A holiday present - Clustering in Domino Collaboration Express

November 29 2010

Check another box complete.

Effective January 1, 2011, IBM will be adding entitlement to use Lotus Domino clustering for all then-current Domino Collaboration Express customers (on active service/subscription contracts or new licenses purchased subsequent to 1/1/11).  The formal channel announcement for the entitlement will come next week, with the updated license agreement coming in Domino 8.5.3.

My team looked at several different ways of approaching my request to add clustering for Domino Collaboration Express customers.  We thought about selling a separate "clustering licensing pack", but realized that this meant having to approach thousands of customers about buying some net-new thing.  Instead, we decided on an approach where we simply changed the Collaboration Express licensing terms to add in clustering, meaning the distinction between Express and non-Express is now mostly about whether your organization has less or more than 1000 employees.

The change comes at a cost, but it's a pretty small one.  We haven't adjusted the price of Domino Collaboration Express much in the last several years, even as we changed to the CAL model for non-Express customers a year ago.  As such, the price of Domino Collaboration Express will increase by 10% on 1/1/11 -- in very round numbers, that's something like US$4/user/year increase on the cost of maintenance.  Again, a lot easier approach than selling something new and separate, and as a bonus, customers with renewals between now and the end of March 2011 won't see that increase on their renewals.

I continue to look at pricing/packaging/licensing across the Notes/Domino products for other ways to simplify and streamline.  It's not always easy to change the way we do business with a product that has been in market for just a week shy of 21 years.  Still when it is the right thing to do, I'm willing to go for it.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Domino Express  Add/View Comments [45]

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  1. 1  Stuart McIntyre http://blog.collaborationmatters.com | 11/29/2010 7:58:50 AM

    Wow Ed, that is remarkable. Something which we've been requesting for many many years. Excellent.

  1. 2  Martin http://martinhumpolec.cz | 11/29/2010 8:03:34 AM

    Wow, what a great news. What about entitlement to use Directory Assistance in Express version as well? That another block, for us probably bigger than clustering.

  1. 3  Dave Harris http://www.wavysworld.com | 11/29/2010 8:11:33 AM

    I'm with Martin there, Ed. Yes this is a big deal for SMBs, but Directory Assistance is probably more important for my customers.

  1. 4  Olivier@Dominux http://www.dominux.net | 11/29/2010 8:17:06 AM

    Like @2 , Directory Assistance is requested by most of my customers of Domino Express, more than clustering!

  1. 5  Olivier@Dominux http://www.dominux.net | 11/29/2010 8:30:45 AM

    ... but thank you anyway, we will build more robust Domino architectures.

  1. 6  Jeremy Hodge http://www.hodgebloge.com | 11/29/2010 8:30:56 AM

    Awesome.

    Really is.

    I wanted to take a second and thank you guys for doing some really great things in the recent past. We're always quick here in the yellowsphere to jump on the negativity bandwagon. Sometimes it leads to good things happening sometimes its just "using up credits" :) Anyway, I've seen a ot coming out of IBM lately with things like this, free training sessions on XPages, etc etc ... We don't jump on the praise bandwagon quick or often enough, so ... Thanks.

  1. 7  Rita  | 11/29/2010 8:35:18 AM

    That's great news. BTW... does anyone know of a site where I can see a good comparison of features for the various Domino versions (Utility, Messaging, Enterprise, etc...)?

  1. 8  Henning Heinz  | 11/29/2010 8:56:11 AM

    I'll second

    @2 and @4 Directory Assistance

    And as a selfish note a cheaper option for anonymous HTTP access

    Of course clustering is a great addition for Express.

  1. 9  Theo Heselmans http://blog.xceed.be | 11/29/2010 9:14:55 AM

    Ed, great news, good solution. Tx a lot.

    Could you clarify the status/licensing about anonymous HTTP access ?

  1. 10  Mike Kinder http://www.acadiasolutions.com | 11/29/2010 9:40:31 AM

    Agree with most of the other enhancements - but I think the clustering availability is AWESOME! The others would be nice as well - but this is a great first step to making the Express servers really competitive.

  1. 11  norm van bergen  | 11/29/2010 10:14:44 AM

    @7 - try here Rita --> { Link }

  1. 12  Craig Wiseman http://www.wiseman.La/cpw | 11/29/2010 10:19:06 AM

    This is great news. I'm (happily) surprised that it's just added to the current license. I assumed that it would be as a license pack, which I actually thought not unfair. And it's not like IBM ever worries overly much about complicated licensing!

