In respose to @dlemen: Is enterprise mashup just the new term for Portal?

Here was an interesting question on twitter today from @dlemen:

I'm slow, I know, but is "enterprise mashup" just the new term for "portal?"

I think this is a good question and a common one for mashup newbies.

Mashups are basically good at combining (or mashing) data from different places and providing new insights to users. As a result, mashups can become the ideal vehicles to deliver new and useful content by mashing different data sources to deliver great information in a timely fashion. A mashup can be delivered to users with a user interface front ened as an App and portal servers are just one destinations where these Apps can end up. Other destinations (see diagram below) include the usual suspects websites, wikis, blogs, mobile devices and tablets. The key idea is that mashups enable delivery of information in a timely manner to users when and where they need it. Data should go to the user, not the other way around where user goes data hunting.

This is one of the core intents behind the new Presto 3.0 which includes our new Enterpris App Store. If you haven't tried it, please do so, it is available for anyone who is a member of this community here.