What Happens at Lotusphere...

...Should NOT stay at Lotusphere!

Sure, there was no heavy announcement about Rnext or even with regard to some products any details on their futures, at least in the main sessions. Some specific sessions on topic did include roadmaps but let's see what did come out of the 'Sphere and what you should be bringing to customers all year long.

Project Vulcan? no, not a product yet, more an idea and while we can discuss it, I prefer to see it as a truly universal inbox for email, videos, sametime, twitter and more with internal and external feeds seamlessly integrated. I may be wrong and it may turn into something completely different.

Traveler, especially for iPhone users, and soon Android, remains a key reason why customers are upgrading from R6,R7 even R8 (I have one going from R5 even)! My discussions with some IBM execs showed that IBM really does see the future is mobile and will work very hard to be more up to date with the latest and greatest toys, I mean phones.

Mobile is not only critical but cool too. Finally.

LotusLive is the future and IBM is really expanding the offer for LotusLive Notes to include a full Notes client with sameitme, calendaring, etc.., and even BES options and dropped the minimum down to 25 from 1,000 users. This should stop any customers looking at going to Exchange or Google, if for no other reason than the fear of migration and the lack of infrastructure required to have it this way. The Cloud may still be a ways off for some, but others I think will jump at this chance and they probably should.

Websphere is out in the public and IBM did an excellent job of not making a big deal about it. It should be this way. You as the customer want a solution, the back end should really not matter. Besides that is what we as business partners are here for.

Quickr is evolving further, 8.5 is in beta and I have it up and running but I can't tell you where without NDA from IBM. So if you have questions let me know. The plus side RIM has made a client available for Quickr and Connections which will cost a little money and looks really good. I still don't have a copy so don't ask, I will review it once I get a copy.

Windows Mobile as a device OS is dying so don't get it unless you have no choice.

Linux is growing, my netbook is solely Ubuntu as is a server on the rack. An excellent idea from Joe Litton and Bill Machilsky to help people go to Linux was done on the last day of Lotusphere and hopefully will become something bigger next year. My personal view of Linux has become much more favorable since using the Ubuntu version. Not my primary device but it is really nice to do everything there just like on Windows, but it's all free and for those non-IT geeks, mostly graphical.

So Lotusphere is done, but you can carry it on all year long. Attend events, comment on blogs, post requests, answer questions, host a proof of technology or a lunch and learn at your office, do a webinar on how to use the Notes client for the other 85% of what it can do aside from email and calendar/scheduling.

If you need help, just ask, some Lotus user groups have asked me to speak or submit sessions for their events this year and if I can help you with yours, I will too.

Linux help from IBM

I brought my netbook to LS10 and did not realize that some updates killed my installation. EDITED: I was on ubuntu 9.04 but didn't disable the autoupdates and ended up at 9.10.

Lucky for me there was an IBM lab, on the 6th floor of the Dolphin which was for IBMers looking to turn their laptops over to Linux. Lucky for me, they worked with me to resolve the issue I had as well.

A technote was issued to resolve this but you might need some help.

Thanks to Evy Torres of IBM for her help. See the IBM Linux team at their Ped and take the Linux challenge.

Also thanks to Bill Machilsky for his help as well in answering my numerous questions.

S10e on Linux is Coming with Me to Lotusphere

After a year without Microsoft Office and only using Lotus Symphony I decided for Lotusphere to build my Ideapad on Linux.

Ubuntu distribution. Only thing I might not be able to do is use the client VPNs. Otherwise it's a Linux Lotusphere for me.

Notes, Sametime and a handful of other pieces all to go inside by Sunday.

Go on, you know you want to do it also.

Thanks again to Darren Duke for pushing me to do it a few weeks back when I posted how to do it.

Dear IBM DeveloperWorks

I want my DVD's back!

To be more exact, I want my 2009 SEK and I want it now! Well, if it is coming out soon, I can wait another month or 2.

SEK is Software Evaluation Kit. Site is here.

For those that do not know, this is an EXCELLENT piece of marketing for customers!It comes as a pair of DVD's with a full list of code, trial versions, in Windows and Linux versions with code from DB2, Websphere, Rational and of course, Lotus.

