In Place upgrade of Windows for Exchange? NOT

Thanks to VoWe for finding this. For the most part it discusses Exchange support in Windows 2008.

The simple detail is you can not run Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008 R2 until 2nd half of 2010. Exchange 2003 however is good to go now.

They must really have screwed up Exchange 2007.
Later in the post comes this request, which most people have asked for from the start:

Finally I do want to update all on one other piece of feedback we have received - allowing the in place upgrade of the operating system under Exchange. Technically the work required to provide this capability is consistent with the work we would need to do to support an in-place upgrade of Exchange itself. As such the amount of work needed is outside the scope and complexity of what we can do in a post release product update. Still we do understand the demand and desire and it is something we will continue to look at for future versions of the product.

In other words, too bad, we don't care, go buy new hardware and pay your Microsoft Business partners more money.

Sometimes I wish IBM would do this, then I remind myself that while it would make us more money, it also makes life much harder as we would have to convince customers to upgrade which as can be seen, if there is such usage of Windows 2003 still, the Microsoft faithful don't sound so faithful do they?

The End Game of Migration

We get a call from a 3rd party, rarely the client, asking us to manage a companies Lotus infrastructure for 3-6 months. Should be the client, we are trying to figure out how to market to the SMB and unknown Lotus customers, thus my post the other day about SEO.

My usual reply is why/when are they going to Exchange/Sharepoint? Prescient I know.

Usually they are small shops that use only mail, but sometimes I recognize the company and KNOW they have applications too. So what's going on?

Sharepoint? .Net? Gmail?

Our job is to smooth the integration between Domino and whatever the client is going to be using in the future. Ideally we never go on site for this, after all if you are leaving this excellent mail system for another one, we are just caretakers now. If we were on site, we would fix your environment, then you would look bad for leaving it.

(There is really no need for us to be on site more than once a week for meetings for reasons I will detail in some other post.)

Integration? "No, we don't want integration, we are dropping Lotus" each client says. Really I inquire. have you thought about....and any number of routes take place after I listen to them explain why they are doing it.

The truth is, unless they really ONLY use it for email(and even in these cases sometimes), Domino is going to be hanging around for a while.

Why is this? A few reasons:

1) Fear - What if Exchange/Sharepoint/Gmail is, OMG, worse! Or the users revolt or a million other ideas that pop into people's heads.

2) Complexity - What's so complex about email? Well Calendar and Scheduling can be troublesome and in some companies the Lotus resource database is the best thing out there for scheduling conference rooms, training etc.

3) Applications - Naturally they say they will rewrite the apps. In 15+ years of this I have heard way more stories of companies spending millions to go to a different platform only to find nothing worked as well or robustly as their Domino apps. Don't believe me and in the middle of it now or thinking about it? Email me, I can connect you with some large companies that do nearly all development on Domino.

4) Time - Sure you could cut over everyone in a weekend, even a day. But you big companies will never do that of course. So the process drags on for a long time, years in fact based on various reports. Small companies can do it quicker, but they fear upheaval so it also take a little bit of time.

5) Time #2 - Here is where the integration kicks in. If you do not cut over everyone at once, you add some expenses to the mix. The Connector between Exchange and Domino must get put in or you have some fidelity issues, of course you can work around it for free using Domino. However, most Microsoft Business Partners will tell you to install(with yet more licenses and CALs and hardware) the connector to integrate the directories between AD and Domino.

6) BES - Blackberry users cause you to also have a 2nd BES in place, one for Domino and one for Exchange. Sure once everyone moves off the old one you can repurpose it, but in the mean time it means more money, hardware, licenses, support.

7) Fax - Lotus Fax Server or some other specific version for Domino would require new hardware, licenses and services/support to now have 2 routes, one for each system.

8) More reasons and some of you out there can add to this in various ways.

So the next time you or your boss or client says they need short term help for the migration, think again and realize a partner that has done it and can manage it for you properly may just make your life easier.

Where did you go wrong?

Ever wonder why companies move to Exchange or Gmail for email? I often ponder this as well. I also deal with it weekly, sometimes too late in the game to save the poor souls.

