Ed BrillEd BrillCollaboration, technology, travel, and more September 5, 2008 Thank you for helping me, againAn IBM sales rep just pinged me and let me know that her customer is going to stop a pending decision to migrate to Microsoft and instead convert over 1000 of their users to Lotus Notes. Yay! While we regularly win decisions at customers, based on providing the best solution for their needs, it's always good to hear about it. This one is even better because an advocate for IBM Lotus within the customer felt like the IBM side of the story wasn't getting heard -- and did something about it. They posted on the developerWorks Lotus Notes/Domino forum, where someone else suggested that the customer contact me. Once he did, I looked up the right salesperson and got in contact with them. Introductions were made, meetings were held, and our story was heard. I don't want to draw attention to the individual post or people involved. It's not important. What matters is that this community, time and again, demonstrates how willing you are to help one another... or help IBM. For that, I thank you. Posted by Ed Brill at 10:17:01 AM | Add/View Comments (0) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA September 4, 2008 David Allen plugs Lotus Notes at Office 2.0 conferenceThese were interesting tweets to see today:  I've known for some time that David is a fan of Lotus Notes, but this is the first time I've heard of him endorsing Notes in a forum like the Office 2.0 conference. Watch the video...especially about 16 minutes in... "In terms of what we do... we probably have more Lotus Notes databases than staff".  At 17:30, the moderator asks him why he is such a fan of Lotus Notes. "Using it to 5% of its capacity...the idea was, we can build a collaborative way to share information in a distributed form..." and he goes on and on. "Notes has gotten better...the UI used to suck...they've gotten a lot faster and slicker". As an engine, it's a phenomenal tool". Thank you, David. From the Twitter tweets and other reports on Office 2.0, I know you influenced some skeptics who haven't looked at Notes in many years, and all of us in the community really appreciate your straight-up honest assessment. While I'm not a GTD methodology user, those that do tell me that it's a huge tool to improve productivity. Eric Mack, who many in the community know, has been working with GTD and eProductivity. I'm looking forward to Eric's forthcoming eProductivity application. GTD and Lotus Notes are natural companions, and from the demonstration and early code I've seen, eProductivity brings the two together in a way that makes both become more valuable. Posted by Ed Brill at 04:34:00 PM | Add/View Comments (7) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA Computer Weekly: Hot skills: Lotus Notes and DominoThe UK's Computer Weekly examines the current career opportunity space around Lotus Notes and Domino:IBM's Domino server and Notes client are frequently treated as direct competitors to Microsoft's Exchange Server and Outlook. But while Exchange began as a messaging server, Notes and Domino originated as collaboration and application development platforms. They support calendaring and other groupware functions, but can also be used to develop client/server and web applications, particularly workflow and document-based. This may explain why analysts' figures for IBM's and Microsoft's shares of the messaging market differ so markedly, from giving the two suppliers near-parity, to awarding Microsoft a three-to-one advantage. In August 2007, IBM announced Notes and Domino Release 8, with a move to the Eclipse development platform. Most Lotus announcements in the last year have concerned "Web 2.0" capabilities - RSS and Atom, representational state transfer (REST) application programming interfaces, mash-ups, social networking. A lot of businesses have been expressing enthusiasm about the potential for Web 2.0 technologies to cut IT costs and improve the quality of collaboration and feedback.Interestingly, they also published one on Exchange today, and both have similar profiles.. Link: Computer Weekly: Hot skills: Lotus Notes and Domino > Posted by Ed Brill at 11:10:46 AM | Add/View Comments (11) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA SNoUG: Le groupe des utilisateurs Lotus Notes/Domino de Suisse Romande meeting/Assemblée, Lausanne, 16 septembreWhat a great coincidence of timing! As the local team is putting together my schedule for a few days in Switzerland, we've determined that I'll be able to participate in the next meeting of SNoUG, the Swiss Notes Users Group, on September 16 in Lausanne. I'll be coming in late in the day -- at the conclusion of the published agenda -- but just in time to meet up with a great group of customers. Look for more details to be announced. Personal bonus: I've also never been to Lausanne, though it looks like I'll just be passing through on the way between Genevè and Zürich. Posted by Ed Brill at 10:48:02 AM | Add/View Comments (4) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA September 3, 2008 About submitting great abstracts for Lotusphere 2009In an earlier posting on Lotusphere, someone asked about what makes a good abstract submission for the conference. Over the years, fellow track manager/track consultant Rocky Oliver has posted and updated advice on "what makes a good abstract" (a few times). Even though I won't be managing the infrastructure track for 2009, I'm still involved, and want to help you help us make this another great Lotusphere. Here are six tips I'd offer when you consider submitting an abstract: If you don't work for IBM, you're going to have a harder time getting into the infrastructure, strategy, or application development tracks. I am not trying to discourage you, but it's important to understand that your submissions for those tracks are competing with session proposals from the core product teams. 