Archive for March, 2011

IBM Lotus Domino Utility Server for LotusLive Has Arrived

Posted on: March 29th, 2011 by admin No Comments

Photo credit: IBM

IBM has announced today availability of the IBM Lotus Domino Utility Server for LotusLive.

This is a really great news for Notes and LotusLive community. No more headache with administering your Lotus Domino server, not more headache (I assume) with backups, security and hardware issues. The IBM Cloud will take care of it all.

The only question remains what is the pricing model.

According to IBM  the new license model is based on the Domino Utility Server and allows you, as LotusLive Notes subscribers, to use the included Notes client for access to Notes/Domino applications. That means that instead of paying per-user software subscription to continue to use Notes/Domino applications, regardless of client/browser access method, you can now switch to a server-only based licensing model. Instead of paying for everyone in an organization to continue to use those applications, you can pay for anyone in the organization to use those applications. You are able to more easily evaluate and value your Domino applications in a separate context from the commodity and cost-focused decisions around messaging, and yet retain all the benefit of existing and future investment in building applications on Domino.

I am not 100% convinced that this pricing model will satisfy everybody and especially the small businesses with number of users between 5 and 50. I hoped that this new offering might need to be a bit more flexible  in regards to the pricing structure for small business customers.

BTW, I still can not find the pricing for the main part number D0IG3LL Ed Brill mentioned in his blog today.

[added on 3/30/11] : I called this morning to IBM Business Partner Sales Support (1-800-426-9990) and was not able to obtain any pricing information related to the part number D0IG3LL nor the IBM Lotus Domino Utility server for LotusLive. I also called CDW, an authorized IBM software reseller and they were not able to provide pricing either.

Source:
IBM
Ed Brill’s Blog
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IB Systems, an IBM Business Partner was found in 1996 and provides IT related services including IT support, web application design, Lotus Notes support and SEO to businesses in the US.

IBM LotusLive Gets New Translation Applications

Posted on: March 29th, 2011 by admin No Comments

IBM  LotusLive gets new Translation Applications from LinguaSys.

LinguaSys, Inc., an international language translation and text analytics software company announced last week a new suite of language translation applications, TGSocial, TGNotes and TGChat, for IBM Lotus and LotusLive social collaboration applications, both on-premises and in the Cloud. The new LinguaSys translation applications allow businesses around the world to communicate with each other in multiple languages, making international social business collaboration conversant.

LinguaSys’ hosted Cloud translation applications are available for IBM LotusLive, including translation for collaboration activities within LotusLive Connections and for messaging capabilities within LotusLive iNotes and LotusLive Notes.  TG Social has a base price of $1 per month/per seat, providing users with real time translation for individually highlighted threads in IBM Lotus Connections.  TGNotes, available for $1 per month/per seat, enables IBM Lotus Notes e-mails to be translated on the fly.  TGChat, at $1 per month/per seat, allows IBM Lotus Sametime participants to chat using their native language.  Users are also responsible for an additional $2 per month/per seat fee for the language hosting. Pricing is available for on-premises solutions as a onetime licensing fee, plus yearly maintenance and support.

Source: PR Newswire

What IBM Needs to Do to Retain its Lotus Notes Customers

Posted on: March 12th, 2011 by admin 6 Comments

I wish I knew what is going at the IBM head quarters in regards to this topic.

I got a bit disappointed when I saw a news post “Steinhoff drops Lotus Notes …”  confirming that 1,050 Lotus Notes seats will be replaced by Microsoft’s BOPS and not by LotusLive Cloud  solution. When I see news like that I a good number of questions comes to my mind. How come I have seen more news during the past 12 months about Notes seats being replaced by IBM competition instead of  Notes replacing its competition? Is it an irreversible trend or just a temporary market fluctuation? Doesn’t IBM really care about Lotus Notes customer base or it’s just my pessimistic point of view lately?

I am an optimist and I still hope that Lotus Notes will be able to sustain the tough Lotus Notes competition time and eventually will start recovering its lost customer base.

Is it just a wishful thinking or perhaps a first sign of a sinuous delusional disorder?
Perhaps I just spent so much time with Notes starting with version 2.0 in 1992 and can not agree that the days of Lotus Notes are counted.