I can understand the feeling that "it's just email", which we all know is not the way to keep a company on Domino. If they really only use it for email, they will leave Lotus eventually. Shame on me, you, IBM and others for not encouraging more workflow and application solutions in their earlier days of the network.

Maybe it stems from politics. A new CIO,or more likely a new CEO. They want "Outlook". Notice they never say "Exchange". DAMO (Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook) allows for your users to have Outlook and run a superior server on the back end....Domino. The CXO will never know. Yet rarely does this get done.

The admin left, got fired, the server is in the middle of nowhere and thus it is difficult to find a Domino admin. A lame excuse if I ever heard one, yet also commonly put out as a reason for dropping Domino. If you are reading this and this is your predicament, call me NOW! Because of a similar situation we have hired 3 people around the country to cover these types of situations.

Server crashes all the time. I don't think so. Not if you have set it up properly, maintained it properly and of course cluster it which would mean you have 100% uptime.

The Client crashes all the time. Not on every one's machine. Just like Windows, Java or any other program if you have a problem, fix it. When your car gets a flat tire, do you trade it in for a new car? Again, if this sounds like you, call me NOW!

The UI is ancient. Really? So a tabbed interface is ancient? which is why Microsoft and Apple and Firefox use it? Show me another mail client you can manipulate what you see and move things around, not to mention dock or undock pieces and parts to anyplace on your desktop. Sorry that is the R8/8.5 UI. You probably have an R5 or R6 or R7 client which your IT staff has failed to upgrade in years and thus you are stuck in an old client.

And Outlook 2003, going on 6 years old now, is really new, isn't it.

Yes, if this is the case call NOW and we will help you, against your IT staff's wishes move to R8. Hang on, you can do it for yourself, go download it from IBM's Lotus site.

"Sharepoint is our strategic direction". Excuse me while I fall on the floor laughing. I had someone recently give me that line and I asked if they could elaborate on what that meant or quantify it in a value and ROI way. Received a nasty look and they walked away. Next time I should not ask about the ROI I guess.

What should you be doing more regularly with your customers, especially the ones only using Domino for email?

Talk to your clients, but listen once you have them in a discussion and let them lead you more to a solution they envision which will be much easier to "sell" to them afterward.

Show them. Try pointing them to an app on your website, encourage dialogue to find how an application can fit into their world. Xpages apps, even simple ones will go far.

Communicate with them. Send them links to openntf.org and ask them what they want to try to use.

Show them again, planetlotus.org and your favorite developers blog posts.

If you really get stuck, skip over your contact and go for the CXO directly so they can't say no one ever tried to talk to them or show them what is out there for them. After all you have nothing to lose at this point.

Fud Buster Friday #34 - My Blackberry is FASTER than my Mail Client

Notice I didn't say Lotus Notes or Exchange. Yet how many complain about this and trash their mail server to go elsewhere?

I got asked this question in an interview once by a company which I really would love to work for some day.

A company was debating their future infrastructure, typical Exchange vs. Domino and asked what affects Blackberry notifications? Why do some execs (it's always execs isn't it? even my CEO has one) get email seconds or minutes before their mail client? Why would 2 people in the same meeting get notifications seconds or minutes apart?

Admittedly a loaded question, but it gets to the core of understanding messaging, telecom, wireless, devices, infrastructure and customers.

Here is my answer: As much as RIM would like to be able to say it's faster, it just isn't. Well not exactly. Where do you think your email is going first? Usually to your corporate email.

No matter what your email server, your admins, if they are smart enough, limit how often you can hit the server to replicate or for those MS impaired, synchronize. This helps server performance, network bandwidth and other aspects of performance in general. What it doesn't help is the user who absolutely, positively MUST have his email in seconds of it coming in to their inbox.

So let's say you can replicate every 5 minutes. Your Blackberry polls every (EDITED per comment)20 seconds. Now if you use Notes or Exchange on a server, and not locally, you will get notified, although not necessarily that it shows up in your inbox until refreshed. Blackberry wins.

If you run your email locally you must wait for the server to send you the email and that can be at anytime as specified by the admin or your client. Again Blackberry wins.