    Thanks!

    cpw...

  1. 13  Richard Hogan  | 11/29/2010 10:52:53 AM

    @Ed Firstly thanks for the clustering ability on Express.

    However when you say :

    "meaning the distinction between Express and non-Express is now mostly about whether your organization has less or more than 1000 employees. "

    I'd have to say that the lack of Directory Assistance in the Express offering means that there is still a significant difference, and it's still not possible to use TDI with the Express offering to achieve a measure of single sign-on in Active Directory environments.

  1. 14  Wayne Scarano http://www.sga.com | 11/29/2010 10:56:00 AM

    That is great news! As others have mentioned, adding DA would be very useful for our Express clients.

    Thank you.

  1. 15  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/29/2010 11:12:43 AM

    I'm finding it fascinating that there is this much demand for Directory Assistance in Express. Haven't ever heard it to this level, certainly not like the demand for clustering.

    Most of the comments have said you want DA, but not why. Can someone say more on why?

  1. 16  Erik Brooks  | 11/29/2010 11:15:02 AM

    Very nice!

    I'll also nod my head at the DA and cheaper anonymous access ideas.

  1. 17  Jeremy Hodge http://www.hodgebloge.com | 11/29/2010 12:04:21 PM

    Also, just curious if this is just clustering, or if this includes partitioning as well? With Express already allowing multiple servers, and the prevalence of virtual machines, the partitioning restriction seems "outdated". You can already run multiple servers, you are limited to 1000 total users, you can run multiple virtual servers on a single server legally already, etc.

    Our purpose is mostly for development. It would be nice to be able to have partitioned dev servers that we can bring up and blow away at will without having to add another VM, or physical box, (or going to amazon) etc, but also having the ability to add departmental servers in a couple cases to some of our clients could be beneficial.

    Still great news, just wondering...

  1. 18  Eric Mack http://www.EricMack@ICA.com | 11/29/2010 12:20:05 PM

    Ed, this is welcome news and will certainly up the value of the Lotus SMB Offering. Well done.

  1. 19  Bill Malchisky Jr. http://www.BillMal.com | 11/29/2010 12:35:24 PM

    Excellent news, Ed. As you mentioned during IamLUG, and again at ILUG, we are glad this is a completed item. Thank you for providing this...my small clients with a business need for high-availability with Domino can rejoice, and at a far more reasonable price point. Just in-time for the holidays...

  1. 20  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/29/2010 12:59:58 PM

    @19 At IamLUG this was just an idea -- I didn't announce any plans there, just that I would like to do something. Just a clarifying point that demonstrates we can actually move pretty quickly when we get a good idea put together.

  1. 21  Charles Robinson http://www.cubert.net | 11/29/2010 1:00:43 PM

    Directory Assistance is often used to provide authentication for external users, or to facilitate SSO between Domino and other systems.

    I'm curious about the call for less expensive anonymous HTTP access. You can do all the anonymous HTTP you want with Domino Enterprise, which I can't figure out pricing for since the link to the PVU table { Link }{ Link } no longer works. From what I recall that used to start at around $2800, which isn't peanuts but is a whole lot less than what you would have to pay for Utility Server in any incarnation.

  1. 22  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 11/29/2010 1:02:44 PM

    Wow. Just wow. Not what I was expecting. Wow.

    Now that we've proved bitching works....can we get anonymous too? ;)

    Seriously, seriously good work.

  1. 23  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 11/29/2010 1:16:29 PM

    Hi Ed,

    Overall, thank you.

    As for DA and the cost...

    $4/user for clustering is not worth it. DA can be another matter. It's good to see other BPs and Notes customers chiming in on DA. I see know problem w/Express' difference being no server CAL for SMBs under 1000 users.

    We actually discussed this briefly maybe a couple months ago.

    They need it for customer/partner databases - basically to enable a CRM application so that they can e-mail their customers/clients.

    Both of the companies for which I work have CRM solutions that offer e-mail/directory "integration" where the CRM application looks like a 2nd directory. (It has the standard directory views.) For our customers to use it as a second directory option for e-mailing, they need directory access.

    Clustering is great. It gives us redundancy and the concept of "maintenance during the day" so we can take a Domino server down for 15 minutes to an hour to upgrade it. On the other hand, it's DA that's the show stopper. Our clients can always use VMware ESXi, MS Hypervisor, or XEN to "cluster" multiple machines on one hardware to scale vertically. With the proliferation of VMware down to the Express market, partitioning is almost moot. It's only for horizontal redundancy that Domino clustering is still needed.

