I just read this over at Kevin Hansen's
blog:
This month, an Exchange server will go live in our organization. It
will be connected to Domino to allow us to deliver iPhone services to
our corporate users. We have a number of iPhones requested from our
user community and more are sure to come.
Somehow, I don't believe this is they type of response to John Head's "Call to Action" that was anticipated. Kevin also states that this will be opening the door for more use of Exchange in his company and some likely migrations from Notes mail for certain groups.
It was asked at Ed Brill's blog if companies would seriously choose to move to Exchange just to support the iPhone - apparently the answer is yes. As I'm writing this, there are 367 signatures at the iPetition. This represents mobile users in the tens of thousands. Let us hope that more of these companies do not see more pressure to deliver push mail to iPhones.
I do believe that IBM is trying to get this all sorted with Apple - and much of it is out of IBM's hands. I have tested and provided some feedback on Lotus iNotes Ultralite. I think it is a good interim solution for those who need access to Domino mail from an iPhone. But, I think we all agree that it does not provide the desired long-term solution we all want for push mail and pim sync.
Further, to reiterate what Ed said, none of us really know how the Exchange services are going to work on the iPhone. There has been past debate about whether Exchange Server with Windows Mobile devices actually provides "push" mail. So will the iPhone implementation of this be more of a constant pull than a push? (Not that end-users actually care - they just want instant access to mail...)
I do not want to keep this debate going, but with the knowledge now that there are companies considering Exchange implementations to do this, we should keep this in mind.
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1 Ed Brill Permalink First, I hate blogs that require me to login to comment. Kevin's has the same problem. So this one was easier to comment on.
Kevin and I have had many conversations about Domino vs. Exchange
over the last year or two. My personal opinion -- this might be the
straw that broke the camel's back there, but it has seemed like
they've been looking for a reason for a long time. That post was
too-well thought out for it to have happened overnight in the last
five days. And since Apple hasn't shipped a single Exchange-capable
iPhone yet, nor any of the other needed components, all of that
posting is on spec -- for at least the next 30 days.
I'm not in denial, really. We saw MS use this tactic with Windows
Mobile devices -- it's actually part of the defensive motivation
for doing Lotus Notes Traveler, because MS put some Exchange
servers into customers for "pilots". So I'm well aware of the
threat.
Still, this seems to be the tail wagging the dog a bit. And
considering that there aren't really many other reasons for
switching today, it's not surprising that MS fans would be
exploiting this approach (not that Kevin is an MS fan).
2 Jim Casale Permalink Ed, I would tend to agree with the situation you outlined. I was hearing some rumors about having an Exchange server in the organization I just left (even if they stayed with Domino) just to be able to get email on the iPhone. Yes, I know there are other ways to get mail on the iPhone, but there was no way you could get around telling them about the other ways to get email on the iPhone with Domino unless that other way was native Domino mal on the iPhone. It could very well be another reason some vocal people are throwing up to go with Exchange.
3 Chris Whisonant Permalink Ed, first of all, the login to comment requirement is because this is the way this Lotus Connections product works... Maybe you know some people who work on that product? ;)
I do agree with you in that we don't know what this is going to
look like at all. It may end up not working well at all - from the
documentation of the SDK, this may actually end up being the case
since a lot of what they're claiming to do isn't really surfaced in
this way (although I do understand from your blog that the Exchange
option is deeper than just the SDK). And we all know that
Microsoft's definition of "push mail" is more pull and less
push...
And I'm glad that Lotus Traveler is now around - it can really help
this situation out. But let's be honest here for a moment. Jim is
right - if this iPhone support is now the proverbial "straw" - how
many more shops may be in this situation? I can actually see that
getting an Exchange box in place just to do this synching could be
a good thing if it means keeping people quiet about not being able
to do PIM Sync (yet) with Domino.
4 Jim Casale Permalink Let me clarify what I said. I don't think it is the straw that broke the camels back per se. It is just another reason they throw up to go to Exchange. I wasn't clear in my previous post but they were using iPhone support to have an Exchange server along side Domino (should they decide to stay with Domino). Ed knows from our conversations that their business logic is flawed, emotional, and just plain ridiculous. Just look at the logic of having an Exchange server just to have iPhone support for a few users.
Ed said "And considering that there aren't really many other
reasons for switching today, ". Again, I would agree since I have
yet to hear any compelling business logic or advantage to switch
even at the my new position. IPhone support is just another "See,
this is why we should switch" rant, which, in the right
circumstances, could be the straw that broke the camels back.
5 Chris Whisonant Permalink Jim, sorry, didn't mean to put the words in your mouth. Ed mentioned the "straw" and it was sort of in line with what you said as well. It's exactly like your last paragraph - this is yet another thing that ABL (Anything But Lotus) folks will latch on to as a "see i told ya so" item.
6 Doug Bruce Permalink Ed brings up a good point about Traveler, and that's actually the product that broke the MS argument at my last consult - they stayed Lotus and are phasing out Commontime & BES - as the CFO stated,
that extra cash can be used for bonuses and growing the business,
not p**sed away on shiny toys.
At my latest place, which is an Exchange 2003 shop, the same
conversation has already been had. Great, ANOTHER $4k O/S license,
with ANOTHER Exchange server license etc for what business
value?
Maybe it's the Scottish financial guys that i work with, but i'm
hearing lots of complaints about the 'shiny toy' syndrome thats
rampant again. That's one of the reasons why Exchange is again
under review here - after all, we have Notes on
AS400/iSeries/System i/whatever ... so why do we have all those
Microsoft boxes and admins for email?
Just to clarify - i do have an iPhone v1, and i live with the imap
mail for all my mail systems. It's not perfect, but i don't think
i'd be one to lead a multi-million dollar change out over it.
7 Kevin J Hansen Permalink I thought I'd stop by to clear up a few things:
1. Ed's right. This wasn't a decision that occurred suddenly. Its
my job to watch the direction of all software tools we use and
ensure that the direction those tools are taking is consistent with
how we need to use them in our organization. With that in mind, the
lack of an iPhone solution from IBM that rivals what's been
demonstrated with Exchange; the slow pace of Mac application
support across IBM/Lotus tools (Notes client is still behind, the
8.5 beta hasn't had an update since its initial debut as of this
post, and Symphony is a great tool but not available on the Mac)
and performance problems with the Eclipsed based Notes client (on
Windows) all forces me to look a bit more critically on Notes than
I might have in the past. I wrote more about this (and other
specific trends)
on my blog ,
2. Chris is right -- this is more of the "straw" and not the major
catalyst. That being said, it is the last straw because of a number
of other things that have added up to date. Again, don't get me
wrong... I LOVE Lotus Notes. I love the concept of making it
Eclipsed based and I see the benefits. But ... the performance of
8.x thus far has been the major killer. Our machines simply aren't
powerful enough to even consider this as an option. Again... that
just adds fuel to the fire, so to speak.
3. I am still very hopeful that IBM/Lotus will come up with an
iPhone solution. I KNOW there's room to improve on what Apple has
demoed with Exchange and I really really want to see it...
soon!
... and if, by chance, no one at IBM has a clue about how to make
that improvement, then let me remind everyone of the section of the
last Apple event keynote where they talked about the potential to
do IM on the iPhone. --- How 'bout this: Notes push
email/calendar/contacts + Sametime IM + UC2
IBM could even call the product that - the name is long enough! :)