What about 2 people in the same meeting? Let's put aside they might have 2 different networks(Verizon, AT&T, etc.) and use the same devices. Which by the way is almost impossible as each carrier has tweaked the devices and use different networks. The next point of delay is the BES itself and it's proximity to one's mail file. Perhaps the 2 execs are on different machines for BES and even their mail and one is a slower machine or busier. There is also the possibility that each user has a different size inbox which can also affect the time to arrival on a device. You get the idea.

What astounds me is the executives who say this never happens in Outlook. Forgetting they mean Exchange, of course. I remind them that Exchange would not like their 20GB+ mail file they love in Lotus Notes. Imagine trying to search it on Exchange, if it could handle it at all efficiently.

What does one have to do with another anyway?

BES is slow, must be Lotus fault? And that logic would lead you to believe sales are down we should fire all the sales people and get new ones. There may be some truth in both opinions, but not much sense.

So is Blackberry faster than your email client? Do you really care? Is that really where you want to be spending your time and resources right now?

In the future you may only be using wireless as your medium of choice, if you are not already, and you will never know if it is fast or slow.

But you probably still hate it when someone gets an email before you....don't you?

Rebuilding a laptop is like Converting to Exchange

Sorry, laptop ran out of batteries and caused some problems. Here is the post.
It's just painful, especially when you didn't plan properly(we know it wasn't YOUR fault).
For admins even more painful is the magnitude of problems they will face.
Especially if you have missed a step or in my case a file or maybe 2.

Clients don 't think about the fact you now have to manage multiple servers compared to one previously(or multiply by at least 2 for moving off Notes to Exchange if ALL you want/use is Exchange, otherwise multiply by at least 4 to get the full package).

In my case I have multiple backups and drives now after getting my HP laptop returned with a new screen hinge, and a new drive(thanks tigerdirect for the 320GB for $60, maybe even get one for my ideapad) but these are killing me as none will "fix" vista. Not that XP is better, but I am better prepared now for the next backup. Bought an external 2.5" case and that works really well. But I digress.

So you have to get your whole network updated to 2008. But you knew that going in...didn't you? No? Your Microsoft rep forgot to tell you that one? And your Business Partner suddenly hit you up for extra consulting fees too? All this to change email platforms, now you have to upgrade your whole infrastructure of Microsoft pieces or nothing will talk to properly? You don't say.

Likewise I am reinstalling drivers and software and it is taking MUCH longer than expected. If I had only made the effort before hand to test my backup I would have noticed the thing missed some open files. Or had the external case.

I know some of you are thinking loser, and you are right. But there is no fun like reinstalling anything Microsoft. So much so I am tempted to try the MAC osX idea and dual boot my machine.

The moral of this story is I brought this mess on myself because of the following reasons(in no particular order) and most of the same goes to you if you are moving off of Domino:

1) I trusted my backup solution (The White House lost emails are legendary, they should have stuck with Lotus)
2) Microsoft told me their software could back up my drive and transfer my data and I believed them, well i wanted to at least, figured they could get this right...WRONG.(I could put almost anything here I guess that Microsoft says which is never reality for 2 more releases....or 5 years)
3) Listen to your friends on Twitter every time or Sametime.
4) HP made me do it, I didn't want to send them my hard drive (Substitute your favorite quote from lousy analyst companies and blame them)
5) It was done on the cheap and may just end up as a cutover and not a migration(how MANY migrations from Lotus end up this way because companies "suddenly" realize what they got into and can't change their budget(for 2-3x more) later in the cycle?
6) I read that other business people (Thanks Bilal for your tale of woe)sent their laptops back and had problems but this would never happen to me. (Other companies committed to Microsoft and never moved or have taken YEARS to do so, that won't happen to us....Riiiiight)
7) I like my new Ideapad so much I just can't go back to the old laptop. Just kidding, I do love it, but working on it the last week or so has reminded me why it is for TRAVELING. And the Ideapad is inheriting the 120GB from the HP soon and that is really needed on it.
8) My kids(clients) like the new stuff. (If you don't keep your server updated NOW by running older versions of Domino, what makes you think you will keep it updated on the new solution? Right you HAVE to otherwise the rest of your infrastructure will stop talking to each other)

So learn from my woes, spend the $10 and get an external drive case to do a perfect backup of your drive next time.

