Ed Brill

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1. 1  Roy Rumaner  | 8/13/2009 11:06:38 PM

   What I want to know is how do you consistently get such high scores on Bejeweled Blitz. You are almost always in the low to mid 100's and I have yet to see a 100.

1. 2  Bruce Elgort http://elguji.com/products | 8/13/2009 11:10:18 PM

   @Roy,

   I believe Gayle is still kicking Ed's butt.

1. 3  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/13/2009 11:13:41 PM

   @2 no sir, I've been ahead of Gayle five weeks in a row.

   @1 it's all in the wrist. Seriously, a lot of that game is luck. But turn the sound off, it's distracting. And use an external mouse if you have one. The most important thing is to get 2x/3x etc. bonuses very early on in the game; they boost your score more than anything else. And don't obsess about hypercubes; though they are cool, they are not that important.

1. 4  Peter Herrmann  | 8/13/2009 11:17:57 PM

   To me, this is just marketing vs marketing and I'm pretty "banner blind" to both sides at that level. It doesn't help either side (if you're competing) to appear to not have the facts right though and while I did have a chuckle at the dated Quincy comments, you should know Ed that Google Apps Premium Edition certainly does have rooms and resource reservations - it's a pretty fundamental requirement.

1. 5  Frédéric Fanchamps  | 8/14/2009 2:25:59 AM

   <<despite the national advertising and hype, it's not like there was a long list of people actually going in>>

   Then why is it necessary you speak about that in your blog??

1. 6  Stephen Bailey http://www.converteam.com | 8/14/2009 3:24:36 AM

   Hi Ed, I'm a regular reader of your blog, I'm a Notes expert, but I am not a bleedyellow junkie. I've looked at Google Apps quite a lot of late - here is my contribution to this blog entry...

   I'm wondering how many Google Apps customers IBM have managed to attract back to Notes? Of the organisations which have moved to Google Apps - have any come back to Notes - or do they seem to be sticking with Google? Maybe it's too early to say, after all, G-Apps is pretty immature at the moment, but it will grow, and I'd be sure that IBM are going to have to either reduce their pricing for SMBs (in particular) or make LotusLive a lot more comprehensive and competitive in order for you to retain your customers.

   Google are trying to do now what Lotus tried to do in the 90s - to provide a product will will do everything - be a web browser / server, certificate authority, MAPI client, mail server, anti-spam gateway, portal, and many other facets of corporate IT. Lotus managed to do it, but were not "best of breed" in barely any of these (mail security comes to mind). To me, the two Google Apps tools which are first class are Calendar and Reader, both of which people can get for free by registering for Gmail.

   Everything else in the App suite works, but there are better products out there for mail, collaboration and doc sharing, IM and video conferencing etc.

   Google Docs is a pretty dreadful tool for creating docs and spreadsheets. If the Symphony team were to create an online version to compete with G-Docs I'm sure you'd win some market share back.

   One of the Notes mail feature which Google Apps doesn't have, which is frequently used by most Notes houses is Rooms and Resources. It'll be interesting to see if Google release a RNR manager in the future which interacts with Calendar. That would make things interesting.

   Over and Out.

   SB

1. 7  The Turtle http://www.weightlessdog.com | 8/14/2009 4:07:14 AM

   Leave Lotus? And go WHERE? I have NSFs that are older than Google. I have NSFs that are older than .NET. I have NSFs that are older than some of my nieces and nephews. I have one NSF that is older than my 1996 Volkswagen.

   And it's faster.

   Though my VW can produce an assload of smoke if I ask.

   Back before I married @wabbits, occasionally I would dismiss young women who were hitting on me in bars, saying, "ah, I've got BOOTS older'n you." Well, listen, I've got boots older than Windows. I have SOCKS older than Google. And I trust them. They seriously do no evil.

   Partisan? Fh'yeah!

1. 8  Stephen Bailey http://www.converteam.com | 8/14/2009 4:45:23 AM

   @Turtle.

   Entertaining though your comment is, your old NSFs can still be hosted on Domino servers whose licenses have expired once a Google mail migration has been completed.

