News and announcements from the Lotus Collaboration Summit

September 18 2007

I have a new-found respect for the Lotusphere keynote/opening general session team.  Today, our "casting call" was at 6:30 AM (I might, perhaps, possibly have arrived more like 6:45).  I was told, oh, that's nothing, for Lotusphere it is more like 5 AM!  Wow!

In a 2+ hour keynote, there was a lot of news.  In addition to the Lotus Symphony announcement and the news that a sustained line-of-business advertising campaign for Notes 8 has begun, there was other news:

  • Announcement of IBM's Applications on Demand service for Lotus Notes.  This is a pay-as-you-go service offering for Notes messaging, which Mike Rhodin indicated is priced between US$5 - $10 per user per month. I've been working with the AoD team as this offer gets going, and found that they have a lot of flexibility around what services to offer and at what price points.
  • Announcement of Notes/Domino 8.0.1.  I'll post a separate blog entry with the feature list from this announcement, planned for availability in Q1, 2008.
  • Announcement of a new Domino Web Access lightweight mode, a very fast and lightweight UI for DWA coming in 8.0.1.
  • Announcement of Notes Traveler, a new feature of Domino 8.0.1 to support push mail to Windows Mobile devices at no additional cost.  This announcement was in addition to the existing partnerships with RIM, Nokia, Motorola's Good Technology, CommonTime, iAnywhere, and Visto.
  • Announcement of Quickr 8.1, a 2008 release including a connector for Notes 8, a connector for Microsoft Outlook, performance and usability improvments, personal file sharing services, and enablers for integration with enterprise content management systems.
  • Announcement of a new product, the Quickr Content Integrator, designed to bring content from a variety of IBM and non-IBM content repositories into the Quickr environment with no customization required.
  • Announcement of Lotus Forms 3.0, a updated version of the product which includes a zero-footprint web-based filler.

Press releases are now posted on ibm.com, including:
Customer Success and Industry Recognition Fuel Market Adoption of IBM Collaborative Technologies
IBM Unveils Next Generation Collaboration Software Suite
IBM Releases Office Desktop Software at No Charge to Foster Collaboration and Innovation

It was a lot of fun to work with the team putting together this keynote, held inside the Hayden Planetarium itself.  Special thanks to Forrester's Erica Driver for both her excellent "vision" presentation as well as moderating our customer panel.

The event is still in-progress, so I'll write more a bit later today, as well as post some pictures.

Ed Brill | Hayden Planetarium, AMNH Category:  Lotus  Add/View Comments [36]

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  1. 1  Rob Ingram http://www.dominoblog.com | 9/18/2007 12:27:28 PM

    Domino 8.0.1 feature news is posted here...{ Link }

  1. 2  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 9/18/2007 12:32:42 PM

    "Announcement of Notes Traveler, a new feature of Domino 8.0.1 to support push mail to Windows Mobile devices at no additional cost."

    I think heard a gasp and a thud from the direction of Vowe...

  1. 3  Jim Casale  | 9/18/2007 12:45:14 PM

    Damn...soon you will tell us that the Outlook client will connect natively to Domino.... Just kidding

    Great news to win over those people that think the competitors product is untouchable ;-)

  1. 4  Rob McDonagh http://www.CaptainOblivious.com | 9/18/2007 12:47:30 PM

    "Domino Web Access lightweight mode, a very fast and lightweight UI for DWA coming in 8.0.1"

    Now THAT could make some people around here smile. Depending on how light it really is, this could be a huge win for us. If there's an 8.0.1 beta for customers, we'd love to be part of it.

  1. 5  Dennis van Remortel http://www.d2k.nl/domino | 9/18/2007 1:05:47 PM

    I'd sure like the DWA light!! The current one is a bit bloated for slow lines!

  1. 6  Wild Bill http://www.billbuchan.com | 9/18/2007 1:12:32 PM

    My god. Is there anything you guys ARENT doing in the very near future ?

    This'll make an incredible Lotusphere for sure.

    ---* Bill

    (P.S. Using the mac client full time now. Hopefully the budget fairies have been kind to Mac client development resource.. ;-) )

  1. 7  Scott B  | 9/18/2007 1:47:38 PM

    Wow! Minimum required RAM for Symphony is 1GB! Say goodbye to half of your potential market.

  1. 8  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 9/18/2007 1:48:33 PM

    @4 - I wonder how this DWA Light will differ from the previous incarnation { Link }

  1. 9  John Head http://www.johndavidhead.com | 9/18/2007 1:52:42 PM

    @4 Rob, I believe that beta has started already, so talk with your IBM rep or someone like Ed.

