Lotus Mum On JSP Support Strategy

Lotus previously said it would outline its JSP strategy at the IBM developerWorks conference here this week. But company executives said no definitive announcements about JSP support for Domino 6 are planned for the event.

"There will be a lot of WebSphere news that must be realized. We want to make sure we're 100 percent locked down before we discuss pricing and packaging," said Ken Bisconti, vice president of IBM's Lotus Software group.

>> Some solution providers fear Domino will lose out to IBM's WebSphere application server.

That is not exactly what Lotus developers and solution providers wanted to hear. Some fear that Domino is losing out to IBM's WebSphere application server in an internal struggle, and others are growing impatient amid speculation about a possible Domino-WebSphere bundle that would fill the JSP gap.

Such a bundle might not please everyone. Herman Miller Furniture, for example, was able to quickly deploy a dealer extranet using Domino's development environment, said Doug Hayden, project manager at the Zeeland, Mich., office furniture company. "For our 7,000 users, in terms of cost and development speed, we can turn on a dime with Domino and add functions quickly," he said, adding that WebSphere is more complex and requires different skills.

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But some IBM solution providers are bullish. "WebSphere opens up [Lotus' Web services strategy and provides SOAP enablement and WSDL support," said Andy Sweet, CTO of Perficient, Austin, Texas.

Lotus has promised to supply WebSphere-based JSP support for Domino at no extra cost but is in the midst of a huge product transition as it struggles to get Domino 6,in development for more than three years,out the door in the third quarter. Early this year, Lotus pulled its own JSP support from Domino 6 betas. Since then, it has signaled its intention to move the Notes Storage Facility (NSF) to a DB2-based store.

Lotus said it will preserve investments in Domino application development. VARs can continue to use LotusScript indefinitely, for example, Bisconti said.