    Also, the Lotus Express offering is already awesome compared to MS SBS. It's easy to upgrade, doesn't require me (the BP) to upgrade, and has far better level of support included. 2nd year onward it's also cheaper than MS for CALs. My pause on the $4 inflation increase that I would like to see a bigger differentation for 1st year CALs to really make the sale even more of a no-brainer for Lotus.

    Thanks,

    Tripp

  1. 24  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 11/29/2010 1:23:32 PM

    @23, $4/user is really just the annual price increase give or take a percentage point or tow. Technically clustering is free. Although IBM may not say that ;)

  1. 25  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 11/29/2010 1:37:13 PM

    In @15 Ed asked why the need for DA. Well the main reason is DA is specifically denied in Express. That means any type of centralized address book feature (CRM, Shared Contacts, etc) may not be allowed if it involves the use of DA. This is due in no small fact the Domino Admin Help listing DA as being used for mail addressing:

    { Link }

    Stupid rule, but basically Express seems denies the use of any centralized mail addressing that requires DA.

    What use is an enterprise email system that I can't really use a central external address book against? Defeats one of the advantages, right?

    Here's the license denying it:

    { Link }

  1. 26  Henning Heinz  | 11/29/2010 1:52:14 PM

    @Charles,

    2800$ is not a lot less than what you pay for Utility Server Express (which also includes authenticated access). At least if 100 PVU are enough.

    I would like an option to run a simple companies homepage with Domino under Express licensing for something that is competitive with for example Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008.

    As for Directory Assistance in Express. The CRM example fits perfect. In many cases it is some kind of address lookup.

    It should be easy to be compliant to IBM licensing. Unfortunately my experience is that people are not aware that they are not allowed to use DA (from a technical point of view some use it but are not even aware that they have this enabled).

    Afaik you are allowed to use DA for Utility Server Express (just for clarification).

    I don't want to hijack this thread with anonymous http and DA. Clustering is a great addition to Express especially since Cloud pricing often is very aggressive nowadays.

    It helps companies be more compliant, it makes things more simple and can improve Domino overall system availability.

  1. 27  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/29/2010 1:55:29 PM

    @25 I knew it was a restriction. I wanted to know why it is an issue. You get there with your use case description, thanks.

  1. 28  Charles Robinson http://www.cubert.net | 11/29/2010 3:01:45 PM

    @26 - I'm mostly going from memory. From what I recall Utility server was around $20K, but that could have been for the Enterprise rather than Express edition. I used to be able to find pricing on the Domino websites. I can't anymore. All I can find now is a link to have a quote sent to me.

  1. 29  Wayne http://N/A | 11/29/2010 3:23:01 PM

    You need DA to make departmental shared address books available. The alternative is to put the address book names in the users (or servers) notes.ini file.

  1. 30  Wojciech Kroczak http://www.dysant.com | 11/29/2010 4:09:50 PM

    After Martin.

    Please do the same with Directory Assistacne, it is far more important than clustering. Especially when we do a complex projects with 300 employee clients.

  1. 31  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 11/29/2010 6:21:12 PM

    @24/@25 Darren. (and Ed, too :-) )

    I realize that the clustering is included. It was meant to say the $4 inflation hike from IBM finally would not matter to us if we were Express nor our Express clients, because they don't need clustering. What they need more are DA and anonymous web-site(s) access.

    Our response is the "mostly" in "mostly about whether your organization has less or more than 1000 employees". Two pieces which effect almost all of our customers are the anonymous web site restriction and the DA restriction.

    Clustering is good, but for our smaller clients that is not a show-stopper. It's the other restrictions that raise the red flags. So from our vantage the SMB market/Lotus Express customers would be best server by also lifted the anonymous and DA restrictions. It would complete the "kill" of any real advantage of SBS over Lotus on Linux.

    Basically, if anyone then chooses SBS over the Lotus Express one then either 1. They didn't know about the Lotus offering or the truth of it's superiority, or 2. They want SBS because they want SBS and want to pay more for much less.

    IBM, IBM BPs, and Lotus customers can all help with #1. #2 has no cure.

  1. 32  Daniele Grillo http://www.dominopoint.it | 11/30/2010 3:42:50 AM

    I would confirm that for small company the Directory Assistance is very important feature and absurde limitation for Express license.

    This because DA is used generally for company address book's (customers of company or supplier address book) so that the Lotus people can use it in Inotes configuration or client configuration automatically when sending and email or must see contact details.

