Melbourne has had it's hundred year storm over the weekend.

I have been harping on about getting better login and identity management for the Domino server for a little while now. It's been turning over in my sub-conscious and percolating away since last year. I have held off putting it into Idea jam until I had some idea about what I thought would be needed, at least the basics.

Well, now here is a stab at it. Please have a look and be as brutal as you see fit.

In summary, I think that identity is a critical requirement, and the following features are needed for the Domino server to remain relevant in this era of the Web.

Domino is heading down the road of SaaS and so the interest and necessity of a Notes client I believe is well and truly waning. Whoa! The Notes client is dead ? Well, not exactly, but let's look at where it's heading.

The interest seems to be RIA and mobile app's. Far from getting lighter, the Notes client is getting heavier. Alot of work has been done on Xpages with Xpages support within the client. So, it makes the Notes client less attractive to deploy, if it's bigger and heavier, and can be eclipsed, (pardon the pun), by RIA app's/iNotes, then all your providing is legacy support and a platform for some really complex applications that are too expensive to sort out as an RIA.

IBM are all giddy about LotusLive / Lotus Engage, and trumpet big growth numbers in those areas. Combine that with the licensing costs between the offerings, and you can see the path of least resistance. So, the future is laid before you, keep building web-app's because it's more relevant than the notes client.

So, if the web is the pointy end of the stick, then we'll need some better identity management so us developers can easily exploit the server and not waste soooo much time on doing what is now regarded as "the basics" when it comes to user management for web app's. Your thoughts please....

IBM is to cut jobs soon. Although IBM is a regular target for me, I have to say that I feel sorry for those being axed. It's a tough job market out there, contributed to partially by IBM's inaction locally. Unfortunately, those who will get axed are usually not the ones who are causing the problems.

Off-shoring, sigh!, that is sooooo 90's, I thought we all knew that once you do that, you have de-humanised your service into a commodity, and end up in a downward spiralling price competition, losing the focus on service quality.

I have seen how the segmentation of tasks though "redeployment" into functional centres, spread across the globe only adds to the technocracy, not improves it...... And the violins will continue to play...

Here in NSW we have had more than 13 years of one state government. These guys have steadily ruined the state and it's economic growth. Most notably they have not ever had the intestinal fortitude to come up with a sensible long term transport plan for Sydney. For many years, they have flip-flopped on plans. Mainly because (IMHO), that there are no votes to be had in the regions that desperately need it.

Most recently, the state government has WASTED $250 million on (another) aborted transport plan. Recently, on a reputable local current affairs program, presented a report about  the plight of parents with profoundly disabled children. The continuing shrinking state budget for this unseen and suffering minority is disturbingly apparent. These are not people who can "make do". They have given up their lives to care for their children as there is no respite or palliative care available for them. And more services are closing. Subsequently, they are on welfare because they can't work, although they could providing they could get support.

The measure of any government is in the manner which it supports the most vulnerable. And this government has failed woefully through wilful neglect. The politicians will be well rewarded for their effort with a fat non-means tested pension, and benefits til they are deceased. Yes they are well taken care of.

Ed posted a brief reference a couple of weeks ago to a Linkedin discussion about Notes-to-Exchange migrations. The conversation tone hasn't changed, and after a while most of the discussion becomes repetitive. Unless you're a member of this linkedin group, you can't read it, but here is the excerpt I want to share with you all from Eric Appleby...

"But here's another important distinction in any such discussion: it's one thing to talk about a "Notes-to-Outlook" migrations, and quite another to talk about migrating from Domino to Exchange. Even though we've been using "Domino to Exchange" as shorthand, we all know that it is usually more accurate to describe it as migrating from Domino to Exchange+IIS+Active Directory+Office+SQL Server+SharePoint+Visual Studio+ ...  "

Migrating is one thing, but what are you trading when you do be it to Google/MS or where ever ? Well said Eric...

This shock announcement by Qantas to drop notes seems to be motivated by a recommendation by one of their outsourcing partners, Fujitsu. Qantas was one of the very early Lotus Notes sites in Australia, more than 15 years ago now. And after years of having Notes in their asset pool, they accepted advice from Fujitsu to make the change to Outlook....

"Mr Hall said one of the key drivers for embracing Outlook was Fujitsu. "It was their view that maybe Outlook was more functional for us." [Emphasis Mine].

