Since 2010, the "D.Ey Group of Companies" has been offering services for the development, installation and configuration of Lotus Nootes, as well as technical support and maintenance of information systems for electronic document management and other software solutions in the Lotus environment.
The range of software solutions using the Lotus environment is quite wide: from converting workflows into electronic form, installing a mail server, a server for exchanging messages between users, a Web server, to a work time scheduling system, resource management and reliable information security.
About the Lotus Notes platform
Lotus Notes is a powerful client-server software for automating collaboration and management activities, solving workflow problems, storing semi-structured information in corporate Internet / Intranet systems.
A feature of Lotus Notes / Domino is an object-oriented architecture, thanks to which it is possible to create information systems that automate the work with complex structured data and non-formalized dynamic processes. The software product contains basic functions that allow organizing the work of distributed work groups and creating applications for automating processes, therefore it is incorrect to consider Lotus Notes a complete system for automating enterprise activities (just as, for example, it cannot be considered an accounting system MS SQL server). Lotus Notes is the platform for such applications. Electronic document management systems and other complete solutions based on the Lotus Notes / Domino platform are developed and distributed by third-party software vendors.
Main features included in the basic Lotus Notes / Domino delivery
- runtime for group automation applications
- crypto protection (encryption and electronic signature)
- email client
- apps server
- mail server
- group calendar, task planner
- lotus Sametime instant messenger client (Sametime server is a standalone product)
- web server - to provide access to Lotus Notes applications through a browser
- LDAP server
- replication - synchronization between remotely remote database instances
- domino Enterprise connection services (DECS)
IBM Lotus Notes / Domino supported by most modern industry technologies and standards
- Email: SMTP, POP3, IMAP, MIME, DNSBL (anti-spam)
- Instant messenger: Sametime
- Reading news: RSS, Usenet (NNTP)
- Full-text search in object-oriented databases
- Database: Object-oriented DBMS, Client-server technology, Formats: NSF and NSFDB2
- Server: Cluster support (server group collaboration), Server partitions (partitioned servers) - the ability to install multiple Lotus Domino servers on one hardware server, SMP, Passthru - end-to-end connection ("proxy" via the NotesRPC protocol)
- Client: Lotus Notes (multiplatform, there are implementations for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X), built in the Eclipse environment, Thin client (HTTP and HTTPS)
- Network Protocols: TCP / IP - by default Lotus Notes runs on TCP port 1352, IPX / SPX, NetBIOS
- Replication.
- Programming languages: @ -formulas, Lotus Script, Java, JavaScript
- Integration with DBMS and other applications (by data and program calls): CORBA, COM, XML, ODBC, DDE, OLE
- Crypto protection (Encryption and Digital Signature): X.509, SSL, S / MIME
- Authentication: built-in, LDAP support
Additional IBM solutions included in the IBM Lotus Notes / Domino license
- IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition
- IBM Lotus Expeditor
- IBM Lotus Notes Traveler
- IBM Lotus Sametime Entry
- IBM Lotus Workflow
- IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator
- IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
Traditionally, IBM Lotus Notes / Domino is used to create information systems of the following direction
- Directories, filing cabinets, reference books, any information repositories in which the concept of "document" arises by itself.
- Electronic document flow (workflow, business process automation) - applications with rather complex logic (branching document routes, many different document states, approval and rejection, etc.), documents move from one user to another, status is tracked, notifications are sent. Electronic document management, document management systems, document management are the main areas of application for Lotus.
- Collaboration with data - group development of documents, viewing documents by various groups of users, sharing information. Unlike electronic document management systems, it does not take into account document routes.
- Internet applications, right down to websites and portals. Domino includes a powerful web server that allows you to transform information stored in databases on the fly into Internet standards that can be viewed by web browsers.
- Logs, archives, data accounting.
The IBM Lotus Notes / Domino family of products includes the following components
- Lotus Domino is an application server and database management system.
- Lotus Notes is a standard client workstation.
- Lotus Domino Administrator - an administrator's workstation that allows you to conveniently manage Lotus Domino servers
- Lotus Domino Designer is a developer workstation for creating applications.
- Lotus Sametime - a video conferencing, instant messaging and web conferencing system
Lotus Notes is ideal for electronic document management systems, especially for geographically distributed organizations. By using a non-relational database structure, the platform implements the ability to replicate documents between servers and delimit access to documents.