If only I could cluster my laptops, but that's a whole other post.

Microsoft Stores Live POC

I see my friend Bilal, of the Lotus Foundations team already posted on this, but let's see it in a different light.

As many know by now, Microsoft plans on having stores, a la Apple.

What they may be thinking is the new hardware they are coming out with will really impress everyone. We should only be so lucky to see those new Microsoft mouse and keyboard designs.(in spirit of truth in writing, I have a wireless Microsoft keyboard/mouse combo and they work fine).

What do they think they can accomplish? Better yet, who will be working there? I would bet not the best and brightest of Redmond. Thus easy pickings for anyone that wants to go convert a bunch of customers to Lotus or any other product.

Just imagine going in there and asking why Exchange or Sharepoint for that matter can't send a 100MB attachment or store it without causing issue. I know someone will say they do it, but I bet the store limits attachments to 10MB or something small.
So go test and have fun.

While you are at it, ask them to show you in a graphical representation the network architecture in the store which will enable them to use Sharepoint with Exchange. Raise your hand if you think it's only 2 servers. Sorry you must be a CIO in Microsoft's pocket if you still think that! Go read my other posts start here and get your head around how much it will cost and how many cals, licenses, servers you will need.
Lotus has you on this one Redmond.

What I think you may see from the stores, potentially, is a POC location. Every store, quite easily, could be rolled out with ALL the products running and in synch and easily shown or detailed live so customers can see it does all work together so well. But remember to count the # of servers, it will be staggering. Even if they use a central one, which we know they can't because Exchange and Sharepoint do not play well across a WAN, it will still be interesting to see.

Also will they ban people like me from their stores fort harassing the "tech" staff?

Fud Buster Friday #21 - No One uses iNotes/Webmail/DWA

In a recent encounter on Twitter I was discussing with an individual who harbored the false perception that no one uses iNotes or Domino Web Access or Webmail or whatever you want to call the browser based access to one's Domino mail.

Should have asked him if he meant no one uses OWA, the Outlook Web Access.

Many college campuses use Webmail, as do numerous hospitals, logistics companies, manufacturing plants and regular everyday users.

Why? Because they can do so with little effort on the administrator's side, especially in R8 where there is only one template now for web and non-web usage.

Compared to Microsoft where one usually has separate servers specially setup to run OWA, Lotus Domino servers can handle the dual connections of web and Notes client access. Admittedly some earlier servers, say over 5 years ago, limited the #'s on a machine, today I have a client with over 2,000 people(we expect scaling to 2,500-3,000) on one mail server and it houses multiple clients, templates and access form the web, phones and notes clients.

Oh and it runs on Linux and did this as an R7 and now even better as an R8 server.

If you have a Microsoft Exchange server which can do all of this and does...let's hear about it.

The Lotus Pinball Machine

You pull the mouse plunger and watch the tcp/ip ball of data roll around your network surface searching for ways to collaborate and thus score more points(money/revenue) for you and your team.
Make sure you hit the data with the appropriate reply settings(flippers) and try to knock down all the targets on the left side (Exchange, Sharepoint, Office, Outlook, SQL and especially BOB) and the right side (123, Improv, Organizer, cc:Mail and of course e-suite).

If you can get up the middle ramp your email can flow and connect to the internet mode in which a Lotus Mail Protector device which uses a magnet drags your data to the top left corner of the table where you can bounce off the SMTP bumpers and Anti-Virus pop-ups to see if indeed you can crash your server with one too many hops.

After it leaves this zone it may get sucked into the Agent/Mail Rules hole. Now the fun begins, you need to watch fast as you never know if it will pop out of the Trash hole, the Filed Folder hole or the OOO hole. Once found you can continue on your mission which is to reduce your total cost of ownership by hitting the right drop lane where the Symphony kicker is waiting to put the data back in play, while reducing your overhead and thus making you more money.

If you have made it this far, I ran out of time but please comment with some updates for this.
I hope you have a great new year and have enjoyed my postings.
See you in Lotusphere!

