with SCT Banner Student and SCT Self-Service Web applications o Blackboard Integration X Event interface support o Ability to pass critical data between administrative systems and portal Event processing within portal o Courses, groups o E-mail notifications o Calendar event data o Targeted announcements o User information o Other Security Infrastructure X X Escrow utilities X Delegated administration X X System access control X X Secure storage of administrative passwords X X Password synch utilities X X External authentication support X o Kerberos o NDS o LDAP Single sign on X uPortal supports the notion of single sign on, but very few channels that ship with the framework take advantage of it. CPIP X o Proven protocol o Single sign-on o Session management Group Studio X Hierarchical grouping X Parent/child groups X Role based group partitioning X Role based searching and indexing X Web based administration X Group announcements X Discussion threads/chat X Photo albums X File sharing X Permission management X Group categorization X Email X Calendar X News/links X Course Studio X Includes all features noted in Group Studio plus: o SIS data integration o Dynamically created course lists o Secured course rooms o Dynamically created class lists o Instructor/TA utilities Targeted Announcement Utilities X X Hot Back-up Utilities X Uportal-Specific Enhancements: X X o Channel archive o Secure channel o Thread serialization Channel archive enhancements X Secure channel enhancements X Thread serialization X Calendar channel X SIS self service channel X Web-based Administration Console X SDK Components X Business Object SDK X User Interface SDK X Communication SDK X Security SDK X Data Integration SDK X Testing & Support X Professional product (including uPortal) support and X ongoing maintenance Training and workshops X “Best practice” deployment strategies X Over 6,000 test cases for each product release X