80% or more of the slots in the infrastructure track the last few years have been IBMers, and 90% or more in the strategy track. I'm sure that Mac and Rocky would love to see your submissions in the Best Practices, or the new Show-n-Tell track, if you are a customer, ISV, or business partner. We really, really mean it when we say that the abstract should be 750 characters or less. Also, there are so many submissions, the track manager is not likely to come back to you and suggest you rewrite it. Consider what you submit carefully. If you are a subject matter expert in a particular area, but you are employed by an organization which sells a product or service in said area, write carefully to ensure it does not appear you are proposing a session simply to pimp your product/services. This is also true for birds-of-a-feather sessions, by the way, which is an area where we seem to see a lot of those proposals. Quality, not quantity, matters. If it looks like you're just submitting a bunch o' stuff in the hopes that something will hit the target...you probably won't. Find a unique, interesting, or timely topic. This might sound obvious, but over the years, I have rejected countless abstracts for topics covered in years past. It doesn't mean that you can't revisit a concept covered at Lotusphere before, but be sure that there's a specific reason to do so. Otherwise, be creative and you'll get attention. Last, and I really do have to say this, stick to Lotus-related (or WebSphere Portal-related) topics. The strategy track especially seems to attract its share of "industry trends" submissions...sorry, nobody comes to Lotusphere to learn generally about archiving and compliance. We had a great session a couple of years ago on blogging, but it was relevant because the discussion was tied into how to blog using Lotus solutions and technologies. OK, with all those caveats, asterisks, and suggestions, I do really want you to consider submitting an awesome abstract! New or returning, great speakers are always on tap at Lotusphere. And as I'll continue to play an advisory role in the content team, I'm looking forward to reading the great 2009 submissions. Good luck and have a little fun, too! Posted by Ed Brill at 09:15:37 PM | Add/View Comments (1) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA Lotusphere 2009 website is up, at least if you know the URLIt appears to me that ibm.com/lotus/lotusphere is still going to the 2008 website, as is lotusphere.com, but if you know the URL, life is beautiful:  You can register, find out about sponsorships, submit abstract proposals, and view last year's opening session. Nice site. Link: Lotusphere 2009 > Posted by Ed Brill at 01:34:29 PM | Add/View Comments (12) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA September 2, 2008 Lotus Protector for Mail Security now available Now available! Lotus Protector for Mail Security 2.1 was released earlier today on a worldwide basis. From the channel announcement:IBM Lotus Protector for Mail Security 2.1, a new Lotus offering based on proven technology from IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS), protects organizations from Internet-based spam, viruses, "phishing" attacks, and other malware. Deployable as either a software-only solution on a virtual server, or as a plug-and-play appliance using separately purchased hardware from IBM ISS, Lotus Protector for Mail Security offers best-of-breed technology that is easy for Domino customers to acquire, deploy, administer, and support. IBM Lotus Protector for Mail Security: * Extends the IBM Lotus Domino security model to help manage e-mails that enter and leave your organization * Helps preserve your organization's reputation by inspecting and cleaning e-mail content before it is delivered to your employees * Shields recipients from the ever evolving nature of spam * Identifies suspected viruses before they are publicly known * Uses industry-leading features such as advanced heuristics, IP reputation filtering, and transport layer security (TLS) encryption, to address the needs of Domino customers * Works in concert with Domino to create an end-to-end security platformLast night, I posted a video link to YouTube, where you can find six minutes from Arthur Fontaine, the senior product manager for Lotus Protector. It's also worth reading his comments on the blog posting, where he explains IBM's strategy in this space in greater detail:there are two additional parts of the strategy that get more compelling to customers, and of course you can't get too deep into that in a 6 minute Youtube video. The first is the simple fact that we (uniquely) own development of both pieces of the equation, so we get an opportunity to pursue vertical integration between Domino and the Protector layer. Some of the things we're workin on include integrating the "block mail from sender" agent in Notes with antispam system's user block/allow lists, and creating hooks to things like the Bayesian filters, which learn over time what an organization's unique views of spam and ham (non-spam e-mail) are. We're also studying things like extending Domino user/group