Microsoft, IBM Execs On Collaboration

CRN: What’s the status of Project Hannover, the next release of Notes/Domino? RHODIN: Some of this is a tit-for-tat game with Microsoft. Every time we ship a release, they send out an announcement that it’s the last release. Four straight times they’ve sent that out since I’ve been here, and this time we pre-empted them. We talked about Hannover right before we shipped [Notes/Domino] 7 so they couldn’t say that. The 7 release was primarily focused on [total cost of ownership], security, scalability, administration capabilities, what our IT shops are telling us needed to be done.

With Hannover, we said this is all about end users. We’re coming out with stuff for IT shops, but we wanted to get that the focus has squarely shifted to end users.

CRN: You’re not narrowing support to 64-bit servers? RHODIN: No. We’ve been doing 64-bit, but we’ll continue 32-bit support.

CRN: Microsoft’s argument for stopping 32-bit support on Exchange 12 is that you can’t find a 32-bit server.

RHODIN: A new one. If you’re trying to drive a hardware upgrade, [then] that’s the statement you’ll make. The reality is there are a lot of 32-bit servers out there running both Microsoft and Lotus software, and I’m not going to be standing here saying you have to buy new hardware just because you want to go to my next release of software. That’s a choice you make on your operations, your administration. We’ll continue to deliver choice and flexibility on that.

CRN: How does AJAX fit?

RHODIN: It fits right in. AJAX is a style of development, but building AJAX components is non-trivial. The really good AJAX applications are handcrafted by experts. The thing that’s been missing is simple tooling. You’re going to see us start to extend Workplace Designer with some AJAX capabilities. We already have some AJAX-style componentry. If you look at UI for [WebSphere Services Express] the palettes that slide in and out, the drag and drop, that’s AJAX-style things and have been there for awhile.

CRN: Some say five years out, mail will not be a differentiator and more customers will outsource it to put resources on IT areas where they can differentiate. Comments?

RHODIN: I view e-mail as a mission-critical commodity. It’s both. Different companies, based on regulatory posture, have to do things differently. Some organizations under heavy compliance, will want to maintain control of the data. If you use Gmail as corporate e-mail, what happens if it goes out of business, do you have access to the data? Maybe, maybe not. But for some companies, where e-mail is just a casual communications tool, outsourcing may be appropriate.