A New-Age Messaging and Collaboration Platform from IBM
Market Share of IBM Domino
Though cloud based
messaging platforms are gaining popularity, many organizations
consider on-premises messaging platforms as secure and safe compared
to the cloud based ones. Therefore, large organizations are more
interested in on-premises platforms like IBM Domino. As per the
claims by IBM, Domino platform is deployed in as many as 50,000
organizations across the globe. In order to compete with MS Exchange
that owns about 60% of the market share, platforms like Domino offer
cost-effective deployment and maintenance, support to non-Windows
platforms and many other unique services.
Advantages of Domino over Other Platforms
Domino is not just an
emailing and calendaring platform. Apart from these functions, Domino
supports application development, document editing, team rooms,
libraries, workflows etc. Some important reasons for choosing Domino
as the messaging platform are given below.
- IBM Domino runs on open source operating systems that are more scalable compared to Windows. Currently Domino is available on Windows, Linux, UNIX and Z/OS. In addition, Domino is less prone to viruses and malwares.
- Numerous email clients and protocols can access Domino; some popular clients that can be used with Domino are Lotus Notes Clients, IBM Workplace, MS Outlook, POP3/IMAP4 clients like Mozilla Thunderbird and web mails (through a browser).
- The client side security provided by Domino is near perfect. While using Domino, there is no need to invest on security infrastructure, as it owns a large number of security features by default. Domino makes use of complex cryptographic techniques like public key and systematic key encryption, public key certificates and digital signatures.
- As Domino owns its own directory, it has external dependence only on its OS and network. (MS Exchange is dependent on Active Directory and Novell is dependent on eDirectory). So moving from one platform to another is easy in the case of Domino. It is also very easy to move from one version of Domino to another.
- Domino has more functions than any other collaboration system (in terms of Microsoft products, Domino performs the functions of Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, Life Connection Server and SQL).
- It is easy to administer Domino as it provides policy based administrative features and owns domain-monitoring capacity.
- Domino allows cross-version and cross platform clustering, and load balancing to improve its fault tolerance.
- Domino uses separate database for every user. It can be synchronized with multiple servers and multiple clients. Therefore, it is less prone to failures. By implementing active clustering and by choosing platforms properly, downtime can be completely avoided in Domino system.
- Domino provides very advanced application environment, in addition to the messaging facilities. Domino supports instant messaging also.
- Domino makes it possible to keep local replicas of applications in addition to that of emails, contacts and calendars. Offline applications can be accessed with Domino Offline Services (DOLS).
Unlike other similar
platforms, it is easy to install and deploy IBM Domino. Before
installing you need not conduct readiness check or need to install
extra components (like a framework or some OS components). For
Domino, you have all the required files in the Domino installer.
Also, you can setup and run Domino within a few minutes and can
choose the required tasks from the choice list interface; it does not
involve many steps or take a lot of time.
Many organizations choose
to move to IBM Domino form MS Exchange Server and Novell Domino,
because of the benefits and advantages discussed above.
Moving to Other Platforms from Domino
Organizations choose a
collaboration platform, after carefully studying their requirements
and analyzing the availability of infrastructure. Sometimes after
working in one system for many years, they may choose another system
while they expand. In such situations, some organizations prefer MS
Exchange Server to Domino, mainly due to the ease of working in the
Windows environment. However, some organizations choose to move to
Novell GroupWise. Many small organizations, in order to avoid heavy
investment in the infrastructure, choose the cloud environment of
Office 365 over on-premises platforms like Domino. Before taking a
decision on email migration, the organization should have a clear
idea about their future requirements and the infrastructure they
require for the migration.
Email Migration Tools for Domino
The developers of
collaboration platforms have taken care to supply some simple inbuilt
features, or downloadable tools to facilitate email migration or
co-existence between different platforms. However, no such feature or
tool is perfect for the migration. In order to attract more users
from other platforms, collaboration software providers may include
more features in future. As of now, users have to depend on
professional third-party email migration tools for large-scale
migrations. If the trial version of the migration software is
available, users can try a trial migration before purchasing the
tool. It will help to analyze the tool closely, and to understand its
strengths and limitations. Also, it will provide a better
understanding about the feasibility of the migration.