Installing Lotus Notes / Domino provides:
- creation of a qualitatively new level of management based on electronic documents;
- improving management efficiency by documenting all activities of the organization
- increasing the transparency of business processes at all levels of management;
- reduction of document processing cycles and execution time of control functions;
- ensuring maximum transparency of the processing of documents and assignments and the possibility of operational control of all stages of management processes;
- creation of a unified information space of the enterprise.
For questions about the implementation and operation of Lotus products, please call the company. We will install and configure Lotus Notes for you.
IBM Lotus Notes (also Lotus Notes, Lotus Notes / Domino) is a software product, a platform for automating joint activities of working groups (Groupware). Produced by IBM Lotus Software, a subsidiary of the company IBM Software Group.
2018: Notes / Domino passes to HCL Technologies (India)
As of December 7, 2018 the company HCL Technologies headquartered in Noida ( India) will acquire from the corporation IBM $ 1.8 billion in software assets. The companies have already agreed to sell eight applications to HCL Technologies, including the landmark Notes / Domino product.
Upon completion of the deal in the first half of 2019, HCL Technologies will also become the full owner of the products Appscan , BigFix , Unica, Commerce, market oriented ecommerce and human resources.
As of December 2018, the parties are in the status of intellectual property partners for five of these applications.
The reasons why IBM made the decision to transfer its developments to a third-party company were not disclosed.
Notes is a software package designed to automate collaboration between work groups. This is a whole range of software solutions, which includes, among other things, tools for working with by email , an instant messaging system and an application for working with group calendars. The platform exists in versions for OS Microsoft Windows , Linux and Apple Mac OS.
The second no less significant IBM product, which in six months will pass into the possession of HCL Technologies, is Domino, server room part of Notes. Domino also includes a number of services, including DBMS , directory server and mail.
IBM's transfer of ownership of its software products to India's HCL Technologies does not mean that the corporation is facing difficulties. On the contrary, 2018 became a productive year for her: in March 2018, she introduced a tiny microchip that supports the technology blockchain , and at the end of October 2018 acquired company Red Hat for $ 34 billion
2012
IBM Notes / Domino - Social Edition 9.0
As Ed Brill, director of product line management for IBM Collaboration Solutions, wrote in a blog post, according to a survey, two-thirds of IBM business partners plan to roll out a new release in the first three months after release.
The commercial version of Notes / Domino Social Edition 9.0 will be released in the first quarter of 2013.
IBM buries the Lotus brand
The version is also notable for the fact that for the first time the system should join the IBM product line under the corporate brand, without using the Lotus name, Brill said. At the same time, the name of the Lotus system has been used by the "blue giant" ever since IBM was taken over by the Lotus Development Corporation in 1995.
IBM had previously announced that the next Notes / Domino release would have serial number 8.5.4, but the volume of changes in the system was so significant that it was decided to assign the serial number 9.0 to the release.
One of the new features of the system will be the ability to run some Notes applications in an unmoderated manner through browsers on a PC running Windows so enterprises don't need to install a full Notes client to work.
The update will also include a redesigned user interface, new mail and calendar capabilities, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) support, a number of improvements for the XPages development platform, and more.
The Notes / Domino Social Edition was first announced at the Lotusphere 2012 conference, and it took about a year to develop the release. The first limited beta code was demonstrated in April 2012. Businesses interested in testing the beta can register.
According to the plan, the full release of the system will be released in the first quarter of 2013.
2009
Platform advantages
()
- the ability to create geographically distributed systems;
- open architecture, a mechanism for developing applications;
- the ability to work for mobile and offline users;
- support for modern replication technology with minimized traffic, allowing users to work efficiently even in the absence of network access;
- built-in instant messaging;
- integrability with other information systems (compatibility with data types IBM DB2, Oracle , Sybase, MS SQL, ODBC);
- document-oriented databases - the ability to work with any type of electronic documents, including unstructured data;
- iT infrastructure security - a multilevel security model, configurable from the server level to the level of an individual field in a document;
- platform independence - the Domino server runs on various operating systems ( Windows NT , OS / 2 , Unix , Linux , iSeries).
Description
Positioning
Lotus Notes is a platform for building applications for automation of management and document processes. A feature of the system is an object-oriented architecture, thanks to which it is possible to create information systems that automate the work with complex-structured data and non-formalized dynamic processes. The software product contains only basic functions that allow organizing the work of distributed work groups and creating applications for process automation, therefore Lotus Notes it is incorrect to consider a complete system of enterprise activity automation (just as, for example, the MS SQL server cannot be considered an accounting system). Lotus Notes is a platform for such applications. Electronic document management systems and other complete solutions on the platform Lotus Notes / Domino developed and distributed by third-party software vendors.