Maybe ? Maybe !?!? Would you migrate 20,000 users on "maybe" by an outsourcing provider ? Was that the basis of the feasibility report on such a significant infrastructure change ? I'm sorry but that doesn't look right for Fujitsu or Qantas. Perhaps this quote is not in the right context....What could be more practical is that Qantas management are trialling Outlook with a couple of hundred users before considering moving the rest. Perhaps "The Australian IT" are trying to cause a stir by taking factoids out of context.

Obviously Qantas didn't visit LS10.... decisions would have already been made before LS10 I suspect. Shame, it would be as cheap as chips to get there to see, being an airline n all.

"Mr Hall said the project would require "some investment" but it would not be very significant."

Hmmm.. indeed....

They're starting with a couple of hundred users and taking it from there expecting to migrate 20,000 users in 11 months. If I suspect that Qantas are like most other long term sites, there will be many critical applications running, which will frankly never get migrated, resulting in (yet) another hybrid site.

One would assume that the icensing costs are gonna start to climb dramatically as you maintain 2 sets of servers to support mail and apps. Don't forget that you also need about 3 Exchange related windows servers to match one Domino server to. I wonder if there is some sort of "cloud" service involved for to keep a lid on the licensing costs ?

I'll be keen to see where Qantas will be in January 2011 with this project...

Update : Futher to the journalistic independance of technology news, there is a double page spread for http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/the-hub in "The Australian" newspaper today. Powered by none other than...Microsoft..hmm.. I may be drawing long straws, but I can't help but sense that Microsoft's influence of the media may also be factor driving these sorts of reports that are not presenting all the facts...

Nathan posted an interesting blog about what he sees as the ""missing ingredient" for project Vulcan.

I am very keen to also see some kind of App Store, because I think Notes/Domino developers have a natural pre-disposition to this concept. And with Nathan's involvement in OpenNTF I can appreciate his comments and POV on the topic with respect to Project Vulcan.

The question firstly, "Is this where IBM chooses to go ?" comes to mind. It would seem they are making moves that way. The next big question is, can they pull it off ?

Possibly, there is no reason they couldn't. Sitting here deeply in the trenches without the omnipotent POV of others, this is my (brutal) perception.

One of the lynchpins in the viability of this thing will be licensing agreements. If it's going to cost $50/user/month just to turn on the server before any budding developer/ISV sees anything, then there is little or no point in going further.

Keeping in mind this sort of AppStore will not be for general consumers, but business consumers, pricing will be higher than the apps we see for iPhone. But I need to make the point that price sensitivity is a critical component in the online economy. So don't draw direct price comparisons between applications like iBeer and iSteam and some CRM solution. Although, some CRM app's in some cases are not nearly as useful.. LOL.

Only big business pay that sort of cash for heavy "ERP sized" systems. Once again we'd be in the top 1-2% of enterprise, and miss out on the other 90+% of the market your application would also appeal to, so it would be virtually game-over then and there.

The perception (and strength) of Lotus Notes/Domino is that it can operate for smaller, simpler applications not just the fortune 500 ERP "fat-support-contract-agreements". Traditionally, IBM are the anti-thesis of "the Midas touch", that is, whatever they touch tends to turn to "poo" of varying degrees of color once they get involved. From appearances, this whole concept is fundamentally at odds with IBM's traditional culture. So, you can't have the same attitude running this sort of thing, who have been looking at the fortune 500. So, this mindset change has to occur if this app hosting concept is to have any traction at all.

Unfortunately, I have become a grumpy sceptic, and I don't think IBM knows how to change to meet this challenge, the culture is endemic. However, if IBM just fund the "appStore", and they keep their fat-clumsy hands off the execution of it, then there is potential. Note, that there are lots of great people in IBM, but the collectively competence doesn't bode well.

This grouplive thing is about to take off, but I have reservations about it's success due to the above....But I genuinely hope I am really wrong on that.

Lotus Notes applications have been ready for hosting for years now. The licensing and vision just hasn't been forthcoming. Perhaps this will change now in the post-coital reflection of LS10.

So this is my summary of what is needed if there was an appStore in the mix:
1/ Execute this as a startup.
2/ Introduce a new class of ISV whose classification is app-hosting-provider, (or "cloud-provider" if it sounds any sexier.)
3/ Bring ISV's and developers together to let them do their thing through affiliations and meet-ups formally or informally.
4/ Have competitive licensing arrangements so development can flourish according to business size. Sitting high on a "pricing pedestal", and you'll be sitting by yourself in the digital economy.

