Executives from IBM's Lotus software unit sketched out
the strategy behind IBM's year-old Lotus Workplace platform, and
reassured users that IBM will not abandon its core of Lotus users
building on the Notes/Domino architecture.
"Our strategy is to increase our leadership, not walk away from
it," said Lotus general manager Ambuj Goyal, who was speaking at
the Lotus's annual user show in Orlando.
Regarding competitor claims that the company will orphan an
installed base IBM estimates at 100 million end-users, Goyal said,
"Let me tell you categorically, nothing could be further from the
truth."
Still, the opening session made clear IBM's commitment to
Workplace as its future for Lotus development. The company's plan
is to steadily increase the interoperability of the Workplace
architecture with that of Notes/Domino, so that existing Notes
users can eventually migrate to Workplace without losing access to
existing Domino-developed applications.
Toward that end, IBM used the presentation to demonstrate tools
in the latest version of Lotus Notes and Domino allowing developers
to pull Domino applications into a portal-based Workplace
deployment. The company also previewed its forthcoming Lotus
Workplace Builder software, intended to simplify component-based
application development.
last year, IBM introduced the first version of Lotus Workplace,
a new architecture for Lotus applications that draws heavily on
other technology in Big Blue's portfolio, including its WebSphere
middleware technology and DB2 database.
Workplace's Java-focused design allows a flexible, modular
approach to crafting an organisation's collaboration and messaging
system, but the architecture is very different from the
Domino-based design IBM acquired through its 1995 purchase of
Lotus.
"Until recently, the factor limiting our growth has been the
tight link between Notes and Domino," Goyal said. "The solution has
been to federate the system."
That approach risks alienating customers content with their
Notes/Domino systems. While repeating assurances that no one will
face a forced migration, Lotus executives extolled the advantages
of Workplace in yesterday's presentation, highlighting the
integration advantages of its Java architecture. Connecting to
other IBM and Lotus software systems, and to those from third-party
developers such as enterprise resource planning leader SAP, will be
painless, executives claimed.
The next step for Workplace is the planned early-second-quarter
release of Workplace 2.0, featuring a new client application, which
will unlock extensive offline and integration functionality not yet
available in Workplace 1.0's server-side software.
Stacy Cowley writes for IDG News Service