Real Life Client Migration Case Study - In Progress #1

Again, thanks to some discussions I have recently with various Yellowbleeders decided to post about a client of ours.
No name or anything and even if they read this they will never know it's them, sadly many are similar.

After some projects, and general IT work with the company, our sales guy follows up with them on some ideas from past discussions only to be hit with the now infamous line "We're moving to Exchange....can you help us?"

Sales guy says sure, but you guys are losers.(he didn't say that but we all think it)
In this economy money is going to come from some funny places and at least in this case it will be a long process and some upgrades on the Lotus side will get done.

So we hear this from the lead IT manager, not the CTO mind you or the VP of IT who he is running interference for or from our admin contacts.

We agree to have a conference call to discuss pitfalls, issues, thoughts time frame, etc. We did the call and came off that call wondering what really goes through people's minds.

They are doing this because they want to use Sharepoint and were told it would not interact with Notes. Well, sure not as well as Exchange but that isn't really the point as was pointed out to them that they both can have a nice coexistence.

See the graphic on top, that was the manager. They have a dispersed infrastructure which they want to bring to a central data center and consolidate 8-10 servers down to 4.

Sure, we let them continue and point out problems along the way. BES? Yes? Ok so you need a BES server too in the mix(they want to test the Exchange Push Email, our MS certified Partner asked them to heavily rethink that idea in favor of BES due to among other ideas security and performance/server costs. Maybe a Microsoft Connector for Lotus Notes Server too.
Client: We need a SQL server too? For what?!
Me: Didn't Microsoft tell you anything before promising it all? You can't expect your whole architecture to work without all the pieces of the puzzle?

And by the way, the licenses and CAL's which are promised to you for free in Year 1, guess when the bill comes in for them? Yes that's right year 2.

And they hadn't thought about what to do with their applications on Domino? Consolidate it now? Don't you think if you wanted to do that you could have previously? Why the rush now?

Everyone has broadband. I love this line, so US centric.
I reminded them that more than half of their IT data center's were outside the US, some in paces with barely a 64k line in place. Suggested they test some point to point applications like even their email files and see how they enjoy it now because when they load in Exchange it will only be worse. Again my Microsoft BP stated that to the client as well. He does my job so well sometimes it's amazing he plays for the dark side team.

This is an ongoing project/discussion and more will come out but for now, this is a good place to start. Questions or want more info, leave me comments and I can fill in some blanks.

Fud Buster Friday Lucky #13 - Exchange is Everywhere

SO WHAT! Microsoft laughs to the bank every single day because your CFO doesn't talk to the CIO or CTO about why this solution must get rebuilt every few years.

Why does this sway your CXO's mind so easily?
What causes people to have a herd mentality and be so fiscally irresponsible?

Yes, Windows is almost everywhere.
But when a new version comes out it doesn't FORCE you to upgrade your hardware. Naturally more RAM is always nice but you don't HAVE to go buy a 64-bit laptop to run it.

If I knew I had to go out and purchase new equipment and redesign my network every 3-4 years JUST FOR EMAIL because the vendor required it, why would that be a good business decision on my part? And if you argue it does more than just email, I would counter with the premise that you now MUST UPDATE YOUR WHOLE INFRASTRUCTURE!

I want a consistent solution from a company that wants to limit my downtime, reduce my expenses, and provide upgrades which I can maintain in a reasonable fashion with minimal disruption to me, my staff or my end users. I have that with Lotus Notes & Domino and ALWAYS have had it from day one.

The next time you hear your executive talking about going to Exchange, ask them about how they feel about the "solution" from Microsoft and the expense related to it that just keep billing you and billing you and billing you.

Who has older versions running, Exchange or Domino?

About a year ago, just before R8 came out, IBM made this announcement:

More than 93 percent of Lotus Notes customers are using the most recent two releases

So presumably almost everyone was on R6(which came out in 2003) and R7 and this perhaps ONLY included those paying for maintenance or support.
My luck I know the 7% on R5 but moved them to R7 and R8 this year.

Anyway, Microsoft in contrast, has about 25% or more still on Exchange 2000 which is now 2 revisions back. Did IBM get marketing right this time?
I posted about this previously here.