   When you're unlicensed, you cannot download Domino updates or log support calls with IBM. You can still use your old server and clients.

   That's not such a big deal if the old NSFs are reliable and work without issues.

   I'd love a drag race between your 1996 VW and my 1995 1.6 Vauxhall Cavalier. 201000 miles on the clock and still fighting. Ave it.

1. 9  Charles A. Reid II http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/Charlie/ | 8/14/2009 6:07:00 AM

   @Stephen

   But where is the savings, you still need the server the MS server Lic, the anti virus software, the eventual updates because your environment will evolve and the software running it in will no longer be supported with the new hardware ex: backup software, av software, monitoring software.

   not to mention the space and utilities to run the server.

   You still need to keep employees' trained, now to support 2 systems

   See my blog on the Hilarious Mishaps in one conversion to Gmail that is costing the company 100's of thousands in new unknown costs and all the Missed business opportunities due to the lack of features in Gstuff.

1. 10  Bob Balaban http://www.bobzblog.com | 8/14/2009 6:57:39 AM

   I couldn't fly to Atlanta to attend (and good thing i didn't try, would have been a serious bummer if they'd turned me away at the door...). I did register for the webinar, and followed the twitstream too.

   What bugged me about the whole "hear it all online" webinar thing was that they didn't broadcast the presentations, ONLY the following Q&A. Also, the audio was terrible, both voip and phone.

   To be fair, I did submit one question via Twitter, and they did answer it. Sorta.

1. 11  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/14/2009 7:17:05 AM

   @4 - I'm not familiar with the rooms and resources model. Do you have a link? When I look at { Link } for example, I don't see any way to specify them. There's something called a 'project calendar' but it's not manifested in the 'meeting invitation' type of form.

   @5 to point out that the marketing in this case failed. In case anyone saw the marketing and thought, oh, there must be momentum in that direction.

   @8 even if the licenses have expired, it still *costs money* to run these servers. That is the whole problem I have with the license costs argument -- it's a small fraction (Gartner has said <20% ) of overall costs. I know one very large former Notes customer that made a migration decision in 2003-2004 and still has several full-time people working on Notes. Probably wasn't on the spreadsheet back then.

   @9 write more, write more!

   @6 I guess your last sentence makes my point to @4. To the rest of your comments, yes, I am seeing some pilot users of Gmail/GAPE ask to switch back to Notes, but in some cases their organizational powers-that-be are not listening to these user requirements. Still, the number of major corporates that have converted can be counted on two hands so it's a little early to be talking about coming back.

1. 12  Marie Scott http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/crashtestchix | 8/14/2009 7:28:12 AM

   @6 Stephen - not knowing what your background is with Google - perhaps you should read my blog post "Google Apps - Try it Before You Buy It - My Two Cents" { Link } You cannot compare Lotus Domino and Google Apps at all. They are two vastly different products. And no Google is not a certificate authority. And try to get Google Support....busy signal. So be careful what you buy into and what you wish for. My two cents.

1. 13  David DeWell  | 8/14/2009 8:23:52 AM

   @12 - I heard about your org moving part of the users to GMail. I was wondering if you had thoughts on it after reading all the fuss about it.

   @All - What I find interesting is to prove your product, it seems companies tend to attack Lotus. Google has always had lofty goals so maybe Lotus was a good target because there is so much strength in the product. If you get IT groups over to GApps/Mail from Lotus - you can plead your case easier.

   Lets face it - pleading your case against Exchange is like saying you beat a 3-year old at arm wrestling.

1. 14  Kevin Mort http://www.theglobalmind.com | 8/14/2009 8:40:05 AM

   Again just curious, where's their "#LeaveExchange / #LeaveMicrosoft / #LeaveOutlook pitch?

   Hmmm.

   Funny how yet again, somehow folks like Cloud Sherpas can post whatever they like, chock full of faults as it is, and some people seem to think that IBM's not entitled to respond.