Terminology
Full official product name: IBM Lotus Notes / Domino.
IBM has used the following terminology since 1996:
- Notes - client workstation software.
- Domino - server software.
Prior to version 4.5 inclusive, the name "Domino" was used for a stand-alone application that added web server functionality to the Notes server. With the release of version 4.6 in 1996, the web server functionality was included with the Notes server. The server changed its name to "Domino Server" instead of Notes Server.
From version 5.0 client side Lotus Notes consists of three parts:
- IBM Lotus Notes Client - user's workplace
- IBM Lotus Domino Designer - application developer's workplace Lotus Notes (programmer)
- IBM Lotus Domino Administrator - system administrator workstation Lotus Notes.
Main functions
Basic functions included in the basic delivery Lotus Notes / Domino version 7.0.2:
- runtime for group automation applications
- crypto protection ( encryption and electronic signature)
- client email
- apps server
- mail server
- group calendar, task planner
- lotus Sametime instant messaging client (Sametime server is a standalone product)
- web server - to provide access to applications Lotus Notes via browser
- LDAP server
- Replication - synchronization between remotely remote database instances
- domino Enterprise connection services (DECS)
Features:
- Cross-platform... A significant feature is cross-platform Lotus Notes... The current version is certified IBM to work with the following operating systems:
- Lotus Domino server - Windows NT (32 and 64 bit), GNU / Linux (Red Hat , SuSE), Solaris, OS / 400, AIX, OS / 390)
- Lotus Notes client - Windows NT (32 bit), Mac OS X, GNU / Linux
- Replication
- Fast RAD and application deployment. The IBM Lotus Domino Designer application development environment provides developers with advanced core services for developing document-oriented applications. Application code and visual forms are physically stored in databases where they are used and executed. When changes are made to the program code or form, the changes become available to all users and servers accessing the database in which the changed code or form is stored. Changes are sent to other servers through replication during the first session.
- Run applications offline The Lotus Notes client allows you to locally (on the user's computer) store Lotus Notes databases, replicate them with the Domino server, work with local databases when there is no connection to the Domino server, and execute the server program code in local databases. This functionality supports a fully functional user experience when disconnected from the server (for example, on a laptop). Changes on the local (user) computer and on the server are mutually synchronized through replication.
- Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Crypto functions using public keys - encryption and digital signature are the core services of the Lotus Notes core. Each user of the system receives a pair of keys during registration: the public key is stored in the general (public) address book and is available (for reading) to users from the server, and the secret key is stored locally in the user's identification file.
- Electronic digital signature it is used for user and / or server authentication by the server, when determining the level of trust in the executed code, when checking the validity of mail messages, documents (records in the database) and individual fields.
- Encryption used for mail messages, entire databases, individual documents (records in the database), individual fields and network traffic between two Lotus Domino servers, as well as between the server and the Lotus Notes client.
Current versions
For November 2018 IBM Lotus Software maintains and develops the following product versions Lotus Notes / Domino:
| Product | Language | Version 7.0 | Version 8.0 | Version 8.5 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| release | date | release | date | release | date | ||
| Lotus Notes Client | English | 7.0.4 | april 2009 | 8.0.2 FP1 | january 2009 | 8.5 | january 2009 |
| Russian | 7.0.3 | march 2008 | 8.0.2 | december 2008 | 8.5 | march 2009 | |
| Lotus Domino Server | English | 7.0.4 | april 2009 | 8.0.2 FP1 | january 2009 | 8.5 | january 2009 |
Supported technologies
(Data is current as of November 2018)
- Email
- SMTP
- POP3
- IMAP
- MIME
- DNSBL (anti-spam)
- Instant messenger
- Sametime
- Reading news
- Usenet (NNTP)
- Full text search
- Database
- Object oriented DBMS
- Client-server technology
- Formats: NSF and NSFDB2
- Server
- Cluster (server group)
- Partitioned servers - the ability to install several Lotus Domino servers on one hardware server
- Passthru - end-to-end connection ("proxy" via NotesRPC protocol)
- Client
- Eclipse
- Thin client (HTTP and HTTPS)
- [Network Protocols "
- TCP / IP protocol stack- default Lotus Notes operates on TCP port 1352
- IPX / SPX
- NetBIOS
- Replication
- Programming languages
- @ -formulas
- Lotus Script
- JavaScript
- Integration with DBMS and other applications (by data and program calls)
- CORBA
- ODBC
- Crypto protection (Encryption and Electronic digital signature)
- X.509
- S / MIME
Andrey Akopyants
Our weaknesses are a continuation of our strengths
Folk wisdom ...
