The Notes File Navigator - pure genius!

One of the best tools to come out through OpenNTF is the File Navigator widget available for download here. The screenshot tells it all:



If you're the kind of knowledge worker who bounces between Notes and Symphony throughout the day then you'll find this tool invaluable. I especially like the drag and drop for email attachments - goodbye paperclip! Thanks to Xiao Lei, Jian Kang and Rene Winkelmeyer for this masterpiece.

NOTE: You will have to upgrade to R8.5x to use this widget.
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Secondhand Lotussphere news about Lotus Foundations

I'd like to be at Lotussphere but I'm not. So be it. What I can do is to scan the other blogs and consolidate the news I read about Foundations. So far I've found two gems:

1. Release 8.5 coming for Foundations. Time do dive a bit deeper into XPages.
2. The ability to plug-in a new Foundations server into an existing Domino infrastructure which raises the question of whether existing Notes client licenses are going to be automatically upgraded to Foundations licenses. Up till now the answer has been "No" but management of a combined native Domino server + Foundations server infrastructure while trying to maintain a segregated license model sounds like quite a challenge. I need to do some research on this one.
   

PS I appreciate PlanetLotus readers will already have read this news on other blogs. This post is for those loyal "Foundation and Empire" readers who don't have time to keep up with PlanetLotus.

EDIT: And if you believe everything you read on Twitter then Foundations 'Branch Office' will be released tomorrow.
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Digging for VMWare images

Since VMWare will be available on Lotus Foundations Server from early 2009 it makes sense to start checking out some of the prepackaged VMWare options that are available. A good starting point is VMWare themselves. Linux installations are available at ThoughtPolice and Chrysoar and doubtless half a hundred other sites, while some sites sell VMWare images of commercial applications.

In addition to their download area,Virtualisation.info provides a comprehensive blog and news service about what's happening in the virtualisation industry. Since they had ads for both Microsoft Hyper-V and for VMWare on their web page then I guess they qualify as unbiased :)

Of course you always have the option to create a VMWare environment from your own PC using the free VMWare Converter so here's a chance to convince your significant other that all of the time you are spending playing Fallout 3 is actually work related "Sorry Honey, I'm still getting a sparodic flutter in the video drivers running in the VMWare session but I should have it nailed down after playing this game for another three hours... or maybe by tomorrow... or by February at the latest".

These sites are the tip of the iceberg. There's plenty more out there.
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Please read This then kill yourself...

Under the restrictions of IBM's beta program I'm probably not allowed to tell you that I'm now enrolled in the IBM Lotus Foundations Start 1.1 beta program with support for Microsoft® Windows® applications through the use of the VMWare® Server technology. However if you kill yourself before you pass on that information to anyone else then IBM will probably be just as happy :)

What I can tell you is that I've already identified two of my four Windows-based work machines which I'll be retiring when I get VMWare up and running.
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So what the heck is a Hypervisor?

Wikipedia's description of a Hypervisor as " ... a virtualization platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time" is a pretty good answer. Putting it at its most basic level, you can minimise your maximum exposure to Windows Server failures without losing any Windows functionality. Here's an example:

1. You run up a Lotus Foundations Server which can create VMWare sessions as required.
   
   
2. You want to run Active Directory on a Windows Server? No problem - kick off a VMWare session, load Windows Server and start Active Directory.
   
   
3. You want your Lotus Foundations server to be a member of that Active Directory Domain? No problem - register your Lotus Foundations Server on the Active Directory running on the Windows server which only exists in the VMWare session running on the Lotus Foundations Server which you are joining to the Domain.
   
   (Yeah, my head is starting to hurt too)
   

So now we are running an encapsulated MS Server with Active Directory where it can't hurt anybody. If that Windows server pulls a BSOD then you can close that VMWare session and restart your Windows server with Active Directory in a new session. Lotus Foundations won't mind and your users probably won't even notice. You can run other MS server tasks in their own VMWare session - even MS Exchange Server if you are so inclined. Suddenly you have the option to pick and choose which Windows servers you let out of the sandbox. Maybe after a few months you'll notice that the Emperor Has No Clothes and you don't actually need Windows server at all.

