• Supports J2EE 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 specifications
– Can upgrade runtime environment without upgrading applications
– Supports mixed version nodes in a v6 ND Cell
– Allow for migration in stages within a cell
– Mixed v5 and v6 nodes must have v6 DMgr (can’t add new v5 node)
– v6 ND introduces profiles
– Each profile has its own user data including WebSphere configuration
– All profiles share same WebSphere binaries
– Less disk space required than separate installations
– stand-alone server, deployment manager or custom profile