As a comparison, Exchange 5.5 came out in 1997, about 11 years ago.
Based on this article from 2005 this has been going on for some time with large chunks not willing to Migrate forward.

The difference between an upgrade and a migration varies but IMHO if can upgrade a software product in place with no extra hardware requirements(aside from RAM or Disk space) that is an upgrade. If I must move to a different platform or require middle man servers or other systems to complete this task, then it's a migration.

Then we have clients that have committed to Microsoft to move off of Lotus platforms, yet as Ed points out, not all have moved or if they have not entirely.

What if there is a correlation between these ideas. Can Microsoft, the epitome of a Marketing machine to those of us on the outside, not actually sell their own products to their own customers?

Perhaps Vista's marketplace issues really stem from a broader problem within Microsoft that has been hidden away for some time but now is leaking out. No matter how much money or stars they can strut in front of us, the problem may be an internal flaw.

Known for announcing something long before it sees the light of day, Azure for example is at least a year from general availability, could they be digging their own hole?

I have some ideas about what they can do, but why should I give them all of my free advice. I figure a potential market valued at $464,000,000! (Total is $1,856,000,000 based on this study from Microsft and Radicati) is worth something, don't you?

2 job postings, big $$$, Lotus/Exchange and IBM Content Manager

Haven't done this in a while, but you know what they say, help a brother or sister out and you will see it returned. And if nothing else I posted something this week before Friday's Fudbuster #4.
Tell them Keith sent you :-)

Job #1) (I have much more detsails on this one, email me if interested)
Looking to hire a Systems Architect with Exchange 2007 and Lotus Notes background for the San Ramon area in Northern California . This position is permanent, paying at least $125K.

The client, a global leader of infrastructure software for the enterprise, is changing the fundamental way information is processed allowing organizations to both monetize the value of their information and protect the associated risks. Founded in 1996 with a vision that the ability to process unstructured information would become a strategic must-have, The client has grown into one of the most valuable software companies in the world with a market capitalization of $4 billion. Recognized as the market share leader in enterprise search and e-mail archiving, The client has a global customer base of 17,000, with more than 400 partners and 300 OEMs across all software sectors.

Scott Tomtania, MBA, CSP
Phone: 925.831.8551
Toll Free:800.285.5627
Cell Phone: 925.818.0218
Fax: 925.831.0265
Email: stomtania@theplusgroup.com

Job #2)
IBM Content Manager
Location: TX
Duration: 4 months
Rate: Need All Inclusive and With expenses

Required:
Looking for Developers with IBM Content Manager experience, prefer 1+ years of experience. Project would be Developing an IBM Content Manager based ECM Solution.

Lucky Saini
AgreeYa Solutions
(916) 351-2574 Direct
(916) 294-0504 Fax
lucky.saini@agreeya.com

FudBuster #3: Exchange is Free and how they got 100 million MOSS licenses

"And that's why we are migrating away from Lotus." Cost

Right, and I have a bridge in Miami for you.

They say honesty is the best policy, but Microsoft does their best to not change your perception's of the truth, even if you are wrong.

Yes, I have discussed this many times in the past, but let's do this simply.

In order for your company to obtain EXACTLY what you already have in the Lotus Notes Client and Lotus Domino Server you will need the following items(NOT Including the OS):

1) Exchange Server 2007
2) Exchange Server Standard CAL 2007
3) Exchange Server Enterprise CAL 2007 which is a 2nd CAL you MUST buy if you want the added items for the RIGHTS to use Unified Messaging, Journaling, Compliancy(?), "Premium" Anti-Spam and Anti-virus. Hopefully better than what goes into MSN/Hotmail Live. Some of this is built in to Domino by default.
4) Office Groove 2007 - Similar to the teamroom template but in equating Like to Like it must be added.
5) Office 2007 - One version or another which is the only way to obtain an Outlook client. Most larger companies will be swayed into buying the Office Enterprise 2007 version which includes #4, the first of the "look what you get for free" discussions plus pieces of other Microsoft products you are not likely to use or hear from in the future.
6) Outlook 2007 requires the Core CAL Suite if you will access Exchange but this CAL also includes Sharepoint Server 2007 CAL and thus one insight to how Microsoft claims to have sold 100 Million licenses Which this articles shows is a $10/CAL 1billion/100million.
7) Enterprise CAL Suite is what you REALLY require since it includes among other bits, the ability to encrypt messaging traffic generated through emails and instant messages. Buying this includes #6 so another "look what you get for free or included" discussion.