I see Lotus Notes as by far the more superior e-mail platform simply because it’s not just an e-mail platform. Lotus Notes is a collaborative environment with the robust non-relational database to support rapid application development for Lotus Notes and the web client. And I think, this is where a majority of the world is in complete disconnect what Lotus Notes platform is about. And this is where IBM might want to come in to educate not only existing customers but most definitely customers that are on the opposite side of the road.

With LotusLive Cloud offerings which include LotusLive Engage, LotusLive iNotes, LotusLive Notes and soon to be available LotusLive Domino/Notes hosting we hopefully will be able to witness the great Notes come back.

You Can Get in Trouble over Facebook Comments

Posted on: March 7th, 2011 by admin No Comments

Photo credit: NewZimbabwe.com

It finally happened.
Facebook has something to do with the arrest of Vikas Mavhudzi, 39 for posting a message on the “wall” of a Facebook account belonging to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Vikas’ alleged crime was to post a comment saying: “I am overwhelmed, I don’t want to say Mr. or PM what happened in Egypt is sending shockwaves to dictators around the world. No weapon but unity of purpose worth emulating, hey.”

Do you really think that Mr. Mavhudzi did not know what he was doing when he typed his comments on Prime Minister’s Facebook wall?

Perhaps Facebook needs to make some kind of security improvements to guaranty the anonymity of people like Vikas and to provide a freedom of speech outside of the US territory.

Source: NewZimbabwe.com

What is the Future For BlackBerry?

Posted on: March 5th, 2011 by admin No Comments

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Business is getting tougher for Research In Motion (RIM). The departure of the chief marketing officer, Kith Pardy just weeks away from a new product release probably indicates that the company is out of options. Hardy joined RIM in December 2009 and has been responsible for overall BlackBerry brand marketing. RIM has been struggling lately with new product lines and has started losing market share to Apple and Google Android platform devices.
If you like predictions than perhaps Chris Nerney’s prediction might not surprise you. He wrote in today’s PCWorld article “My prediction: After the partnership with Nokia falls apart, Microsoft buys RIM. You read it here first”.
What is the future for BlackBerry if Microsoft acquire RIM? Will BlackBerry devices run on Windows OS as I think it will not run Android OS for sure. I think there is a good possibility Apple or even Google might make a move.
Perhaps rumors about BlackBerry Messenger for Android and BlackBerry Playbook running Android apps is an indication of where the RIM’s future might be.

Sources:
Reuters
PCWorld

Should you wait for iPad 3?

Posted on: March 4th, 2011 by admin 1 Comment

Photo credit: Apple

Apple’s iPad 2 was officially announced yesterday at the Apple’s special event.

A few topics has been covered at the event besides introduction of the iPad 2 including some statistics:

  • Apple sold 15 million iPAds in 2010 that generated around $9.5 billion in revenue
  • There are 200 million iTunes accounts
  • 100 million iPhones sold
  • 100 million books have been downloaded from iBooks

The most significant improvements of iPad 2:

  • Dual core CPU
  • 33% thinner
  • 10 hours of battery life
  • HDMI video out

Then I have my list of items which were not delivered:

  • Stereo speakers
  • Retina display
  • FLASH compatibility

Should you wait for iPad 3 to get these features or go ahead an buy iPad 2?

Cisco Pulls the Plug on Cloud E-Mail

Posted on: March 1st, 2011 by admin No Comments

Photo credit: TopNews.com.sg

Cisco has pulled the plug on its cloud e-mail service which debuted 13 months ago.

The announcement has been made by Debra Chrapaty, senior VP and GM of Cisco’s Collaboration Software Group. In her blog post on Tuesday she  wrote “In the thirteen months since, we’ve been market testing Cisco Mail via a controlled release. The product has been well received, but we’ve since learned that customers have come to view their email as a mature and commoditized tool versus a long-term differentiated element of their collaboration strategy. We’ve also heard that customers are eager to embrace emerging collaboration tools such as social software and video. That was the key factor in the decision, which we shared with customers today, to discontinue investment in Cisco Mail.”

I don’t think that really surprised anybody at this time as the main players in the Cloud race are still remain Microsoft and IBM and are increasing their investment in development of the cloud. IBM has recently announced availability of the BES support for already supported mobile devices such iPhone, iPad and Android based smartphones.

Source: Cisco Blog