More on Exchange 12 64-bit only news from around the blogs

November 17 2005

I wasn't the only one who said "wow" when the earth moved under Microsoft Exchange the other day (ref: Exchange 12: 64 bit only?).  Some other blogger views:
Andrew Pollack:

Exchange 12 will do what every previous version of Exchange has been targeted to do. It will have enough new features and bug fixes along with performance gains that users will want to move to it, and in order to move to it new operating systems will have to be sold by the truckload.

Microsoft is and has always been about LEVERAGE. To run the newest THING you need the new OTHERTHING, which means the new OTHERSTUFF.....etc...etc...etc...
Alex Scoble:
Firms that are already on decent hardware and have Exchange 2003 will find this hard to swallow. ...
At any rate, this will probably push companies that are looking to upgrade their collaboration infrastructure to look at other packages such as Scalix or Open Xchange.
or perhaps Lotus Domino, Alex?

Ferris Research:
64-bit support makes great sense and is good for everyone.
You can read my comments on Ferris's site for why I don't agree with that.  (Also picked up by Tom Duff).

Some other responses are linked in the previous thread.  Net net -- I'm glad Notes/Domino still stands for investment protection, not rip-and-replace.

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Microsoft  Add/View Comments [8]

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  1. 1  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 11/17/2005 2:53:32 PM

    I like Bill's comment at the Ferris site. Good point about the previous scalability issues.

    Regarding investment protection, I upgraded my production Mail and Application servers to 7.0 on Friday. I've been working with support on some http issues with my Mail server, but my App server has been really stable.

    According to my statrep database, for my App server at 6.5.4 FP2, it's process CPU utilization running average was 27.3%. For 7.0 it has been averaging 25.3%. That doesn't sound like much, but it's a 7% reduction in CPU for that partition with no changes but loading D7! I'm hoping to get my Mail server straightened out to get some real numbers on it too...

    Keep up the good work Lotus! (Even if I am having some headaches this week!)

  1. 2  JDausman http://Leadershipbynumbers.com | 11/17/2005 4:48:37 PM

    This is a gift.

    Longhorn, future SQL-Server releases, Exchange 12, et al., are all going to require 64-bit processing. It's going to make the TCO comparisons very compelling for non-Microsoft products.

    Of course, this is not their first foray into 64-bit Windows (NT Alpha). I'm guessing MS is planning on a slow adoption, pretty much at the rate of hardware replacement.

    None of my Exchange buddies are very happy about this news.

    Jack

  1. 3  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 11/17/2005 8:30:23 PM

    I sent this info to an Exchange pal of mine (who now, via a merger, uses Notes!). I didn't hear back from him on it...

  1. 4  Bill Geimer  | 11/17/2005 10:50:25 PM

    I am as happy as you are that Domino is not in the Rip & Replace crowd, but I am just a little bit concerned about how this story will play in the front office, or rather, how it did this week. And what would be so Rip & Replace about offering Domino for 64 bit RHEL4 or SUSE 9, of even Windud 2003's 64 bit version. Yes, it would be a tough way to split the development and software engineering. But it might mean more that just marketing to your larger accounts.

    That said, there are a lot of other vendors who ought to support the capabilities that are out there, and don't.

    And there is still nobody that comes close to IBM/Lotus' support of O/S diversity. Thanks for that.

  1. 5  Bob http://www.bobcongdon.com/blog | 11/18/2005 1:11:02 AM

    @2 Correction: NT Alpha was not a 64-bit OS.

  1. 6  Simon Barratt http://apps.fmc.com/blog.nsf | 11/18/2005 1:38:39 PM

    "64 bits are more than 32 bits, which means it must be better!"

    You can hear this being spun right now. It won't be long before CIO's around the world will be asking why we are stuck using Domino on a 32 bits???

    I hope IBM are preparing their spheel now!

  1. 7  Nathan T. Freeman  | 11/21/2005 1:54:29 AM

    So the question is: when will we see a Domino version for an Intel platform that's 64-bit, right? It's certainly not: when will Domino operate on 64-bit platforms, 'cause *cough*iSeries*cough*.

    Then again, I'd be really curious what it would take for a Dom7 port to SuSE 64. You could even slap it with a "beta" label -- it'll still be more stable that E12.

  1. 8  Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 11/21/2005 3:54:00 AM

    Rip & Replace is fine if the front office spin is consolidation of server(s) which saves money, *and* gets the CFO is annual bonus :) (I've seen it enough to know it works mostly like that). If you're a Windows only org, and you don't care about iSeries, Linux, or the other Unix flavors, an O/S diversity argument won't help. Already there's talk of a 4X increase in # of users on Exchange 12/64-bit. Yes... (400%!!!) increase in number of users on 64-bit. (see this eweek link { Link } Yes, we all know it's all hype, no certified numbers, like Domino has via Notesbench. Some internal, flat surface, perfect world test- never the less it will make someone in the front office give "pause."

    So this IS a big deal, however it's easy to defuse. MS track record is that they will most likely retract the 64 bit only and embrace a 32/64 bit "strategy". Another silver bullet is the stacking of users means absolutely nothing if reliability and data integrity goes out the window.

    There are very profitable businesses built around compensating for Exchange data store corruptions and backup/restore failures.

    Domino Clustering CRUSHES Windows/Exchange clustering, etc. etc.

    Good thread...hopefully it keeps going.