Now if you are a small shop you may only need some of these and if you are a large enterprise I have a longer list of what you need or rather what Microsoft says you need.

If you are contemplating the move to Exchange, or your Enterprise renewal is coming up, think about it and if you need more information, just ask. Remember, it was someone else's over payments to Microsoft which allowed them to bid for Yahoo! at $44 Billion in CASH! Don't make their mistake.

The Waiting is the hardest part...and most expensive!

You say Lotus is a Legacy solution? Are we that old?

What about Exchange? Well you waited nearly 4 years for an update, was it worth it? You spent 5 years of Software Assurance money with Microsoft and now you wonder how they could afford to buy Yahoo!?!

Outlook also you waited 4 years. IE as well.

You waited 6 years for Vista since XP emerged.

Forgot about Sharepoint, an excellent chart is found here, hopefully IBM SWAT has seen this.
Yep, almost 4 years past.

See a pattern? And on the Lotus side we have seen since 2003 release 6.5 and R7 in 2005 with R8 in 2007 materialize which averages out to a new version every 2 years and in some cases, split stream updates/revisions/addons and enhancements happenned twice a year.

So who is the legacy solution and why do you or your clients think it isn't Microsoft?

MS relying on office Sales to Beat Lotus?

Fellow bloggers, Greg Eldred and Glenn Irvine both found this article ahead of me.

What neither pointed out is the ruse Microsoft makes, well Kevin turner makes, that:
"This past year we sold in 4.86 million seats of our collaboration solution – SharePoint, Exchange and Office – into IBM Lotus Notes accounts"

Office is now considered a collaboration product. Right.
So Microsoft can use this product any way they want, what companies do not use Office, any version?

Would like Mr. Turner to provide a better break down when you take Office out of the picture.

For that matter take Exchange out of the picture as well since the likelihood of a Lotus company using Exchange as well is nominal which leaves Sharepoint.

Sharepoint, and the Microsoft people love telling everyone, sells like water at a baseball game in Miami in the summertime. What they don't tell you is every Enterprise Agreement includes CALs for Sharepoint, by default, in addition to other licensing areas which require a CAL, even if you don't use it.

Or as some say, Microsoft gives it away for free and gets you on year 2 licensing maintenance.

Just more FUD from Redmond, and I expected better from Kevin Turner.

Maybe the Lotus Symphony team has some similar numbers we can play with against Microsoft. And it's free, really it is, go get it now and try it, http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.jspa.

Mail Fidelity, do you really have it with Exchange?

I wondered about this as well.

CIO magazine recently had an article in the June 15th edition about Records Management That works.

What was very interesting was this quote:

"One of the issues is to make sure that the documents in their electronic form can be upgraded and transitioned from one technology to the next over decades," says GWU's Bonig. "

This implies the data MUST be transitioned between systems, (GWU must be a Microsoft University)in order to stay fully usable for future reference/lawsuits et al.
Why do they say this, because if you had been using Microsoft email programs since MS Mail, you would have had to translate or migrate or convert those emails to Exchange mail, Outlook 2000, 2003, 2007 and now Live.

You can not read older Exchange emails in Outlook 2007 unless they have been converted to a format which is acceptable to the new system.

Now, let's compare Domino mail. You can, and I do, access emails from R3(few companies were into Notes prior to R3 but even their emails are accessible) using my R8 client. From 15 years ago to now, it only takes one mail file, one client.

Lawyers should be pushing all their clients to use Domino for this reason if nothing else. The cost to maintain old hardware, backups and software is not justified, especially if you are a financial, insurance, government(cough cough The White House fiasco) or manufacturing entity.

Unify just a Microsoft shell?

Ed Brill posted a great blog entry which I want to make sure others find.See it here

When I posted this back in July 2007 it was an odd drawing then. I posted it to a number of people as well.

