IBM has moved to re-assure Lotus Notes and Domino users
that the two messaging solutions have a bright future.
The company is set to launch key upgrades at next week’s
Lotusphere user conference.
IBM has been heavily promoting its Workplace web services
platform which has features that mimic some of those offered by the
established Notes messaging system and the Domino messaging
server.
This has led some users to fear that IBM could be winding down
its Notes product, but Ken Bisconti, IBM vice-president of
workplace, portal and collaboration products, said IBM is committed
to protecting its customers’ investment in Notes.
He said, “Notes isn’t being replaced by IBM Workplace, it’s
becoming part of IBM Workplace, and it’s here to stay.”
Bisconti said, “There is a lot of change in store for the Notes
client. Notes 7 and 7.5 and 8 will be different and significantly
more valuable - just as the current Notes 6.5 is different and
significantly more valuable compared to Notes 4 and 4.6.
“These upcoming versions will remain true to the Notes tradition
of supporting and protecting the investment our customers have made
in Notes functionality, training and application development.”
Bisconti said however, that users now want to use Notes to
access applications that integrate with transaction systems or use
Notes to access corporate data sources.
“They want to use Notes to access the emerging class of
composite applications - applications that aggregate data and
functionality from a variety of data sources and systems into a
consistent, integrated, portal interface. To date, Notes hasn’t
really been able to support these types of applications,” said
Bisconti.
Notes R7, currently in Beta, will add support for these types of
applications by gradually integrating the capabilities of IBM
Workplace Client Technology, IBM’s framework for delivering
“server-managed rich-clients”, he said.