So, what do these 4 points address ? Glad you asked.

By operating as a startup, i t may protect it from the d ebilitating bureaucracy that accompanies IBM. The new ISV class would allow IBM to support it from their strengths, ie infrastructure, whilst also receive licensing royalties. This strategy also lets IBM off the hook to do marketing, because we all know IBM are very "McGoo" when it comes to marketing. Even though it was a gimmick, that Southpark thing for LS10 just made me cringe and will put me off watching the show for weeks, and don't ask me about "smarter planet".

Like I said a brutal Poi nt of View, and I am sure I don't have the whole picture. But you gotta start somewhere.

Technology ages so quickly. Microsoft didn't help much by employing the year of release into the product name. A nice trick to play in the consumer's mind that they need to upgrade. Notes is still known in for email, however this is changing through more recent concerted efforts. But what amazes me is how people refer to Notes (still!) as legacy technology, even though Lotus doesn't use the year of release in the product name, (ie "Lotus 2005"... lol).

When someone quotes that Notes is "legacy", or "old" or the like, you should refer them here, and inform them that Outlook is 14 years old this year since it was introduced at the same time as Office 97, and still is not as feature rich as Lotus Notes.

It seems that the perceptions in North America are changing, but it will still require a sensible effort to educate people elsewhere around the globe and convince them to invest in the technology for their organisations. One of the problems with this approach is that you get blasted and overwhelmed with content for 4 days once a year, miss out on content, and then have near bugger-all for another 40-odd weeks until the next event. Hardly a way to build momentum in the minds of those you want to reach.

I would be impressed if IBM can demonstrate the intestinal fortitude to hold reasonably priced conferences in Asia, Australia and Europe which is more than a half day chin-wag at the Hilton, which has done sweet FA for changing these perceptions around the world and gaining market share.

But rather than my usual chastising of IBM in asking them to run this, (which I just did above. I can't help it, I know I'm a grumpy ol'b_sterd), instead I will fight my grumpy instincts and, propose that this sort of effort requires continual participation locally. So, the solution I think should be local events run in partnership between IBM, local BP's and user group communities. IBM should take more of a back seat and provide support where logistically or contextually appropriate.

As there is alot of good community content that can be collated and dispensed in an organised way locally, the makings of a "Community Fusion" event operated to cover costs, I think would provide a balanced approach to sending a consistent message for more than just 4 days a year, and minimise the financial burden associated with hosting these sort of events globally.

Well it seems that it wouldn't be a lotusphere conference without at least one phat number. Greg Engels live blog has a nice phat photo of the "phat number". 

I have no further information about qualifying it. If anyone has more info please post. There is a conspicuous dot on Australia in the map in this photo. Who the heck was that ?

Well if that number is 18,378 new customers since launch of Notes 8 and I recall last year was 12,236.. does that mean only 6,142-ish new customers ? sigh.... so the mystery continues.

My spidey senses have been tingling recently that something like this was in the wings. If the pricing is good, this can unleash the bottled up talents of Domino developers globally. Dare I say it could actually save the brand ?

All my groaning and moaning may actually subside if GroupLive (PaaS) makes dev/test/deployment of apps for ISV a relatively painless affair if we don't have to deal with blue labyrinth.

Been trawling through the IBM press releases but the stuff I'm interested in seems to be on Ed's blog. So I have to rely on the TMZ of the Lotus World (ha!)....

The only Lotus Notesy thing I have heard so far is revolving around LotusLive and Project Vulcan. LotusLive.. big deal.. Project Vulcan.. interesting.. Getting William Shatner in as guest speaker makes sense now.. perhaps Leonard Nimoy would have been over the top, boom-tish!

Now.. trawling a bit further I come across one thing that has just knocked me off my chair.. The group live platform.....

Really keen to hear more about Group live and Project Vulcan. Til then .. Live long and prosper.

Here is some relief from the Lotusphere media tsunami you may be experiencing, this link came through on a search today. I thought finally some people with deep technical knowledge reaching the upper echelons of the stiff blue suit brigade for Lotus, woo hoo! That's a timely announcement to. Then I realised it was for Lotus sports cars...ah well.. still a good thing though.. hmm.. sports cars...