management, policies, etc., so the administrative activities bridge the barriers of the current multivendor model of e-mail security. So those things aren't in the first (2.1) release of the product, but we're busy with that work in both Westford and Kassel; note that Protector is within the Domino business, and I'm long-term Domino heritage as well. We'll have news here shortly. The second part of the strategy is that Protector is a family brand, not just a product brand, so we're taking a holistic view of the types of problems enterprise e-mail customers are facing. We're working on things like comprehensive encryption over Internet links (beyond S/MIME and TLS), data loss prevention, and, as you mention, archiving and ediscovery. We're doing them in ways consistent with how we're approaching antispam (e.g., Internet encryption that's integrated with your NotesNotes encryption), and across the platform (e.g., your DLP and archiving doesn't fall over because your encryption gets in the way).I'm also here to tell you that my team is ready to deal, and we've started out with the aggressive stance of a 25% discount for competitive trade-up, just like we do in the Notes/Domino space. The US list price for the competitive trade-up is US$44.25/user, and that includes support as well as the first year of updates (like the signature file updates needed for both anti-spam and anti-virus). Let me know if I can help you with more information on this new offering from Lotus, and congratulations to the entire Protector team. Posted by Ed Brill at 07:15:59 PM | Add/View Comments (17) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA Ted Stanton: Notes 8.5 Beta 2 and Connections Meanwhile, Ted is checking out the new integration between the Lotus Notes client and Lotus Connections, which is in the new Notes 8.5 beta 2 that posted on Friday:Beta 1 provided the ability to take Activities off-line, add Activity's to your Notes Calendar, and view the Profiles person card. Beta 2 has now integrated Connections search capabilities into the native Notes search toolbar along with the ability to dogear a document.The Activities + Calendar integration is very welcome...  Link: Ted Stanton: Notes 8.5 beta 2 and Connections > Luis Benitez also picked this one up > Posted by Ed Brill at 01:23:08 PM | Add/View Comments (1) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA Darren Duke: 8.0.2 Lotus Notes Relative PerformanceDarren, who has recently started blogging, has some hard data on his real-world experience for startup time and RAM consumption for Notes 8.0.2:Since Lotus Notes 8.0.2 (and Lotus Domino) went gold last week, I have been busily testing and retesting the performance increases in start time and a reduced memory foot print. To say IBM Lotus have done a phenomenal job is an understatement. It is nothing short of amazing what the folks at IBM have managed to achieve. Below is a attached HTML table of comparative values for 8.0.0, 8.0.1 and 8.0.2. Over the next few weeks I will try to add more "configurations".Darren's data is also consistent with what the Notes client performance team published a few weeks ago (a link that bears repeating) on developerWorks. Link: Darren Duke: 8.0.2 Lotus Notes Relative Performance > Posted by Ed Brill at 01:19:23 PM | Add/View Comments (7) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA UseBasicNotes=1I was part of an interesting discussion with a customer last week, where essentially they needed some way to "prove" that the basic configuration of Notes 8 and the standard configuration of Notes 8 were really one and the same product. I won't go into the details of the customer-specific situation, but it boiled down to how they approach their existing Notes applications as it relates to deployment, testing and the upgrade process. Over the weekend, I learned of a really good way we can help the customer with the deployment aspect. While Notes 8.0.2 shipped last week in both a basic configuration kit and a standard configuration kit, it appears we may be able to start moving away from distributing a separate basic configuration. First, part of the reason for the basic configuration is to support lower-end hardware...and the performance/memory improvements in 8.0.2 standard configuration will help with that. Second, though, is that we've established a simple INI parameter that allows one installation -- of the standard configuration -- to be run in either standard or basic mode. Scott Vrusho, who manages the Notes/Domino maintenance release process, sent me over this quick write-up -- I like it:A new feature has been added to Notes 8.0.2 that allows customers to install the 8.0.2 Notes Standard client, but launch the Basic client based on a Notes.ini parameter UseBasicNotes=1. This notes.ini parameter will allow external programs that launch notes, such as a MailTo: URL, or launching an NSF file directly, to launch notes in Basic mode if UseBasicNotes=1 is set in the Notes.ini. This will allow customers to rollout a single package, but define which users will launch Basic vs Standard via this notes.ini parameter. For example, if a machine does not meet the hardware requirements of 8.0.2 Standard, but does for Basic, this will allow the client to launch in Basic mode until hardware has been upgraded, By default, this parameter is not in the notes.ini and will launch the Standard client if it is omitted or set to 0. Notes.ini parameters can be pushed out via administrative policy, which make it easier for customers to centrally control