Virtually all information technology professionals have heard of Lotus Notes (LN), but relatively few have dealt with it in practice. As a result, there is a catastrophic deficit of objective information on Lotus. All available publications about this product are in the form of advertising brochures or excerpts from technical descriptions.
Where there is no objective information, it is replaced by myths. Now in Russia, Lotus is being promoted mainly as a system for organizing corporate document management, although in reality this is not entirely true. Opinions about this product are polarized - some present it as a panacea for all diseases of corporate automation, others do not want to hear about it.
At the same time, the real value of Lotus Notes for the corporate market is extremely high. Many large Russian companies are now on the verge of choosing a corporate information environment, and Lotus is one of the main contenders for this. Therefore, it seemed important to me to tell you what LN really is, what problems it solves, and what it creates.
I have long cherished this idea, reading descriptions and asking friends. The final impetus for me was my acquaintance with the former head of IT of a very large bank, who told about some of the features of LN operation that he had to face.
A bit of history
Lotus was a pioneer in many areas of the software business. Now many do not remember this, but at the very beginning of the 90s "Lotus 1-2-3" was synonymous with a spreadsheet - it simply had no worthy competitors ... The "CC-mail" mail program remained the best corporate mail system until the middle 90s.
There were no analogues of the LN released in the late 80s at all - they had to come up with a separate term for it - "GroopWare" (ensuring teamwork). It was the first and for a long time the only system that really allows for the rapid creation of a single information space for a company and a system of corporate communications.
LN's triumphal march lasted for almost ten years, and its main users were large and medium-sized corporations. It is not surprising that IBM, which traditionally serves the Top1000 of the world business, showed interest in Lotus, and in the end bought this company in the bud. So now Lotus is a division of IBM, which retained some independence, and the "Lotus" trademark.
Now, however, only Lotus Notes really remains on the market from the entire Lotus product line - the rest of the office applications have practically died, unable to withstand competition with Microsoft Office ... And Lotus Notes has not only remained, but is actively promoting - at least in the Russian market.
Lotus Notes - what is it?
In simple terms, LN is a hybrid of a DBMS and a mail system that has a number of interesting features. There are also a number of possibilities for organizing structured communication - forums, calendars, etc.
The main feature of the Lotus database is its focus on storing large, poorly structured documents and working with them collectively. Collective work means the ability for several people to edit the same record (document) at the same time. Accordingly, it supports hardware versions and the ability to track changes made by individual users. In addition to texts, records of Lotus databases can contain an arbitrary number of user-configurable attributes of different types. Moreover, setting up the composition of the requisites is quite simple and within the power of end users. Documents in the database can refer to each other (something like web hypertext links), and by clicking on the link in the text of the document, you can open another document.
LN implements a sophisticated user rights management system that allows you to assign rights to individual users and their groups both to databases and to documents and their individual fields. Authentication of documents using an electronic signature is also supported - i.e. when placed in the database, a created or modified document can be signed by the signature of the employee who worked with it.
The mail program and other applications (forums, scheduling, etc.) are built on top of this very document storage system. Address books, folders with letters, calendars, etc. are also entries in the database, and all common mechanisms apply to them - versions, support for teamwork, etc.
Another basic mechanism, first implemented in Lotus Notes, is replication - i.e. the ability of LN servers to synchronize their databases, send documents to each other in their free time from the main work. Thus, it is possible to work in a geographically distributed environment with slow communication channels, when each employee works with his nearest server (i.e. fast), and, say, at night these servers synchronize their databases.
Naturally, it is possible to develop specialized applications in the LN environment. For this purpose, the system has a built-in programming language (Lotus script) that provides access to the system API and allows you to create fairly complex applications. You can also develop applications for Lotus in more traditional Java & JavaScript, which also have object libraries for working with the Lotus API.
but on the other hand
Lotus is an extremely functional system with an elegant architecture that really allows you to create a common information environment in a large company with many offices in different cities and countries. And in this capacity, he practically had no competitors for almost ten years. During this time, it has gained well-deserved popularity - according to official data, it is used by about 700 companies from the Top 1000 world business.
But times are changing ... And what yesterday was an advantage, today it often becomes a disadvantage that causes a hefty headache for users and support services.
Lotus Notes is a functionally closed system that provides the user with all the necessary tools for work - a text editor, a mail program, a scheduling system, etc. And as long as the user uses Lotus applications for these purposes, everything is very convenient and good.