    Tnx Ed

  1. 33  Stanislav Marszalek http://www.tcl-digitrade.com | 11/30/2010 3:45:17 AM

    That is a good news, but also from our point of view, DA is more important than clustering. We are using Customers Addresses database for storing contacts and it is nice to address them directly from email using DA services.

  1. 34  Tomasz Frydryk http://www.dominosolutions.pl | 11/30/2010 7:21:05 AM

    @23. You can just define another database in notes.ini to work as second directory used to choose email address from standard email database or any other Notes/Domino application as well. Without using DA. For 1-2 additional NOTES databases it works.

  1. 35  norm van bergen  | 11/30/2010 10:26:09 AM

    @35 - Hi Tomasz -- you're describing 'cascading address books', which is a depreciated feature since DA came out about 10 years ago. It's a testament to Domino that it is still working, but not sure if it's supported to any significant degree by IBM. I'd consider it an unsupported 'workaround' to the licensing issue we're all talking about.

  1. 36  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 11/30/2010 1:36:58 PM

    @29, @35, @36,

    Ibid. (agree).

    @Ed

    Another competitive case, DA and Address Books are perhaps the MS SBS equivalent of Exchange public folders for customer info. We need this feature to sell Express.

    Thanks,

    Tripp

  1. 37  Irv Schor  | 11/30/2010 1:50:43 PM

    To streamline licensing, we'd like to see the Sametime IM Entitlement extend out to mobile devices for Instant Messaging/Presence awareness.

  1. 38  Thomas  | 11/30/2010 2:51:33 PM

    Hi all

    can anyone please explain why Domino can not simply be licensed on a "per user" basis...without restrictions!? It would be so much more simple to get into the product, make your first steps and build solutions...

    Why cant a small company, say with 10 users, host their entire portfolio incl. mail, apps, and (Domino based!)web page on a Domino server? Because it would cost a fortune to purchase a Domino Utility server license!

    I remember some time ago Lotus Domino was provided with 5 user licenses on a CD as part of a book. This was cool... whats stopping Lotus to do that again?

    Regards

    Thomas

  1. 39  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/30/2010 2:54:33 PM

    @39 Utility Express is not a "fortune"...lists at US$2700 for 100 PVUs.

  1. 40  Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 11/30/2010 6:29:18 PM

    Visited a client today, would like to use domino express collab, no mail, and leverage their apps and use it as a website.

    They almost choked at the price. on a quad core, single proc, 400 pvu is over 10K.

  1. 41  Erik Brooks  | 12/2/2010 6:17:23 AM

    Keith hits the point @40. You simply can't (or it doesn't make sense to buy) servers worth 100 PVUs anymore. Everything out there is quad-core+ .

  1. 42  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 12/2/2010 3:55:06 PM

    Ed,

    $2700 is not a bad price, but that is only for 100 PVUs. Keith has provided a good example. You and IBM need to understand where a majority of the business partners are coming from. Our clients are more of the smaller businesses and even $1000 is high compared to open source solutions.

    If IBM would like to see more adoption of Domino, having a lower cost Domino Web server is the way to go. We all know that Domino offers superior security compared to other open source solutions and that is an important selling point. Case in point is just what happened to Apache and GNU site with their MySQL security breach. With more and more applications moving to the Web and Mobile devices, this is an opportunity for IBM to offer a superior Web server for the masses.

    As I mentioned before, IBM should remove the hold concept of PVUs and offer even a lower price version that has less authenticated users (< 100 users). By making it easier for companies to purchase and use, long term wise the demand for Domino will increase and hopefully that would reverse the current trend.

    All of us would like to see the Domino brand grow and I think the future of Domino depends on it penetrating into the small business market. Of course, I am a bit bias.

  1. 43  David (The Notes Guy in Seattle) http:/blog.thenotesguyinseattle.com | 12/5/2010 1:54:16 AM

    FYI: You just made a huge impact to an upgrade project I'm working on. On behalf of my client, THANKS.

  1. 44  John Taylor http://www.typex.com | 12/9/2010 6:18:56 AM

    @17. I agree that partitioning is more important than DA but the partitioning restriction in Express is not quite as bad as it sounds. The IBM licensing Web site defines Domino partitioning as "the capability to run multiple Lotus Domino servers on the same machine using one copy of the Lotus Domino code". So this doesn't prohibit running a single Domino server on each of a range of code versions within the same OS or on sets of the same Domino code within different OS instances. Of course to do this you may need to buy yourself a decent server instead of messing about with Windows. Try IBM Power i for an enterprise class Domino server at less than $10K.