this feature.Thanks, Scott, and the engineering team -- this will help further with Notes 8 deployments. Posted by Ed Brill at 12:31:27 PM | Add/View Comments (15) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA September 1, 2008 Lotus Protector for Mail Security on YouTubeWant to find out more about this new Lotus product, launching very very soon? Senior Offerings Manager Arthur Fontaine is ready to show you, from his space-age studio on YouTube: I'll have more to say on Lotus Protector on launch day. Posted by Ed Brill at 10:06:37 AM | Add/View Comments (16) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA August 29, 2008 Lotus Symphony 1.1 is now availableJohn Head has caught this already...Lotus Symphony 1.1 is now available. Symphony 1.1 has a number of new features and bug fixes throughout the product. Symphony 1.2, still to come this year, will add support for Macintosh. More details here: Lotus Symphony 1.1 release notes > Posted by Ed Brill at 10:45:03 AM | Add/View Comments (5) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA ITworld: Google extends Apps Premier credit for Gmail outagesA detailed view of what has happened with Google's gmail / apps service over the last month, what Google's done to assuage customers, and how analysts view the actions:One outage, on Aug. 11, lasted about two hours but affected almost all Apps Premier users. The other two, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 15, hit a small number of Apps Premier users, but both outages were lengthy, lasting for some affected users more than 24 hours. In all of the incidents, users were unable to access their Gmail accounts, getting instead an error message when trying to log in. In Wednesday's letter, Google said that system reliability is a top priority and that, although it can't promise zero downtime, it commits to solving outages quickly. "More importantly, we promise you focused discipline on preventing recurrence of the same problem," the letter reads. In addition, Google plans to improve the way it informs Apps Premier administrators about system problems via a new dashboard that will become available in a few months. ... Google Apps critics question whether the suite can really provide enterprise-grade software availability and performance and thus be a real option in large companies to conventional, on-premise options like Microsoft's Office and Outlook/Exchange or IBM Lotus Notes/Domino. Google acknowledges that most Apps subscribers are individuals or small and medium-size organizations. However, the company has high hopes that the Premier edition, with its IT management and enterprise software integration features, will push into the enterprise market of large companies.When I've been asked by customers about my view of this space, I say that SaaS/cloud is important, the pricing/delivery model is interesting, but it will take time before Google -- or Cisco -- or any other vendor -- matures to provide the sophistication and flexibility of what we've learned from 20 years of distributed messaging environments. Besides, e-mail has moved to the fully commoditized space, so once we address this point, we can discuss things that will really contribute to business value -- collaboration, unified communications, and overall innovation. Link: ITworld: Google extends Apps Premier credit for Gmail outages > Posted by Ed Brill at 10:35:38 AM | Add/View Comments (2) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA Forrester teleconference: Notes Versus SharePoint: Shootout At The IT CorralForrester principal analyst Rob Koplowitz held a teleconference yesterday, entitled "Notes Versus SharePoint: Shootout At The IT Corral". Koplowitz has plenty of experience to draw upon for his subject matter -- he worked at IBM/Lotus, Oracle, and Microsoft all in the collaboration space, and is front-and-center in tracking collaboration in the market today. Rob has no agenda, and, unlike some analysts in this space, doesn't pursue a self-fulfilling agenda. That's why it's very validating to see one of his key messages:* I tell clients that IBM is committed to the Lotus brand. * The fog has cleared and IBM has doubled down...ramped up its core investment--massive R&D investment. * IBM is committed to Notes. They make a ton of dough and they will continue to make dough.While the teleconference was for Forrester subscribers, I'm looking forward to Rob's upcoming paper on this topic, and hope that we'll find a way to broadly distribute it. Link: Forrester teleconference: Notes Versus SharePoint: Shootout At The IT Corral > (Not yet available for download, even by Forrester clients, but wanted to put the link up) Posted by Ed Brill at 08:56:15 AM | Add/View Comments (1) | Permanent LinkLocation: Highland Park, IL USA Lotusphere 2009: Solutions Development LabMy friend and colleague Tim Clark is starting to plan for the Lotus solutions development lab at Lotusphere 2009:The Lotus Business Partner Technical Enablement Team each year creates a set of hands on labs for Lotusphere. These "labs" are your chance to come and kick the tyres of Lotus Software's products and talk with some product area experts. Unlike some of the "Meet the developer" labs, all our code and examples are here and now. You can take the skills you learn right back to your desk and start using them straight away. This year we are planning to have 10 seperate topics for you to "come and play" with.and then he writes, "Please tell us what you want." 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