But today a significant part of users prefer to use office applications from other companies - for example, Microsoft, which have become the de facto standard today. In the Lotus-ovsky document storage you can store "foreign" files, but as soon as we start using MS Word together with Lotus, it immediately turns out that half of all the charms that were when working with the built-in LN editor are lost.
But problems are added - special export-import procedures. Not to mention the fact that the ergonomics of Lotus applications leaves much to be desired - at least when switching to them from Microsoft products.
Another feature that has shown its downside is replication combined with overall resource requirements. The head of the IT department of a large bank that I mentioned, which had more than 2,000 jobs on LotusNotes, recalled how they had replication between cool servers over dedicated fiber for hours (which means that people could not get urgent documents sent to them for approval for hours).
And the need for multiple servers arose due to the fact that single servers could not cope with the load, since LN, due to its integration, is very demanding on server resources. And when they ended up rewriting the app to MS SQL , it turned out that all users are calmly "pulled" by one not the coolest server, and the bandwidth of the channels (which was not enough for replication) is quite enough for normal remote work of users.
With large database volumes, the "birth trauma" of Lotus Notes also appears - its data storage system does not support a number of things that are standard for modern DBMS and are absolutely necessary for the functioning of real automation systems.
- First, the Lotus Notes database does not support transactions - i.e. consistent changes to multiple tables, performed as a single unit. Those. if, for example, an application running on a client managed to modify one record, but did not manage to another, and "fell" (for example, the light turned off), then in the LN database the changed record will remain so, while in all modern DBMSs in In such a situation, the server will rollback to the initial state. Because of this, maintaining the integrity of large databases on LN becomes problematic.
- Second, as we said above, LN supports the ability to link documents. But at the same time, there is no referential integrity control in it - you can safely delete the document to which someone refers, and a "dangling" link is formed. Naturally, there are no more advanced integrity control mechanisms such as constraints in relational databases.
- And finally, thirdly - unlike modern relational DBMSs, where a record is indexed when it is placed into the database, indexing in LN is a separate process that occurs asynchronously.
The picture of operational "charms" is complemented by a "thick" client (not just thick, but very thick) with a large client-server traffic and an application development environment that requires rare and therefore expensive programmers.
Specialists who use Lotus notes also complain about the laboriousness of the initial installation and configuration, and, much more seriously, a large number of critical errors for operation, including in the security system, which are very slowly fixed by the development company.
Lotus as a document management system
But maybe Lotus is so good as a document management system that all of the above can be ignored? Indeed, LN has one big plus in this capacity - it allows you to quickly create a corporate document repository and provide basic procedures for working with it.
But along with this he also has a big drawback - that, apart from this, Lotus itself is not able to do anything else. Those. it is possible to make a layout with the basic means of Lotus, but it is not possible to implement a full-fledged corporate document management system that meets the requirements of the State Standard. Saying - "We will buy Lotus Notes for office automation" is the same nonsense as "We will buy MS SQL for office automation". It is necessary to either develop a system using LN as a tool or buy a specialized solution.
The advantage of LN as a development environment is the presence of a number of built-in mechanisms for working with documents. We talked about the shortcomings above - expensive developers, outdated data storage technology and difficulties in integrating with other systems.
In general, it turns out that with a slightly less laboriousness, the development time of an application system based on Lotus does not differ from similar developments based on, say, MS SQL and Visual basic , and the cost (taking into account licenses and expensive developers) may significantly exceed. Not to mention the fact that the operational properties of LN-based systems, such as reliability and efficiency, are noticeably worse than those of solutions based on full-fledged DBMS.
There are specialized solutions for organizing office work in Lotus on the Russian market. The most common systems are the development of the Intertrust company - "Office Media", the "Boss-Referent" system from IT Co. and "Cinderella" developed by the Moscow Development Institute, and a number of other systems.
But they cost additional money to the Lotus Notes itself, are not ready-made products, but rather "semi-finished products". According to experts, their functionality and operational characteristics are also inferior to systems implemented on the basis of full-fledged DBMS and functioning in the Microsft Office environment, such as Delo from Electronic Office Systems, LanDocs from Lanit, Optima Workflow from Optima.
Conclusion
And yet, why, with all of the above, Lotus Notes is sufficiently popular with IT managers and continues its expansion into large Russian companies?
Apparently, there are two main reasons.
- First, there are conjunctural and image considerations - like "we have everything, like the leaders of Western business - that's Lotus Notes."