   Events don't always go as planned, this one clearly didn't, and if the shoe was on the other foot there would be plenty of folks criticizing IBM if an event didn't go well.

1. 15  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 8/14/2009 8:42:34 AM

   @8, As Ed said licensing is not that large of the cost. In your scenario you are not renewing licenses. OK, but that also gives you Notes based mail and collaboration for free too, right (you already owned the licenses before you dropped renewal)? Doesn't that total cost beat G-whatever on cost? By my math on licenses alone Domino beats G-man in 24 months or less.

   But using licenses is a misleading measure at best. Sure your Cavalier will drive, but so will a new 2010 Subaru WRX Imprezza. They don't have the same features (mpg, 0-60, etc), nor do they get the same support (in this case warranty), nor would each of the owners use the same value proposition to outline why they drive each car.

   Eventually, feature for feature, most things cost the same (market economy) and if there is a price difference (most of the time) there is most likely a quality or feature issue somewhere. It may not be apparent today, but eventually the disparity will avail itself (ie, like Marie's "help desk" busy signal).

   Example, I have NEVER, EVER had a busy signal when calling IBM support. Oh, and my price goes down by approx 63% year 2 onwards. Now, G-man has a busy signal and the price never goes down. Place your value where you will - a company whose support is the best on the planet and has been around for over 100 years, or the 11 year old selling lemonade on the corner with only a signal telephone line.

1. 16  Marie Scott http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/crashtestchix | 8/14/2009 8:57:51 AM

   @13 David - students are being moved to Google Apps for Education which is a free offering. Many universities are pursing Google as well as Microsoft's free cloud offering as a cost savings measure. There is a lot of debate in the higher education community about the validity and security of cloud computing. However, students want an email system they can access far beyond their undergraduate term at a college or university. We are not moving our faculty and staff to GAFE -- they will remain on Lotus Notes/Domino. From an administrator's point of view, GAFE has miles to go before it can be compared to Domino. Google provides APIs. And what it does provide is not a complete tool set.

1. 17  Jim Casale http://www.jimcasale.net | 8/14/2009 9:35:47 AM

   @Ed is right about users not wanting GAPE/GMail. I have witnessed people being migrated to Gmail. Once they started using it the tickets started pouring in to "move me back to Notes", "I can't send this email to customers, it looks so unprofessional", "Gmail is slow". You would think it's a no-brainer but trying to troubleshoot why someone can't login to Gmail is beyond the average desktop support person's ability. It is really sad that network operations has to sniff packets to troubleshoot why someone is having so many issues with Gmail. I can go on and on as I have experienced it in the enterprise as well as personally. When I was going for my MIS the school I was attending decided to go with Gmail from OWA. Let's just say neither option was ideal in my opinion. I know my last statement is a personal preference but I wonder how many other people in the corporate world feel the same way.

   @Marie Scott is right - you need to go into this with your eyes wide open. Don't assume it will be a cure all for what you think is wrong or what your TCO is (bet you will have to upgrade your network for GAPE/GMail). That being said I guess it could be a viable option if it meets your needs.

1. 18  Denny Russell http://www.sherpasoftware.com/blogs/SherpaBlog.nsf/ | 8/14/2009 9:50:55 AM

   Hey Hey, watch how you word this one. : )

   "I'm thinking that today didn't turn out as planned for the Sherpas"

   In our 'Sherpa' world, we upgraded 4 production servers to Domino 8.5 in less time than it took me to drive into the office. So I'd say the Real (technical) Sherpa's had a great day!!

   Denny Russell

   Sherpa Software

1. 19  Brett H  | 8/14/2009 10:25:01 AM

   @14 Hear hear!! YES!! Where are the #Leaving Exchange tweets? I suppose since they targeted Lotus it's almost a compliment, attacking the best etc...

   Or are they attacking IBM because they are such big softies and won't bite back?

   More to the point... Where is #Leaving GAPE?

