IBM's Workplace Will Be the Future of Lotus Notes/Domino
by Volker Weber
Tom Austin puts the Nov, 9 announcements into perspective:
Gartner expects IBM's Workplace will supersede Lotus Notes/Domino. New Workplace packages aimed at solving business problems (rather than enabling generic collaboration and communication) are a welcome, new focus.
Comments
Actually, Gartner misses the point entirely, IMO.
First, because the Notes 8 client and Domino server are both confirmed, which means at least 3 more years of supported Domino/Notes. Guessing about a product release more than 3+ years away in this industry is meaningless.
Second, because there is ongoing work on a Domino Designer like tool for Workplace.
Third because Notes running in the Eclipse rich client is 100% compatible with Notes as it has always been.
Gartner is once again caught up in buzzwords and briefings and hasn't actually looked at product and code with a skilled technical analysis of their own.
I'm so sick of these firms. These guys are just another kind of press, and IT managers need to stop taking the easy way out by just relying on their opinions.
Right, Gartner should know it better. But from a customers perspective the messages sent out by IBM about the naming and branding of their products are quiet confusing. Best example is the new IBM Workplace Services Express Announcment (it is not IBM "Lotus" Workplace ... anymore). It took some time for me to understand this marketing strategy - lets say I hope I understand it now. So Gartners Message is not realy helpfull, but IBMs communication strategy is not as well.
"The current road map calls for the Lotus Notes 7 client and Domino 7 Server to ship next year with tighter integration with the company's new Workplace technologies. Beyond that, "there will be a Domino 8, 9, 10," said Ken Bisconti, vice president of Lotus and portal products." Link
Alex,
It's not a matter of it not being "IBM Lotus Workplace" anymore. There have always been both "IBM Workplace" and "IBM Lotus Workplace" . "IBM Lotus Workplace" is actually one of the many parts of "IBM Workplace".
Easy, no? ;-)
-rich
Yup. And IBM Workplace Services Express is similar to IBM Lotus Workplace. Which muddies the waters even more.
From my presentation at H&T Verlags London conference, and Advisor's Baltimore on the Workplace Rich Client:
IBM Workplace Technology is a Platform
IBM Workplace Client Technology Rich Edition is an environment
IBM Lotus Workplace is an application
The IBM Lotus Workplace has components which run as an application within the IBM Workplace Technology Rich Edition
IBM has stated that Lotus Notes Version 8 will be an application which runs within the IBM Workplace Technology Rich Edition
Both Lotus Notes 8, and Lotus Workplace are "Applications" which run within the IBM Workplace Client Technology - Rich Edition client. They are on equal footing within that client, though Lotus Workplace takes much more advatage of the framework.
Very well, Andrew. That is my understanding as well. Now what is "IBM Workplace Services Express"?
I believe this is to be a lower cost, lower install overhead way to get into IBM Workplace Services -- which means it has to install websphere, portal server, db2, and workplace along with a bunch of other stuff all at once on one machine. I think the goal is to make it an out of the box environment for "smb" or for trying out the tool as a whole without the 3 week installation nightmare.
it installs in an hour, which should be good enough. :)
My comments on the Gartner "first take" are at
http://www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/11172004100851AMEBRLXM.htm
yes the branding is confusing. But if that is the only confusion, that worries me less. This week's buzz seems to be another round of "notes is dead", which is hardly the case. again.
Andrew, you used very short sentences to describe other parts of Workplace. What is "IBM Workplace Services Express" again? An application, a platform, an environment or what? What can one do with it, apart from saving time and hassles to install? And what can one not do with it? There is also WebSphere Portal missing in your classification.
Volker, I think that depends on what you you believe you can do with IBM Workplace in general.
In theory, Workplace Services Express is the entire "workplace" thing -- the IBM server, The Lotus Application, and all the supporting regalia; all jammed together on a single (multi-cd) installation processes.
So I guess the short sentence would be:
"All the junk from my other post, easier to install and cheaper, but maybe somewhat limited in scale."
Fair enough. Can you as a business partner build an application surfaced through your own portlet and sell it with IBM Workplace Services Express?
Yes.
OH BOY do I have a lot to say about this -- as soon as I get it cleared by the IBM people.... stay tuned.
How does IBM Workplace Services document manager integrate with MS Office?
I've tried Lotus Document Manager's inetgration component, Desktop Enabler, before and it was horrible. I crashed our applications and we had to eliminate that option.
Ibm saying the future is workplace . I worked in lotus notes as developer last 5 years. From carrier point notes market gone down now. So many developers already migrated from lotus notes development to Java and J2EE . Some people migrated .Net enivirnment becuase lotus script and vb and asp almost same kind of coding style .