    @6 saying this is going to be an incredible Lotusphere is an understatement. If you look at how the past ones have been in terms of annoucements, and look at what we say today ... just imagine what will happen in Orlando this coming Jan. :-)

  1. 10  Kurt Binnie  | 9/18/2007 1:56:50 PM

    @4 and 5

    Yes..lightweight with no java has been on my wishlist for about the last 7 years....

  1. 11  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/18/2007 2:08:10 PM

    "Domino 64 bit native support option for Microsoft Windows 2003 and IBM AIX platforms (other 64 bit platforms will be deliver in follow on releases). 64 bit enables Domino to address far larger memory on the server than allowed by the current system limitations. We just kicked off the 64 bit code pre-beta last week with ISV's and nominated customers."

    We won't be using any Microsoft Windows servers anymore, but only SUSE Linux servers. I hope SUSE Linux will be fully 64-bit supported next, as even IBM DB/2 experts say that AIX is not as good as SUSE Linux in regards of I/O performance and support. We will be using also DB/2 9.1 databases instead of Domino databases, but still running Domino 8.0.x as front end server.

  1. 12  Duffbert http://www.twduff.com | 9/18/2007 2:14:17 PM

    Wow... impressive set of announcements, especially for a non-Lotusphere event! Nice job.

  1. 13  Jim Casale  | 9/18/2007 2:29:41 PM

    @11 7.0.2 rocks on 64 bit Windows even though it only supports large address aware. I can only imagine what the performance will be with 8.0.1. I would say you would get better performance on Linux though :-)

  1. 14  David Bell  | 9/18/2007 2:47:52 PM

    @11 - curious as to why an Intel / AMD architecture is perceived to handle more I/O than Power 5/5+/6 ?

  1. 15  Rob McDonagh http://www.CaptainOblivious.com | 9/18/2007 3:02:48 PM

    @8 - Well, they said it's "very fast and lightweight" - so that would be a pretty significant difference. *chuckle*

  1. 16  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/18/2007 3:04:01 PM

    The SUSE Linux will of course run on Power6 CPU, the main reason for our switch from Windows to Linux was that Intel didn't have fast enough CPU's on the market, our last Windows 2003 server had 2x Quad Core Xeon, and I would have used 4x Quad Core Xeon, but IBM's x3650 supported only 2 Quad Core CPU's and x3950 supported 4 CPU's but only Dual Core.

    At least with Power6 CPU's I know I can use a RS/6000 (whatever the new name is, System p something...). Besides I'm happy to finally get rid of Microsoft and Intel, and use real computers again.

  1. 17  Fabio Pignatti http://fabiopignatti.blogspot.com/ | 9/18/2007 3:23:22 PM

    Wow! Applications on Demand service for Lotus Notes is really a offer that fits with SMB market. Good news for us here in Italy!!!

    "Domino Web Access lightweight"? We want to know more and more and more! :-)

  1. 18  Kurt Binnie  | 9/18/2007 4:06:34 PM

    @13..agreed about 702 on 64bit win..now if there was onlay a way to back it up using Netbackup...

  1. 19  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/18/2007 4:10:17 PM

    @18: IBM ADSM backup works just fine on 64-bit Windows. Why use any 3rd party vendors when IBM has the right solution for you?

  1. 20  David Bell  | 9/18/2007 4:14:49 PM

    @16 - so does AIX - my question is why is SUSE supposedly better at I/O than AIX ?

  1. 21  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/18/2007 4:22:03 PM

    @20: That's a good question. I originally planned to use IBM AIX, but the IBM DB/2 expert said straight to my face: "No, no, use SUSE Linux, it has the fastest I/O of all Unix/Linux variants." He seemed like a pro also, as we continued the discussion about many details like how optical fibre wired IBM network storages perform with different volume sizes (I wanted to find out the best method for implementing a transactional logging disk).

  1. 22  Rob Ingram http://www.dominoblog.com | 9/18/2007 4:29:11 PM

    @11 Linux 64 bit is clearly on te Lotus radar - just need a little more time to get the porting work done on other UNIX varaiants.

    Did you state you are planning on using DB2 for evary app. All your prior knowledge and experience about comparative performance need to be re-checked if you move to DB2 stores - not all Notes apps, especially email, will have the same high performance as NSF. It s a popular misconception that DB2 is automatically faster for all Notes apps. This has never been a claimed benefit of DB2 stores. NSF remains the recommended datastore for email performance and its getting better in 8.0 and 8.0.1.