1. 20  Henning Heinz  | 8/14/2009 10:42:57 AM

   The Google does not work strategy will fail imho. It failed for Exchange and it will fail for Google Apps too. The same goes for blaming customer for not properly using a product. Maybe the If you cannot convince a customer that he is not already using the best solution you are always at risk no matter if a move makes sense or not. And if a customer moves he will hardly ever come back (even if there are "tickets" for a switch back to Notes). The "My boss loves <Competitor> where does that leave Lotus?" approach works much better for me. Improve the product, create a message and convince everyone that you have the best solution (not the cheapest) in the market.

1. 21  Jim Casale http://www.jimcasale.net | 8/14/2009 10:49:33 AM

   @20. It is not a strategy - it is reality in the environment I have worked in. I am not making this stuff up to show how it will fail. It already is failing (or as we like to call it when we hear the complaints - "GFail".

1. 22  Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 8/14/2009 11:05:45 AM

   I should have read this before I posted just now.

   My thoughts were and are that companies who swap out email for email do an injustice to their shareholders and investors.

   There is more, so much more to be found, but we must show it.

   Slides don't do it.

   Ads which don't show it in action don't work either.

   Saying Google doesn't work or do this or that is DEFENSIVE not OFFENSIVE.

   When will IBM put Domino in an event that others can see it is being productive and say we want THAT or to be able to do THAT!

   Tune in next week and the Lotusknows jam to bring these points and more up for votes.

1. 23  Henning Heinz  | 8/14/2009 11:50:48 AM

   @20 Jim

   So do you move back? From my experience customers hardly ever move back no matter how good or bad the new system is. Sometimes this is a pity because you can make a deal solely based on a good sales team and a lot of promises.

   True I haven't been brave enough to walk into the headquarters of Mc Donald's Germany (just an example because this is a former Notes account in my region) and tell them that they were not using Notes right (although they run Exchange now). Now the account is lost but they still sell Burgers so it cannot be that worse.

1. 24  David Hablewitz  | 8/14/2009 11:53:21 AM

   When you're the best, everyone makes you the target. I should know. I'm a Gator.

1. 25  Jim Casale http://www.jimcasale.net | 8/14/2009 12:03:49 PM

   @23 Yes, they have moved people back to Notes. Rumor has it that the project will eventually die as there are too many issues still left unresolved by Google.

1. 26  Henning Heinz  | 8/14/2009 12:10:11 PM

   Wow, I hardly ever hear about such stories. This would then be a fantastic headline. "The move into the Google Cloud and back. Why Lotus Notes has proven to be the superior system for our company".

1. 27  Jim Casale http://www.jimcasale.net | 8/14/2009 12:17:25 PM

   @26 It's long story which I cannot get into here but moving users back to Notes is not the entire story. The only point I was trying to make was GAPE/GMail does not always live up to expectations, and does NOT always give you back what you are giving up by moving to GAPE/GMail.

1. 28  David Racicot  | 8/14/2009 1:19:42 PM

   @8. Although those applications will run, eventually some of those applications will want to be enhanced. Better to keep them current than to face a rewrite because someone uses the misguided argument that the applications are dated and the only option is to redo them.

1. 29  Michael  | 8/14/2009 2:05:06 PM

   @Keith - I agree, shareholders beware. @Henning, McDonalds business is property not burgers; hmmm, I guess there are exceptions to the rule "Email exchanges will cost you your investment money".

   MdH

1. 30  Bill Seybolt http://www.twitter.com/cyb0lt | 8/14/2009 3:43:14 PM

   I was in the meeting yesterday and they had the Twitter feed front and center. So, you could have easily pinged away with all the compelling reasons why we shouldn't migrate away from Lotus. The problem is for many of us, Lotus is no longer considered a strategic partner.

   The room was large enough for 30 people or so. I think they would've rather turned away IBM/Lotus folks and save the seats for folks who wanted to find out what's involved in migrating to Google Apps.

1. 31  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/14/2009 4:09:09 PM

   @30 What is it about IBM that you "no longer" consider us to be a strategic partner?

1. 32  David Bell  | 8/14/2009 10:32:19 PM

   @30 - You consider Microsoft a strategic partner ? Microsoft is taking customers for a ride with EA's that charge you for software you're already entitled to, or that you'll never use and upgrades they don't deliver within the EA timeframe.