My completely unauthorized uninformed SWAG (Scientific Wild-Assed Guess) is that we'll see the Hypervisor slipstreamed into Foundations in Q1/2009. If you are an existing Foundations customer or Lotus Business Partner then you can request to sign up for the beta code.

I'd say the addition of VMWare to Lotus Foundations Server is potentially one of the most significant threats to face the Microsoft Windows Server quasi-monopoly since Linux first started poking its nose into the corporate market. Be afraid Microsoft... be very afraid.
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'Microsoft Watch' bloopers

In his latest 'Microsoft Watch' blog post Joe Wilcox led with the line that "it's Linux versus Windows, baby" and I probably shouldn't blame him for that approach - even if you only drink bottled water over there, the fumes from the open kegs of Microsoft Kool-Aid must be overpowering. That is exactly the way that Microsoft want to see the SMB battlefield. When Microsoft defines the SMB market in terms of the base O/S they get an enormous marketing boost by specifying the system deliverables in terms of brand rather than functionality, and the Microsoft Windows brand is one of the strongest on the planet. IMHO "Linux versus Windows" has got nothing to do with the problem. They are both key components in some potential alternative solutions, but let's not muddy the waters by pretending that having Microsoft on the label automatically means a better answer.

Here's a hint Joe - SMB owners generally don't give a proverbial about what's under the hood - they just want to give their users the application services they need to get the job done. Sometimes those applications are from Microsoft and sometimes they are from IBM and sometimes they are from other vendors. The Lotus Foundations value proposition doesn't need the hardware component (or even Lotus Domino) to be an attractive investment for a SMB.

I don't understand why you are suggesting the IBM approach is different to Microsoft because IBM has announced an appliance (software plus hardware) while Microsoft is releasing a software package. Remember that Lotus Foundations Server software was originally released, and is still available, as a software package to install on third party hardware. The appliance offering is an option for those SMB who prefer that integrated model, but you don't need to take it if you don't want it. So at this point IBM is just offering a wider range of solution configurations than Microsoft. I guess Microsoft could eventually start bundling SBS on re-engineered HP hardware that provides the O/S on flash memory and includes intelligent Backup and Restore, but right now I'd say the Boys from Seattle are a looooooooooooooooong way behind on that kind of technology.

Perhaps you missed some key point on a few other issues:

• Office alternative Symphony is bundled along with Lotus Notes. - Yes, but Symphony is also available as a free download. You don't need to buy Foundations in order to install Symphony.
  
  
• IBM cut a virtualization deal with VMware—for businesses needing to run Windows applications. - Look a little deeper Joe. VMWare on Foundations allows a SMB to run Windows servers as well as applications. Are you fed up with your Server 2003 BSOD taking out your entire network and internet access? Does reinstalling or restoring Windows Server take your whole system off line for the whole day? Then run your Windows Server session inside a VMWare session on Lotus Foundations server and the only thing that a Windows Server malfunction can kill is itself. Lotus Foundations Server will keep right on running and apart from the people who need a Windows server application (accounting?) your users won't notice that it's gone.
  
  
• The business model is more subscription-like, which should appeal to channel partners and customers, particularly in these times of economic uncertainty. - Where the heck did this one come from? Sure you pay annual maintenance on the Foundations software and antispam/antivirus modules but that's the same with any server software. IBM has recently announced hosted Notes/Domino but that has nothing to do with Foundations. A SMB can opt for a hosted Foundations and Notes solution but they can do that with any server software if they can find a Business Partner who wants to sell them that service.
  