Evidently they were not exceptionally successful with it.
The drawing would scare off any Domino application sites.
But if one was just email based without Domino apps then this is overkill, if you have the proper tools and more importantly the right people and resources.

Did Unify make money on it? Did Microsoft support them and the project?
Should IBM pay it's BPs too? If so, how and why?
Is money the answer?
I have offerred to migrate companies off Exchange to Domino for Free and how many of you have inquired about it?
So if I told you it would cost $1 million does that make you feel better?
It's all a game but so far it's one of the few Microsoft has not been able to outright defeat the competition.
And we like it that way!

The CEO/CIO thinks free is a great idea and it is too!

The previous post was created to show a theory.
Namely that some people would say it's a bait and switch.
Or Microsoft people would claim they do this too, some would say they offer to give everything for free, but I won't go there.
Or Business people would say how can you do it for free.

Never said I would pay for your licenses, after all I am not IBM, nor would I cover your hardware.
Just that I would migrate your users off Exchange to Domino.
And I could do it in one day/night too.
Rolling out Notes to your employees is up to you, I will give them all webmail access immediately, plus their own blogs and a wiki for them to discuss the pros and cons of your decision.

Still not enough? How about automatic push email, Lotus Notes Traveler, with no other server required. Again ALL from one Lotus Domino box.

Want more? I have over 100 applications I can include and you can use at no cost to you for your internal employees to use, depending on YOUR needs.

EDITED after original Posting to include:

Plus a free Operating System, Lotus Foundations!

And finally, a 100% free Office Suite courtesy of Lotus Symphony for every user. So you can stop paying extra licenses to Microsoft for that as well.

END OF EDITS

I could go on, but, right I forgot, you love Exchange, Office, Windows and it is so useful you wouldn't dream of changing it for anything.


Thank you for the graphic from here.

If companies don't believe something for free is worth anything, why do they consistently take Microsoft up on their offers of Free Exchange or Sharepoint or ahem, Vista.

The next time your CXO or a new one, comes in and saying you must get to Exchange, ask him this question:

How much of your bonus is tied to the company making money? Because you are about to disrupt the company in ways you can not imagine.

The graphic above takes what sits on one server in Domino and shows just how many pieces you need from Microsoft to recreate it.

You don't need more servers, you need less.
You don't require more silos, you want fewer.
Everyone wants to collaborate, the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line, or in this case....
1 Lotus Domino Server.

Free migration to Domino from Exchange

Well, let's step back a minute and then read the last 2 lines of this post.
Why not? You probably have a cadre of staff sitting around anyway, why not put them to good use.
What? They are busy?
But Exchange is a quiet and perfectly upright piece of software, what could they possibly be doing all day long?
You have a help desk, you have an ID management group, you even have a security group, and probably a hardware group too....all assigned to manage your Exchange infrastructure, or I should say AD.
So why not get them to help build a Domino server and at least see the other side.

What if you really did not need to have so many silos of servers?

What if you really couold do this collaboration thing, but from within 1 server, not needing 3,5,7 or 9?

What if you really wanted to reduce your harwdare, OS, licensing, electric, real estae costs?

Nah, you'll never do it, big business is in it for the salary, no one wants to actually reinvent their company.

Or do they?

By the way, I will honor the free migration to Domino, for one server or one group of people up to 100 users.
After that you pay the rest of the migration.

Exchange 2000 lives for at least 25%, Go Get them now!

Now how do I find these people?

From a sales perspective, the Exchange 2000 Server base is the “low-hanging fruit”
for upgrade opportunity for the following reasons:

• Mainstream support ended for Exchange 2000 Server on January 10, 2006. Extended support continues until 2011.
• According to an Osterman Research report, Exchange 2000 Server represents 25% of the Microsoft Exchange installed base.
• SA has likely expired (or is nonexistent) for Exchange 2000 Server customers, so the revenue upside is larger to move these accounts.
• Exchange 2000 Server customers are more likely to have fully depreciated their existing hardware or be close to the end of manufacturer’s support.

Courtesy of this site from a document they have available on upgarding to Exchange 2007.