Standalone portal products are becoming dinosaurs, and just like the giant tyrannosaurus and brontosaurus, they will disappear. The emergence of two types of integrated suites will kill the portal-product market by 2005, market research firm Gartner says.

Businesses use portals as the front end to intranets or extranets, delivering information and services to employees, customers, suppliers, and partners. By next year, most companies won't buy a portal product, Gartner predicts. Instead, they'll purchase an integrated software package that includes a portal application.

The way Gartner sees it, portals will become part of two types of emerging software suites, the application platform suite and the smart enterprise suite.

The application platform suite is defined as an integrated set of software infrastructure technologies, including an application server, an integration server, and a portal product. The application server is the software development and run-time environment, and the integration server provides the connection to back-end data sources.

The smart enterprise suite is defined as an integrated suite made up of search, classification, content-management, collaboration, knowledge-management, and process-management components.

Companies with moderately sophisticated IT units that need to do some of their own development work will favor the application platform suite. But the smart enterprise suite will become more popular because it contains more of the functionality necessary for a successful portal deployment, Gartner says. Combination suites are also expected to dominate the market.

"The APS and SES aren't merely bundled for marketing purposes," Gartner analyst Gene Phifer said in a statement released Thursday. "These two types of suites enjoy tight integration among their components, including a common look and feel; common administration, directory, security, and metadata repositories; and a single point of support."

Because of the trend toward software suites, Gartner expects dramatic consolidation in the portal market, as vendors grab needed functionality through partnerships or acquisitions.