  
• Domain hosting is one of the service hybrids IBM offers with its Foundations appliance. - That depends how you define Domain Hosting. If you have an existing Domain name (say, www. acme.com) but you don't have a static IP address to nail the Domain Name to, then you can use the Lotus Foundations DynamicDNS service to ensure that your server can always be reached at www.acme.com. First, you instruct your ISP to point your Domain Name record to the Lotus DynamicDNS servers (which have a static IP address). Then when you reboot your Foundations server it takes note of the new IP address that it has been allocated and sends that information along with its Domain Name information to the Lotus DynamicDNS servers. All enquiries for www.acme.com will first go to the Lotus servers and are then automatically redirected to your own server. I don't consider that to be Domain Hosting since all Lotus is providing is a Domain Name redirection service.

You compared the pricing of Microsoft's Small Business Server 2008 "standard" edition as $1,089 for five users and the the "premium" version as $1,899 against the cost of a Lotus Foundations applicance as $2,499. That's hardly comparing apples with apples. If you are looking at a software-only sale then the cost of the appliance is irrelevant and Lotus Foundations Server software is cheaper at $849 for five users. If you want to include the the cost of the Lotus appliance hardware then we need to add in the cost of the hardware to run the Microsoft solution and I think 10gb of ram on a 64 bit architecture was the starting point for SBS2008 (times two if you want the Premium edition).

You've done some excellent reviews in the past Joe but you let yourself down with this one. However apart from the creativity in comparing prices, I put most of your mistakes down to your unfamiliarity with Lotus Foundations Server. I'll be watching to see what you have to say with your next product comparison after the Microsoft's SBS 2008 launch.
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The business proposition: Lotus Foundations v. SBS2008

My post of October 31st generated a lot of discussion which meandered far from the original topic but did show that the business proposition of Foundations Server isn't clearly understood by everyone.
* It's not just the Lotus answer to Microsoft Small Business Server (but it matches MS SBS quite well in a feature by feature comparison).
* It's not just a Lotus Domino server running on Linux (but it does run Domino applications and email).
* It's not just a File and Print server (but it can do those things as part of an existing Windows network and can even run as a Directory server if you want to completely remove all Windows servers).

Lets look at a Small Business and ask them what they want. If they mention a product name then slap them around a bit, throw them to the floor and tell them to start again. We want to focus on the business needs rather than the possible solutions.

SMB needs:
* Identity management to control secure login to the network.
* File and Print services.
* Backup and Restore capability
* Firewall security
* Email
* Spam control
* Virus control
* Accounting and payroll applications
* A database engine.
* Productivity applications (Word Processing and spreadsheet)
* Line of Business applications (home grown or shrinkwrapped)
* Document control
* Maybe a web server.

Did I miss anything? Possibly, but remember that we're looking at core requirements here. Each SMB will always have their own additional unique requirements. I covered the feature set of Lotus Foundations server in a previous post and apart from the accounting and Line of Business applications, there's nothing in my list that Foundations server can't provide (you can nit pick that Symphony isn't part of Foundations but since it's a free download it won't affect my customer's budget).

If you bundle together Microsoft SBS and Microsoft Office you can get certain parts of that solution. Like Foundations you miss out on the accounting and Line of Business applications but you also have:
* a crippled version of Document control (no Sharepoint server)
* no Backup and Restore
* no Spam/virus control
* no Firewall

Add in the requirement to buy 64 bit hardware and to upskill internally so you can run Windows Server 2008, plus the complex migration path and suddenly you are charging your customer twice as much for a Microsoft solution that's only half as good as the Lotus Foundations package. Why would you do that?

Remember, if the answer is Microsoft then you're asking the wrong question.
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Shootout between MS Exchange 2007 and IBM Domino 8

ITComparison.com have published the results of a comparison between MS Exchange 2007 and IBM Domino 8. This comparison was last updated a month ago. Either I missed the Lotus community blogging about it or the entire Lotus community missed blogging about it. Either way, Good News can always stand a second reading :)

Here are some of the highlights:

• IBM Lotus Domino has implemented replication for ages to be one of the most reliable and efficient replication methods available.
• MS Exchange 2007 is the first Exchange version to support replication. The replication was not reliable in the RTM release and got a bit better with SP1 but still not the best. In addition, Exchange 2007 replication is not efficient and requires a large amount of dedicated bandwidth which can be expensive.
  
