LotusLive Notes: Blogger reports and one powerful sentence
August 11 2010
I invited a few "Yellow bloggers" to a call yesterday to talk with the LotusLive team about the new LotusLive Notes offering. We had a great discussion about the new service, and for something that had been relatively in stealth mode before launch, the questions and ideas were very, very useful.
Several bloggers have written their own thoughts following the call, and you can go check out Peter Presnell, Darren Duke, Tom Duff, John Roling, and the others via PlanetLotus. I do want to call out Nathan Freeman's specifically, because he latched on to one of the most important architectural concepts of LotusLive Notes -- hybrid operation. Hybrid means a customer who is running some Domino on-premises (whether it is mail or other applications) and some LotusLive Notes in the cloud. And Nathan distills what sounds like it could be complicated (and is VERY complicated in the Exchange world, and non-existent in the Google world) down to:
Here's what you need to integrate your on-premises Domino implementation with LLN: an OU certifier and a single Domino server in the DMZ.There's more to his post, of course, but the essence is captured.
So, great stuff, great questions, great first day feedback. I know some people objected to my rather bold assertion that LotusLive Notes + LotusLive Engage puts us ahead of the pack in cloud collaboration. I know we have to prove this out by delivering and winning customers. We've done some of that already, and we'll be naming names. But when I look at what our competition offers, I know that we are in fact leading out front from a technology and flexibility perspective. As you check out the service, you'll see this as well.
Post a Comment
- 3
Nathan T. Freeman http://ntf.gbs.com | 8/11/2010 10:29:41 AM
@1 - The same single management tool that Domino administrators have used for decades now: the Directory.
I'm curious how the Exchange hybrid model addresses the need to get through the DMZ, Paul. Domino does it securely because there's already a PKCS and protocol encryption built-in to the product. So there's no VPN requirement at all. Setting up a Domino server to use as pass-thru takes 20 minutes if you know what you're doing and four hours if you're a lobotomized marmoset.
So please, enlighten us on how you connect Microsoft's cloud environment securely to an internal Exchange environment and automatically transition users between the two. I'm eager to hear it.
- 4
ken http://www.keysolutions.com/blogs/kenyee.nsf | 8/11/2010 10:41:59 AM
I'm curious how Exchange's hybrid model works as well, especially since we all know that Exchange is mainly C&S/email and Notes is a RAD app environment to users...i.e., do you write apps in IIS and it magically does hybrid SSO?
And most Domino companies who have an email/web presence already have a system in a DMZ...typically for Notes mail or smartphone mail as well so this "requirement" isn't a big deal ;-)
- 5
Troy Fulkerson | 8/11/2010 11:15:24 AM
Any chance of offering free or at a discount to non-profits?
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Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 8/11/2010 11:29:27 AM
@1, from the MS Exchange 2010 site { Link } :
"Microsoft is committed to the Software-plus-Services strategy, empowering you to choose when and how you take advantage of on-premises, hosted, cloud-based, and hybrid solutions without interrupting or changing the experience for your users"
A bit vague don't you think? And what is the difference between "hosted" and "cloud"? I think IBM (and Nathan) have articulated HOW IBM will accomplish this I have yet to see a detailed discussion of this for Exchange.
- 8
Erik Brooks | 8/11/2010 11:42:15 AM
Holy. Crap.
I disconnect for a couple of days and what's this?
I was *totally* expecting IBM to add at least a layer or two of bolt-on tech (ala Quickr/Connections) in order to enable a hybrid model. I wasn't expecting you to simply leverage the existing tech because, well, that just hasn't been the IBM way over the past several years.
This is huge. IBM just ate its own dog food in a BIG way. More specifically, it's eating the *Lotus* dog food.
This is quite possibly the most exciting step for the N/D platform, both tactically and strategically, in a long time.
The next thing you know you'll start a grassroots appdev movement amongst the young crowd. Or an app store. :-)
Congratulations to everybody involved. You guys should be able to sell the holy buhjeesus outta this.
- 9
norm van bergen | 8/11/2010 11:59:01 AM
Just an OU and a DMZ (assuming passthru here) server? That's it? Nice! Shades of Lotus Notes Network there (yeah, I know that was a cross-certified model, but you get what I mean...)