Now before you all go crazy and say download what you need from this excellent IBM download site, think about this:

Why is this important to me? Because I support clients going back to R5.
So you ask? Well, where else would I have various client and server versions of historic nature to rebuild a lost server code or test with? And this is nicely setup and on a gatefold dvd(used to be cd's years ago).
Plus I don't waste my time downloading over 30 products or having to find space to put it all or the time to burn it or store it.

Also, for those that want to parallel Linux/Windows environments, as I am doing now for a client, it is a great way to ensure you know what is and isn't on Linux. but always check latest updates just in case as these are usually twice a year issued.

IBM, I understand this costs money and the shipping is free when these are requested, but how much can the whole program costs vs. the benefits from even one company picking up ANY of the software on it?

MS Office Delayed...till 2010...if...maybe?

Twitter is so full of information it is hard to remember to post some of it.
Not in this case.

So Office 2007 was to be followed up with a quick, um, refresh might be a good word, and out in 2009. But not so fast, it looks like it is definitely pushed to 2010. January 1 or December 32nd is the question, my bet is on Q2/Q3 which happens to fall around their fiscal year.

Could it be Microsoft was looking to stop the 4-5 year cycle so their Software Assurance customers wouldn't have to complain, yet again, that they wasted all that money for nothing. And it IS quite a bit of money one can waste.

Just like the extra warranty you don't need from the dealer/store, you don't need the SA from Microsoft either.

Sure someone will say they are waiting for their "Cloud" to be ready or maybe the next rendition of Sharepoint, either way, what are they promising you that you have to PAY them to wait for it?

Drop Office, I have, pick up Lotus Symphony or Star office or anything else really. Make Microsoft work for your money, don't just give it to them and get nothing in return.

I have a client going to take a Ubuntu Linux desktop setup based on one I am showing him from my office. Why? Because they realized that a call center with multiple copies of Office and Windows gets real expensive fast especially when you are using it only for a mail client and a word processor.

Messaging as a Commodity

A commodity is anything for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a given market. From Wikipedia.

Lots of people argue these days email is just a commodity. A commodity which destroys people's concentration when it is not flowing or buzzing in their Blackberry. But users never care which system they are on and thus the commodity theory. "It's just email who cares what system we use".

Fine.

I beg to differ and strongly believe Lotus Domino provides that differentiation for email.

I have cc:mail server cd's from over 10 years ago for you to use for your corporation email. What? You need it to handle more than 100 people on a server? Why would you want that? Email's a commodity, you should have 100's of servers of course because as a vendor that is what we recommend to our clients. Here's some MS Mail cd's and some Groupwise ones and....you get the picture. A commodity with an ever growing requirement list. Toilet paper should have this many requirements as a commodity.

Don't log in to your eemail for personal or business reasons through a client for a week and see how you survive, it's not like orange juice in the morning.

I don't buy into the email is a commodity, if it were a commodity there would be 100's of types and proper standards. But there isn't really when it comes down to it for corporations. Consumers it is a commodity, a web based one at that as well.

Most companies in business today would argue they require 100% uptime and Business Continuity.

Ideally if you had your choice of how to maintain your data/email/databases/website so it could be accessible 100% of the time, you might want to think about these areas and if your current commodity solution can work in this way:

1. Built-in capability of replicating/synchonization of your databases and data to any other server
2.anywhere in the world
3.at any time
4.across multiple streams of telecommunication (TCP/IP, Dialup/Modem, X.25 or most any data standard of the last 30 years)
5.the ability to clsuter across over 6 different operating systems and their variations (zSeries, pSeries, iSeries, SUN, Windows Servers, Linux choices) and/or legacy applications (Novell and OS/2). (Yes, OS/2 is still used in some places)

In a Lotus Domino world you do have many options and clustering and failover which is not just for email, but your applications and instant messaging/conferencing as well. Again not a commodity solution.

If your messgaing system is a commodity, or you think your BES is one, or IM is just a toy, you will not increase your budget. But if you can show how you can produce full uptime, tools for business usage like audio/video conferencing and on any platform necessary, there is no limit on price for this and your budget should get rewarded.

No commoditiy solutions need apply.