  1. 23  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/18/2007 4:35:58 PM

    @22: No, we are not blindly moving all apps to DB/2. We will test all performances on each app and then decide which one's go to DB/2 and which ones stay in Domino 8. Also development time plays a big role, so for now it's only planned to move the order databases, order rows, order response, order response rows documents to from Domino 8 to DB/2. Currently we have about 3000 seperate Domino 7 order databases (including rows, responses, and their rows), and we want to move them all into ONE big database, that's why DB/2 seems a necessity for this project.

  1. 24  Rob Ingram http://www.dominoblog.com | 9/18/2007 4:37:27 PM

    @22/21 Lotus lab test data for Domino 8.0 (to be published soon) that showed lower I/O on AIX than SuSE Linux. The point is that direct comparisons can be flawed, because its not running on exactly the same hardware or disk. For Domino to perform best, its far more than a simple question of OS choice. Its a far more complicated comparison involving many hardware elemnts.

  1. 25  Rob Ingram http://www.dominoblog.com | 9/18/2007 5:01:00 PM

    @23 - Mika. This sounds great. It would be good to learn more abot your use of DB2 in apps some time - Lotusphere maybe?

  1. 26  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/18/2007 5:07:51 PM

    @25: Actually IBM was very interested to hear about our case development, since it seems that not many big companies have done the migration from Domino to DB/2 yet. We have a workshop with IBM about Domino 8 and DB/2 9.1 integration next month, so I will probably blog something about the news. From what I heard of their tests, was that Domino 8 and DB/2 9.1 works perfectly together, even on the same hardware, but of course in a real production environment we might want to keep the DB/2 server stricly seperate. I'm not planning to join LotuSphere 2008, but 2009/2010 for sure (I need to upgrade mu CAAD (=Principal CLP Dev) diplomas anyway :)

  1. 27  Flemming Riis  | 9/19/2007 2:03:48 AM

    @19 -IBM ADSM backup works just fine on 64-bit Windows. Why use any 3rd party vendors when IBM has the right solution for you?

    Domino Agent dont work on X64 and wont before 5.4.1 i belive where 8.0 support is in also, so unless something changed the last few weeks its not a option to use IBM to backup a IBM product running on a IBM approved platform.

  1. 28  Flemming Riis  | 9/19/2007 2:20:07 AM

    @27 seems that 5.4.2 is out so :)

  1. 29  Mika Heinonen http://siipi.com/mika | 9/19/2007 5:33:16 AM

    @27: We have ADSM with Notes Agent working on Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 (2x Intel Quad Core), so that is a working version. TSM is version V5 R4 L1.0. Also a new version of McAfee Enterprise was needed, and VirusScan Enterprise 8.5.0i works fine on x64.

  1. 30  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 9/19/2007 7:53:45 AM

    The Lotus Notes on-demand was the highlight of the show for me.

    This will allow Lotus Notes to organically grow in that "VSB" (very small business) space; where it previously would never have been able to with any great success.

    Ed - Two suggestions for that site:

    (1) Pricing table - If Mike Rhodin can get up on stage and claim $5-$10/month/user; then someone should be able to put some basic pricing up there as well.

    (2) There needs to be a link for ISVs to learn more about how to get their applications hosted by IBM in this environment.

  1. 31  Stuart McIntyre http://quickrblog.com/?itemid=109 | 9/19/2007 9:54:27 AM

    There are some great announcements in there Ed, wonderful to have so much tangible information to discuss with customers. Each of the key Lotus products now has a well-known published roadmap for the next 6-12 months (or longer) and this compares very favourably with the competition. Great work...

    Also, (as a shameless plug) if anyone in the UK is interested in learning about these announcements in more detail ASAP, plus have the opportunity to talk with key IBM personnel about them, they are welcome to attend the Lotus Revisited event at Lotus Park, Staines next Friday. Details are on my blog... ;-)

  1. 32  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 9/19/2007 8:50:39 PM

    @15 - Back to the DWA light topic for a moment, have you tried the configuration in the link I provided? I found it cuts traffic tremendously, and it just takes a single notes.ini change on the DWA servers: iNotes_WA_UI=inotes_lite

  1. 33  Rob McDonagh http://www.CaptainOblivious.com | 9/19/2007 9:56:17 PM

    @32 Yep, we tried it, and we do use it. It makes a difference, no question. But it's still very far from being lightweight. I really hope the 8.0.1 version isn't just a minor tweak to that. I'd love to see a version of DWA designed to be small and fast from the ground up.

  1. 34  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/20/2007 7:09:03 AM

    @33 that's pretty much what it is. Like I said, I'll be posting more info soon.

  1. 35  Roland Reddekop  | 9/20/2007 10:37:56 AM

    I haven't seen any details beyond what you posted on Quickr Content Integrator, but this should definitely be a free product if Lotus is smart. Who pays to migrate?