- 10
Mark Lepisto | 8/11/2010 3:02:58 PM
@1 - Sorry to burst your bubble but I would bet that nearly every corporate Notes/Domino infrastructure already has a Pass-Thru server in their DMZ, if only for things like Notes Net and cross-certifying with business partners.
This announcement from IBM, for the vast majority of Notes shops means that we can leverage what we already have. So any accusation that it requires 'dedicated hardware' is a stretch.
- 11
Mark Barton http://www.markbarton.com | 8/12/2010 6:47:52 AM
What caught my attention was the included Notes client licence.
Assuming a client goes for a complete cloud based solution, does this open up the opportunity for partners to host applications with local replicas on the clients - think the Adobe Air model with data services being hosted in the cloud. Would make an application catalogue allot more critical.
A couple of issues might surround network ports etc. - assuming a small business will not want to mess around too much with firewalls and the management of the client installations.
Just a thought.
- 12
Thomas Coustenoble http://coustenoble.typepad.com | 8/12/2010 10:42:42 AM
Excellent, just posted something on my blog too, trying to give 7 reasons to choose IBM LotusLive for online collaboration. Still need simple communication here (as different offerings, options, bundles...), any visual communication done around mobile support (who said iPad again? :-) and business apps integration (from partners like Salesforce.com, skype...) is always something users are excited about (and marketers too)
@8 love the App store idea
- 13
Michael Falstrup http://www.intelliglobe.dk | 8/12/2010 4:06:28 PM
@8 and @12
Its already there, { Link } and one for websites based on Domino specific { Link }
Just need some IBM Love and support like they do for IdeJam and OpenNtf.org and it could be a major step ahead.
- 14
GarryL | 8/12/2010 6:38:56 PM
Wow, lots to take in! Cool stuff!
One thing that I would really like to to know though - the hybrid model of keeping your apps local and mail etc in the cloud would really work well for us and I keep hearing that there is an upgrade/licensing change if you want to do that from your Enterprise CAL. Is this the same for Express licences?
- 16
GarryL | 8/13/2010 2:31:39 AM
@15 Cool, thanks!
- 17
Patrick Darke http://thenewdominoadmin.com | 8/13/2010 6:05:22 AM
How can I find out who my IBM Lotus Rep is?
- 19
Patrick Darke http://www.thenewdominoadmin.com | 8/13/2010 11:34:23 AM
Thanks Ed,
I am having a meeting with a business partner on Tuesday to cover exactly the scope defined above in a hybrid model. This is very attractive to solutioning for our Brazian operational arm.
Cheers.
- 21
Paul Robichaux http://www.robichaux.net | 8/16/2010 9:06:50 AM
@3: management happens with WS-Man (through WinRM), meaning that you need TCP port 443 open and that's it. With no firewall changes, I can use a single instance of the Exchange Management Console (or the Exchange Management Shell, another feature with no Domino equivalent) to manage my on-premises Exchange servers or the domains that are hosted by MS. I don't know what the LotusLive Notes equivalent of this is, if there is one.
@6: in MS S+S land, "hosted" means a third party provides it, and "cloud" means MS provides it; at least that's this week's definition AFAICT. If you want to know how dirsync works, check out { Link } for a decent, if somewhat dated, overview.
@7: fair point, except that MS has already been running Exchange 2010 for Live@EDU/Exchange Labs customers for, what, 18 months now? There are already several million hosted Exchange 2010 mailboxes running on Exchange 2010, just not on BPOS.
@10; not an accusation, just a question.
@11: this is one weakness in MS' current strategy; their online offering doesn't include an Outlook client license, and IMHO it should… unless their secret plan is to get as many people as possible running OWA vice Outlook.
If you need a dedicated gateway server to go hybrid with LotusLive Notes, you're already more complicated than the Exchange hybrid model. It strikes me that this would make a great topic for a blog post, presuming that the hybrid config process for LotusLive Notes is well-documented.
I can already tell you that unless LotusLive Notes allows you to manage your on-prem and cloud "halves" from a single management tool (and it might; I don't know) that you're behind, but you probably knew that.