IBM Domino Collaboration: Step-by-Step

After several tries, and with some help from IBM, the Test Center was able to deploy Domino server -- and, by and large, make it a solution that works -- but could not make the Lotus Sametime instant messaging server work with Domino and Notes. The other client-based products in the suite also gave us some headaches, though they were minor. The suite is a collaboration powerhouse, but it is a costly one to get going. To build a profitable solution around Domino, channel partners need to understand that up-front costs installing and configuring the servers will be significant.

A Little Background
IBM wants Notes to become a centralized application platform and framework for all collaboration and Web 2.0 applications, including many desktop applications. To some extent Notes has succeeded in combining collaboration software. Notes 8 comes with integrated instant messaging, presence awareness, and server-based document repository.

To integrate its collaboration products, IBM built an SOA integration framework called Expeditor that's now available in the Eclipse project. IBM also provides an Expeditor client and server for Notes, IBM's Sametime instant messaging server and Lotus Symphony. Expeditor provides asynchronous communication for transactional messages and provides synchronization of data when connected to a server.

The architecture is based on a three-tier model whereby composite applications form new business rules for back-end packaged software and Web services. Notes performs the role of the rich client. Over the long term, Notes' rich interface with its composite application development environment is well suited for building corporate applications.

As a rich client, Notes is taking the new SOA user interface approach to serve Web applications and even integrate desktop applications into composite applications. IBM has a lot at stake with this proprietary platform based on SOA's vendor-agnostic architecture.

The Domino server is at the heart of this architecture. Domino services applications with its framework and provides the switching mechanism between applications and Notes clients. On the one hand, Notes' SOA communication architecture can accept .Net, Java and legacy applications, but that comes at a cost: Companies have to buy into Notes' user interface for many corporate applications.

In addition to the Domino server, developers can build portlets with WebSphere portal framework and extend Domino-based applications to the Web. With Sametime, developers can take advantage of IBM's DeveloperWorks code. DeveloperWorks is a mature development Website where open-source developers and IBM partners contribute code to many applications.

In addition to instant messaging and presence awareness, Sametime is the base product for IBM's unified communication platform. With the full version of Sametime Standard and Sametime Advanced, users can run instant messaging with an external Sametime Connect client. IBM has found that young workers like using Sametime as their primary application for collaboration instead of Notes because of the immediacy of messages. Sametime also supports some mobile devices.

IBM announced an expanded offering that unifies telephony with its communication platform. The new offering will combine interfaces so that workers can use the same client. The current telephony system integrates with Avaya, Cisco and Radvision.

IBM is expanding the Domino framework and adding new security capabilities in the next release. IBM announced that it is adding more foundation frameworks to Eclipse and it is integrating more applications into Notes client. The company is continuing to combine products around the Notes-rich client.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of Domino and figuring out how to build a practice around the product was far more difficult than anticipated. Here's what the Test Center did to build a test solution with Domino 8.01.

Next: Step 1: Get Domino, Sametime and Notes Going