   Partner ? You have to be joking.

1. 33  David Bell  | 8/14/2009 10:34:41 PM

   @30 - to be fair you did not mention Microsoft.

   But your point is that other vendors are considered more strategic than IBM.

1. 34  Peter Herrmann  | 8/14/2009 10:52:20 PM

   Ed, if you "google calendar resources" you'll come up with a few links about the features. Here's one { Link } I notice the screenshot there needs updating to show the "Find next available time" feature.

1. 35  Graham Dodge  | 8/15/2009 10:08:03 PM

   @34 Peter, your 'google calendar resources' link gave the following error...

   "We're sorry, but the information you've requested cannot be found. Please try searching or browsing the Help Center."

   A smarter man than me would find something witty to say but I think I'll let the dead link speak for itself :)

1. 36  David Bell  | 8/15/2009 11:33:54 PM

   @35 - Peter's link has a trailing . on it, remove that and the page is there.

1. 37  Simon O’Doherty  | 8/17/2009 3:22:15 AM

   @34. Thanks. Actually I played with it for a while a week or so back and found it very very basic compared to Domino/Notes (or exchange for that matter).

   One thing that stood out is there is no "Out of Office". You can mark a block of time with subject as out of office but the system has no other features then that.

   There is a "Vacation responder" in the gmail system but no connect between the two and a basic feature compared to what else is out there.

   There are probably many other things missing, but as I said this is a very basic system. OK if that is what you want I guess.

1. 38  Bill Seybolt http://www.twitter.com/cyb0lt | 8/17/2009 8:53:50 AM

   @30. Most of our web platform is developed in PHP/MySQL. These days it makes more sense to utilize open source CMS resources like Wordpress and Drupal. More people are familiar with it, especially within our organization.

   We've had a number of people create their own workflow solutions in Google apps without IT ever getting involved. I've seen some limited demos of what Lotus is now offering. But, group calendaring is still lagging compared to what you can do in Google or Zimbra.

   We've been burned by the whole experience for the Macs. I will say I've been testing the 8.5 environment and it works much better than 7.03. But, iPhone integration is no where near what Google can do (tied directly to mail, contacts and calendar vs.limited iNotes client). They still don't have an admin or developer client for the Mac (yes, admin could be done via the web).

1. 39  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/17/2009 9:10:15 AM

   @38 thanks, that's helpful. I'm running a Mac as are a good chunk of my blog readers. I think the Mac story has come a long way in the last 18 months; we even launched Notes 8.5 at Macworld. As for the iPhone, we are thisclose to shipping a push mail solution with Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.1; you can demonstrate it now via the Lotus Greenhouse { Link } . We went with the web-based iNotes ultra-light solution initially because it was easier to deploy and manage on the device. We don't have any plans to build a Mac admin (as you say, it can be done on the web), but a Mac Designer is on the radar. How many Designer users do you have (percentage or otherwise)

   I'm really surprised by your comments about group calendaring lagging Google or Zimbra. Could you give some examples?

   Thanks for continuing the conversation.

1. 40  Bill Seybolt http://www.twitter.com/cyb0lt | 8/17/2009 9:45:56 AM

   @39. Google calendar and Zimbra allow multiple calendars that can be shared with any number of users. So, I can create a number of project calendars in Google Calendar and invite people to join in, toggle their calendar onto mine and see the overlaps/availability/etc. You can also share specific calendars and have a some great delegation tasks vs. all or none in Lotus.

   I see now the "Show Calendars" function in 8.5. (Again, we're testing.) My initial assumption from Lotus' part was the Group Calendaring function, which is lagging.

   I'm the only designer/admin on site. We have a few other admins who need to setup users, check server status, etc.

1. 41  Henning Heinz  | 8/19/2009 8:16:50 AM

   There hasn't been many announcements about Notes 9 (or whatever it is called then) but one feature that is being considered is integrated Group Calendaring. Of course many Business Partners have such an offer today.