- Second, LN creates the illusion of a quick fix. With relatively little effort, you can get a visible result and solve a layer of the simplest tasks. And the fact that it will be very difficult to further develop this solution - so by that time either the business will die, or the IT manager will change ...
Also, you shouldn't discount the active direct marketing policy of IBM partners.
What are the prospects for this product in the market? Those who have been exploiting hundreds and thousands of LN jobs for many years, most likely, will never give up on it - at least until the next year 2000 level cataclysm. Simply because the costs of switching to something else will be too great - the emerging problems are easier and cheaper to solve within its framework ...
But it seems to me that in modern conditions Lotus Notes is already going into those deep-sea troughs of the market, where the Loch Ness monsters, IBM's mainframes and Cobol live. Lotus will live there forever, but for companies choosing solutions for themselves now, it doesn't make much sense to bet on Lotus Notes.
In any case, you need to clearly understand that Lotus Notes is not just one of the systems used by the company. This is a whole world in which you need to immerse yourself completely, while leaving the mainstream, which today, whether we like it or not, is still a component architecture based on Microsoft solutions.
A highly secure, full-featured collaboration application environment tailored to the needs of midsize businesses
IBM Domino Collaboration and Messaging Express software offers a highly secure, full-featured email application environment and a wide range of business and collaboration applications. Its packaging and price are focused on the needs of medium-sized businesses, and support is provided on a wide range of platforms and operating systems. Three offerings for small and midsize businesses up to 1000 users that provide e-mail, scheduling and instant messaging capabilities, and support a wide range of business applications - Lotus Domino Messaging Express, Lotus Domino Collaboration Express, and Lotus Domino Server Express.
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IBM Notes (formerly: IBM Lotus Notes)
IBM Notes (formerly: IBM Lotus Notes) is a desktop client for social business. It provides access to the people, business applications, and information that you need across the enterprise and the Internet. Now you can do your job faster and more efficiently. IBM Notes software helps you get things done quickly by providing a single point of access for information creation, knowledge sharing, team collaboration, and decision making. Eliminating traditional workplace constraints, IBM Notes software helps you connect with people and find information across the enterprise and on the Internet. |
Summarizing the past decade, InformationWeek magazine named Lotus Notes one of the most important products of the 90s, which is most closely integrated with the concept of "teamwork". Over the past decade, Lotus has really put in a lot of effort to evolve the functionality of Lotus Domino and Notes into cutting-edge Internet products, and entered the year 2000 with a total of more than 56 million Lotus Notes users.
The market for “integrated collaboration systems,” as defined by the GartnerGroup, is one of the largest segments of the global software market, and the applications for which these technologies are used are categorized as “critical” and “vital”. Suffice it to say that in 1998 the “average” European organization spent $ 89,000 on collaboration systems and $ 48,000 on messaging and e-mail software, according to IDC1. In countries such as Sweden, the percentage of people doing intellectual work and using systems for teamwork has reached almost 70%.
Nevertheless, very often among potential users of these technologies there is a lack of understanding of what this concept - “integrated systems for collaboration” includes, as well as what constitutes the essence of Lotus Domino and Notes technologies, in particular. It is to these questions that this article is devoted.
Formally defined in this short introduction, Lotus Domino and Notes are tools for collecting, organizing, and distributing information and knowledge.
Based on the actual practice of use, the following groups of organizations can be distinguished that have chosen and are choosing these technologies for themselves.
The first group consists of organizations that need e-mail, messaging and communications infrastructure: modern, reliable and scalable. Lotus Domino is a mail server and Lotus Notes is an advanced email client.
The second group consists of organizations that use Domino and Notes as a platform and infrastructure for business applications, automation of business procedures, workflow, etc. Lotus Domino is an application server, and Lotus Notes is a client for running business applications, working with information and documents, including offline.
The third user group selects Lotus Domino as the unique technologies for creating Web infrastructure... Lotus Domino is a Web server with advanced capabilities for dynamic updates, information categorization, full-text search, and more.
Finally, the fourth group of organizations selects Lotus Domino and Notes as their integrating software, or "middleware" that can integrate information and data from virtually arbitrary information sources - relational DBMSs, enterprise resource management (ERP) systems such as SAP R / 3, Internet environments, and so on.
Ultimately, most Lotus Domino and Notes users realize the possibility of solving the entire range of the above tasks on the basis of a single technological platform and create an information infrastructure that allows them to say: "The effective work of our organization would not be possible without Domino and Notes."
