Google eases move from Notes to Goole Apps with free migration tool
by Volker Weber
Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes quickly migrates user data such as email, contacts, and calendar events to Google Apps. It also includes coexistence tools for calendaring, which allow users on Lotus Notes servers to interoperate with users on Google Apps Calendar by exposing when users are free or busy, regardless of which system they use. Powerful management features - including automatic sending of notification email messages to users, support for migrating encrypted mailboxes, and the ability to migrate multiple users simultaneously - also add functionality to this migration tool. Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes helps make switching to Google easy and fast.
Comments
You have to love marketing-driven announcements. Call the tool "Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes" and who is going to even notice that it doesn't migrate any apps? It may be fast and easy, although that certainly remains to be proven, but it is just migrating mail. And for that matter, how well does it migrate rich text mail to Gmail's format? As I know I have spent way, way too much time reminding people, conversion between rich text email and MIME email is a tricky business that IBM hasn't perfected in 20+ years. How well do we think a free tool from Google will work?
I honestly don't know why IBM does not pay your weight in gold to buy your software. That is after a good meal, fully dressed, with luggage and some lead lining in your clothes.
Search their PDF for the word "Domino". No hits.
Search their PDF for the phrase "Lotus Notes server". Three hits.
Huh!???
If Google put the same level of understanding of Lotus Notes into their free tool as they put into the PDF describing it, then I would not recommend letting it anywhere near your data.
If IBM does not buy Ben's solution, maybe Google will do. Should be quite useful for a migration. :-)
Richard, most people I know outside the yellow bubble say "Notes server" instead of Domino. I can only assume Google wants to talk to those.
In that case, Volker, who are they talking to? Actual IT decision-makers who approve migrations and the strategies and tools used to accomplish them do know the name of the server.
Actual IT decision-makers who approve migrations and the strategies and tools used to accomplish them do know the name of the server.
I admire your optimistic outlook Richard. Many of my experiences with “senior IT decision-makers” suggest that they often have trouble differentiating their elbows from their backsides—never mind knowing what “Domino” means :-)
That optimistic outlook is what trips us up in the Yellowverse. We know about thius fantastic product, and then presume the rest knows so too, which is a fallacy. Some awareness has been building, and to counter this, some serious marketing by IBM would be appreciated by a large proportion of said yellowverse. In fact they have been clamoring for it for quite some time now.
To state clearly, cuz the message seems to be misinterpreted time and time again: We, staunch believers in Lotus Software, would like IBM to do serious marketing of the Lotus brand targeted at people not yet familiar with the greatness of the brand. Preaching to the choir as a valid solution to this need, is a station passed a long, long passed.
Cheers.
It looks like this is something that you only get if you are migrating to the premier edition, not the standard.
I"m always interested on how google handles recover of data.. everyone knows there is always that CEO that needs those emails or something recovered after deleting them a few days before..
Sorry.. not possible with google.. unless the clients isn't set right and it doesn't actually delete any mail client side on the server and just removes the inbox tag..
Google is trying to hide the free version of Google Apps. Like the Outlook Connector you need to have Premier Edition.
Deleted messages go to the trash, where they are removed 30 days later. Plenty of time. And with 25 gig of storage for messages there is little pressure to actually delete anything.
@Volker - Gee, thanks! My weight in gold might do it, but I'd hazard a guess that Google is more likely to recognize the worth than IBM is. I'm not sure whether it is the "not invented here" mindset or fear of raising the bar too high (the IBM developer most actively working on rich text programmability years ago said, "The problem with Midas is that it solve 95% of the problem. We don't aim for 95%, we aim for about 70%," and I don't think the mentality has changed very much).
We aim for 70%? Somebody actually said that? If you aim for 70, you get about 50. Which is half-baked. :-)
@vowe - 30 days recovery is plenty of time? Lol.... not when the CEOs or directors ask for mail from 3 years ago for a law suit....lol...
Ok, with 25 GB you might not have to delete very often in the beginning, but then there are those said CEOs and directors that actually fill that space....and then what...
Uncool Microsoft spam by Robert Gorbahn removed.
Michael, I thought you were talking about restoring an accidentally deleted message. If you need archiving, you may want to educate yourself about Postini offerings.
