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~Dean Brefanaman 1.Oct.02 02:03 PM a Web browser GeneralAll ReleasesAll Platforms
Where is Domino going?
.NET and J2EE are competing technologies that are attempting to create/define the next enterprise development & deployment model.
IBM has decided that it'll be more profitable to merge Notes/Domino into the WebSphere world. This direction is clear from the road map and from the LotusSphere 2002 opening ceremony (yes, I was there).
Notes/Domino WILL become a collection of J2EE 'services'. They will, of course, work 'best' with WebSphere.
What problems do I see with this? At this point, WebSphere is an amazingly complicated set of products (a brand, not an individual product) that is seems too expensive for the SMB market I work in.
In contrast, .NET is much cheaper, easier to deploy, easier to find excellent development examples for, and the development environment is just beautiful.
Yes, we will get some nice improvements (and R6, er, v6 is certainly sweet), but overall direction is clear, and saddening.
[Summary]
I love Notes/Domino. It's the Swiss Army knife of development. I can make it do just about anything, easily. It turns on a dime. The object store is a dream - unlike other relational databases, it can reflect the ugly reality we live in where every record isn't identical. And R6, er v6 is a very nice improvement.
The reality is that IBM has too many products and it appears to have decided to focus on the homegrown WebSphere borg.
And WebSphere gives IBM a compelling story to tell large, enterprise-level customers.
At this point, it just doesn't sound as compelling to SMB shops that don't have legions of wirehead developers.
Up until now, IBM hasn't shown a lot of skill in designing and marketing it's products for SMB customers. Understand that Microsoft is ALL over designing & marketing it's products to SMB.
Is IBM feeding, but not growing Notes/Domino? It's hard to tell. What do you think?
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REVISED: Where is Domino going? (~Dean Brefanama... 1.Oct.02)
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