It should be noted that Lotus Domino and Notes are multi-platform products. Domino server versions are available for most common operating systems and hardware platforms, such as Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT, Linux, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX, OS / 2, Novell NetWare, OS / 400, OS / 390, Mac, giving users of these technologies the freedom to choose the platform that meets the needs of the organization.
The product is localized, and its users in Russia are hundreds and thousands of organizations.
2. History of Lotus Domino and Notes
Lotus Notes has its roots in some of the first computer programs written at the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the University of Illinois. In 1973, CERL released a product called PLATO Notes. At that time, the only function of PLATO Notes was to attach user ID and date errors to error reports, and to ensure that the file was protected from deletion by other users. The system staff is thus able to respond to the problem reports that appear at the bottom of the screen. This method of secure communication between users was the basis of PLATO Notes.
In 1976, a product was released called PLATO Group Notes. Group Notes inherited the original PLATO Notes concept and was its logical development in terms of organizing user feedback. Feedback from the latter about the new product turned out to be positive, Group Notes began to be actively used and as a result became the prototype of many software products using the “notes” metaphor.
Lotus Notes creator Ray Ozzie worked on the PLATO operating system at CERL in the late 1970s. He was impressed by the system and its communication capabilities. Using the knowledge gained at CERL, Ray Ozzie begins work on a proposal for a notes product for the PC. Initially, he experienced difficulties associated with the lack of funding sources.
Mitch Kapor, founder and then CEO of Lotus Development Corporation, believed in what was a completely new concept at the time. Kapor was not only inspired by this idea, but also expressed a desire to invest Lotus money in the development of a new product. Kapor's insight, his creativity and willingness to overcome his own mistrust predetermined the transformation of Ozzy's speculations into reality.
In July 1984, Ozzy and Kapor began working on an innovation that led, five months later, to the founding of Iris Associates, Inc., a Lotus-funded company with a contractual relationship with the latter. Iris was tasked with developing the first release version of Notes.
The main idea was to develop software designed to provide collaboration and messaging capabilities. At that time, most users had not yet thought about it and had no interest in using computers for this purpose. The developers have modeled Lotus Notes based on PLATO Notes, but added a lot of powerful new functionality to the product.
Initially, Notes was presented to developers as a combination of online discussion tools, e-mail, phone books, and document-based databases. This approach posed two problems. First, network technologies in the form in which they are known to us now did not exist then. As a result, developers initially had to sell the idea of \u200b\u200bNotes as a Personal Information Manager (PIM), a kind of "electronic organizer" with some collaborative capabilities. Second, at that time, operating systems were underdeveloped, and developers had to write a lot of system code to create a Name Server, databases and network communications. With the development of networking technologies, developers began to market the idea of \u200b\u200bNotes as groupware, which meant the ability to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate efforts between groups of users.
The Macintosh, the brainchild of Apple Corporation, soon followed with a new, easy-to-use graphical user interface. This influenced the Notes developers to provide their new product with a character-oriented graphical interface. The initial vision of the founders quickly evolved to the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a product to support virtual communities of people. Thinking about creating software for group work in 1984 was an eccentric affair - at that time, most users did not yet know what email was. This product was way ahead of its time. It was the first commercial client-server product.
It took several years to develop Notes, which is a lot by today's standards, but this is what made Notes so successful. After allowing themselves the luxury of five years of development, the creators of Notes released an exceptionally solid product that had virtually no competition in the marketplace. It took competitors years to create something similar to Notes. However, to date, none of the products have all the features inherent in Notes.
Most of the kernel development was completed within two years, but the developers spent another year migrating the client and server code from Windows to OS / 2. During this period, Iris developers used Notes to communicate remotely with Lotus staff. The daily use of the product has been very helpful in developing key functionality. For example, developers needed to synchronize data between two remote offices, and they invented replication - one of the strongest features of Notes. Interestingly, this was not even part of the original plans, but the problem arose and was resolved.
In August 1986, Notes already had many of its unique functionality, and preliminary documentation was ready for it. The product was ready for delivery to Lotus internal users. At this time, Lotus evaluated and accepted the product. Lotus acquired the rights to Notes in 1987.
The fate of Lotus Notes was successful even before its first version-release came out. The head of Price Waterhouse watched the Lotus Notes demo before the first release was released. The product impressed him so much that he immediately bought 10,000 copies of Notes. At the time, this was record sales for PC-oriented products. As the first major buyer of Notes, Price Waterhouse predicted that Notes would revolutionize business processes at the time. The Price Waterhouse employees were right.
