You can run development instances of WebSphere Portal and WCM for free on Amazon EC2. (You have to pay for access to Amazon EC2).

There is a video form “IBMCloud”on YouTube that goes through the steps you need to follow to set this up.

You can also run production images (AMIs)of WebSphere Portal and WCM on EC2.

The three deployment options are as follows

1. WebSphere Portal Server and Lotus Web Content Management Standard Edition development AMI (ISVs): Build portal and Web content management solutions to develop and test commercially available applications at the low cost of Amazon EC2 usage charges.

2. WebSphere Portal Server and Lotus Web Content Management Standard Edition production-ready AMI: Develop and deliver portal and Web content management solutions on a pay as you go basis.

3. Lotus Web Content Management Standard Edition production-ready AMI: Develop and deliver brilliant Internet, extranet, and intranet Web sites on a pay as you go basis.

(http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/ls/wps-wcmse/ec2.html)

How much?

Amazon EC2 running IBM WebSphere Portal Server and IBM Lotus Web Content Management Server – starting at $6.39 per hour.

Amazon EC2 also has IBM images for;

• IBM DB2 Express,
• DB2 Workgroup,
• IBM Informix Dynamic Server Express,
• IBM Informix Dynamic Server Workgroup,
• IBM WebSphere sMash

Pricing information taken from this blog post

http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2009/04/amazon-ec2-running-ibm-software.html

Its pretty interesting stuff, I would be interested to learn if anyone is or would consider using this model for development or production?