The Domino Falls, What's Next for IBM Lotus

By Brice Dunwoodie on Feb 25. 2004

Sorry, thought I'd try my hand at catchy titles. Was that catchy? Anyhow, I've long wondered how long the Lotus Domino platform would survive. Here's a definitive answer: its being phased out and migrated towards WebSphere/Java/DB2.

The future of Lotus software is to be the user interface to IBM's software technologies.

No surprises here. But a deep install base, developer and customer loyalty, and massive pre-existing investments require slow, steady, and cost-effective migrations. The end of life for Domino is sure to be a ways out.

From a SearchDomino.com article, I've garnered the following:

It may not be going away, but Notes/Domino, such as its users have come to know it, is nearing the end of its golden years.

...

IBM Lotus is nudging programmers, ever loyal to Notes/Domino's rapid application development and tight database integration, onto a new track -- one committed to Java, Web services and integration with relational databases like DB2.

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Lotus has built its new messaging and collaboration platform, Workplace, on a WebSphere/J2EE framework. And the coming ND7 and ND8 releases will feature further Java integration.

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"[Developers] really need to start looking at Domino as a legacy platform and decide what is the best way to take advantage of those assets," said Erica Rugullies, senior analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research.

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Lotus is urging its customers to stay the course. The company is promoting ND7, due out in early 2005, as the next step for Domino shops taking a gradual approach to J2EE and relational database integration. ND7 will support DB2 applications, and users will be able to host their NSF data in DB2 databases. ND8, however, will mark the first major integration of the Domino and Workplace products.

Meanwhile, Michael Rhodin, Lotus' vice president of development and technical support, suggested that Notes developers learn to use IBM Rational Rapid Developer, a RAD development environment for integrating Web, wireless and portal applications. It integrates with WebSphere and the open source Eclipse framework to support WebSphere, DB2, J2EE and Tivoli applications. It also supports Visual Studio .NET development.

Rhodin said WebSphere and Workplace provide the means, via a portal-based architecture, for users to access a variety of back-end databases, including Domino. Rhodin called the process "horizontal integration." It's a level of scalability that Lotus believes Notes/Domino currently cannot offer developers.

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