The commercial second version of Lotus Notes has been on the market since 1991, and for a long time the product remained the only technology to support collaboration between people.
Then the Internet appeared, with its own capabilities for storing and exchanging information between geographically dispersed groups of people - about what Notes had been able to do for a number of years. In 1995, there were many articles in the computer press that the fate of Notes was sealed and would be replaced by more open and cheaper Internet technologies.
However, in November 1995, Lotus, already part of the IBM corporation at the time, announced a strategy to add support for Internet standards to the extensive Notes functionality (then 3.3x) and radically reduce prices. Since then, Lotus has released several new versions of Notes, and since version 4.5, the server's Internet functionality has been such that the company has felt it necessary to rename the Notes backend to Domino Server.
And today, at the beginning of a new decade and a new century, Lotus Domino and Notes continue to be the best collaboration products that enable organizations to ensure effective collaboration between people. Lotus Domino is also an industry-leading Web, application and e-mail server. So even if an organization is not interested in using Notes for collaboration, there are many reasons to choose a Domino server as the backbone of their Internet / intranet infrastructure.
There is no room in this article for a detailed history of Notes development, from the first version to the fifth version, which was released by Lotus in 1999. Therefore, let's go straight to the opportunities that this technology provides today. The following is a very short summary of Domino and Notes.
3. What is Notes and Lotus Solution Architecture
Notes is a very elegant application. It is a versatile product whose functionality is so extensive that it is fundamentally different from other applications. This is the reason why it is sometimes difficult for users to grasp the uniqueness of the capabilities of this technology. However, once you understand how Notes works, it becomes clear that the technology is indeed superior to many similar Internet tools or products from other vendors in the field of collaboration systems.
The work of modern organizations, be they commercial structures or government agencies, is based on the active interaction of people, departments and other organizations external to them.
All forms of such interaction can be divided into three groups, or the so-called three K:
- Communications: you and your organization may request or transmit information from someone.
- Cooperation: people and organizations use collaborative workspaces (buildings, campuses, etc.) to get work done, and it requires informal interaction between people to get the work done.
- Coordination: there are certain processes in which different people and organizations are involved, for example, the process of approving an order or passing a payment order, obeying predefined rules.
If we talk about computer technologies that respond and support these three forms of interaction, then these are, respectively:
- Email and messaging systems
- Shared databases
- Automation tools for business procedures (workflow)
The three technologies listed above are at the core of Lotus Domino and Notes.
Lotus Domino and Notes could be described as a shared, distributed database system integrated with e-mail capabilities.
- A collective access database implies the ability of a large number of users to simultaneously access and update the content of the databases.
- Distribution means that databases can be located simultaneously on a large number of servers, which periodically send updates to each other so that after a certain time, changes in data made on one server will reach any other. This process is called replication.
- Databases integrated with email capabilities mean that not only people — Notes users can exchange mail, but Notes databases and applications can send documents and messages to both people and other Notes databases and applications. And this is a critical property when automating business flows and procedures (workflow).
Important for understanding the capabilities of Domino and Notes is the so-called Lotus Solution Architecture. This concept (see table) was developed by Lotus Consulting in accordance with the principles of a systems approach. It provides a holistic approach to classifying communications and collaboration technologies on the Domino and Notes platform.
From the point of view of the considered concept, the chosen communication platform should have the following capabilities. First, it must support the entire range of technologies for creating a corporate system, which are listed above (corporate e-mail system, shared access databases, tools for automating business procedures).
Second, solutions based on this platform must function effectively at three levels of organizational complexity:
1. The level of departments and divisions.
2. The level of the integrated organization.
3. The level of the extended organization (includes all communications with the outside world - partners, customers, service providers, etc.).
In this sense, Lotus Domino and Notes provide a complete collaboration solution and enable you to tackle technologically complex challenges at any organizational level. Lotus Domino is at the same time an e-mail server, an application server for working with documents and creating systems for automating business procedures, a Web server, supplemented by extensive integration capabilities with relational DBMS and enterprise resource management systems (ERP systems). Lotus Notes is an integrated email and Internet client, collaboration and document client that provides, among other things, a mobile user experience.
In accordance with this approach, one or another solution in terms of applied technologies and organizational complexity falls into one of nine categories. Everything on the top level of the extended organization is Internet technologies, the bottom two rows are internal corporate intranet systems. The e-business technologies that are so much talked about right now are the top two right squares, which are standards-based Internet technologies that provide a means of collaboration and coordination among various organizations involved in common production processes.
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