IBM recently announced the continued support for Notes and
Domino through the year 2021. As we transition to the Cloud, and Verse becomes
more prominent, it is not surprising that we reach this apex.
Remember cc:mail? What about the IBM Notes Server? How about
Microsoft Mail? Windows for Workgroups? Palm Pilot? Apple Newton? Yes, the
technology landscape is filled with artifacts that were stepping stones to the
great products we have today. Every generation leads to newer, faster, leaner
(physical disk space size, ok, in this case quite the opposite!) improved
products.
While it is still in beta, Verse on Premises is that next
giant step forward. Does it include Domino? Just as much as Windows clients and
servers rely on DOS commands. Built for the future it is the direction IBM is
leading us. It is an exciting adventure filled with unknowns. Remember how
Domino, the beta Web server, became THE Domino server and brought us into the
Internet realm?
Well Verse is doing exactly this and bringing IBM and its
customers to the Cloud realm. So we drop a name or two and stop point releases,
outside of your admins and devs, who need to know to support the system, does
any user care what version they use? It is all about the Pokemon Go integration!
Seriously speaking, it is about being up to date with security and integration
points with tools everyone needs to get their daily lives and jobs
accomplished.
Ok, maybe some older products will fall by the wayside, just
like Domino.Doc led to Quickr which led in some ways to IBM Connections. Will
Toscana replace Sametime? Will the new deals IBM made with Box, Cisco and Genband
bring an end to the Sametime product line which I have been playing with since
it was in beta back in the mid 90’s? I can’t say for sure, but I can see where
the next generation needs to break free.
But life carries on, and so do we, as IBM customers,
Business Partners, and IBM Champions eagerly await the next generation of
products. Will they be based on SoftLayer and Bluemix? Maybe a new platform not
yet announced? Will Watson really know all about your projects and needs and
take care of them before you get to the office? I don’t know, but it sure is
fun guessing isn’t it? It would be nice to know that when you start a new job
your favorite candy is waiting for you? (Watson, remember, Candy Corn for me,
thanks!)
I am currently attending, and speaking, at the ICON UK event
in London held at IBM Southbank. Here, surrounded by the Big Blue Lovefest
crossed with the Yellowverse of Lotus fans we are producing that green with
envy feeling from people who wrote off IBM and Notes, to their sometimes
regret. Haters got to hate, and as an Enterprise your choices are few, is it
really in your interest to NOT look at what IBM has on offer today?
Box integration is nice, I am a DropBox user, but it is just
storage in the Cloud. I see no difference between them for my purpose. I prefer
to think that online storage will have a specific guideline so everyone can
universally use it, similar to how SMTP works across all servers. Many people
say “mail is ubiquitous”. If so, then why not use IBM Verse? Is it so against
your mindset to be open to the fact that the IBM fresh out of school whiz kids
are creating some future mail clients? In return people ask me why I don’t use
O365. I answer, I have, and on a personal level, I may one of these days, but
as a business, I don’t want an app that “just” does email and nothing else. I
prefer not to have the chaos of 20 mini apps to do what I could get from one
client and one solution. Now with the Cloud side this is getting harder than
when everything was on premises. This is the conundrum the developers and
futurists think about, how we achieve the full client experience, from a
browser. Indeed we will come full circle and that new generation of client and
integration is just starting to see the light.
My crystal ball is cloudy and the next few years, as the
last few, are steeped in random acts of genius crossed with WTF theories. The
end result will be smart, practical and integrated and anyone’s guess which
product or solution will be the winner. I hope it is IBM. As I watch the IBM of
old get younger and younger, they are working towards a better future for
everyone and not just a Smarter Planet.