• IBM has kept again the Install & Forget approach. After Domino has been installed you only need to visit the box if you need to add or enable a feature. It does not mean administrators will lose their job, but will have an easier life.
• Microsoft as usual has kept their product maintenance quite time-consuming doing updates for exchange, operating system fixing failures and recovering data stores. It seems they are trying to help administrators look busy to keep their jobs.
  
• IBM has release Lotus Domino 8 as a solid product fully tested and ready for production, but was a bit late to market.
• Microsoft as usual early to market with half raw product at the RTM version of Exchange 2007 with many bugs and features missing few examples:
• - Public folders Management GUI
• - Replication was not working unless implemented directly by Microsoft with some secret hotfixes.
• - Single Copy Cluster was not working unless installed with certain hotfixes in certain orders which was not mentioned any where on Microsoft website and not applying the fixes will make the cluster resources jump from a node to the other.
• - Note: these were few of the issues Microsoft fixed with SP1, but even SP1 had its own issues that Microsoft admit in the release note of SP1 and the installation of SP1 has not been smooth for many customers.


• Exchange 2007 get to be cheaper only if you calculate the initial licenses for non redundant setup. In all the other calculation and TCO Exchange 2007 will be in a loss situation. Exchange 2007 require newer 64-bit hardware and more servers (at least 6 server in case of redundancy) where Lotus Domino can reach full redundancy with two servers only, this is due to the new roles Exchange 2007 came up with. More servers means more licenses and clustering with Exchange require windows enterprise licenses which not required with Lotus Domino. All this give Domino an initial setup advantage when you look at the full setup cost. In addition, if your setup require features like forums, portal, and instant messaging you will have to pay for an extra three separate products with Exchange where all of these are integrated into Domino server for free. All that Make Domino the TCO winner.

I thought this crowd was an IBM front until I read some of the other comparisons these guys have done:

• VMware VI3 VS MS Virtual Server 2005 R2
• VMware VI3 VS Citrix Xen Enterprise
• MS Virtual Server 2005 R2 VS Citrix Xen Enterprise
• Microsoft Windows Hyper-V (WSV) VS VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.5
• HP Blades vs IBM Blades
• Double Take vs XOsoft WANSyncHA
• Mac OSX Tiger/Leopard VS Microsoft Windows Vista
• Ubuntu VS Microsoft Windows Vista
• Mac OSX Tiger/Leopard VS Ubuntu

Now I'm just waiting for the Lotus Foundations v. Essential Business Server shootout to appear.
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Foundations Version 1.0.1#9 Released

While researching today's planned blog post about the CUPS-based Foundations Print service I stumbled across the complete feature information for Version 1.0.1#9. I must plead mea culpa on this one - I had seen the announcement letter a while ago but my eyes went into glaze-over mode when I read the header details about adding multi-language support, migration tools and Symphony. Those may be important announcements for people whose deployment plans are on hold while they are waiting for these components but it's not 'Stop-The-Presses' kind of news.

Note to Self: Always read the fine print.

Leaving the multi-language support to the side for the moment, there are some interesting changes in the upgraded Foundations code:

• A new email queue monitoring functionality.
• A new injection service moves email into Domino faster.
• Printing has been added back into the Lotus Foundations platform for IPP printing. - I'd better put that Printing post on hold while I check this one out.
• Inclusion of all required SLES security patches, as of May 31, 2008.
• Domain members can continue to authenticate when the Domain controller is down.
• Files accessed in the WWW directory through Samba will have 775 permissions.
• Users only see the team/user shares that they have access to when they connect through Samba.

The one about "Domain members can continue to authenticate when the Domain controller is down." got my attention. That can occur on Windows networking with cached passwords but I've never seen it as a positive thing. I must look into this in more detail.
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Foundations Technology: Open Source software

Serious students of the English language may question whether non-Lotus software can be properly labeled as Foundations technology. For example, the source code for MySQL is owned by a Swedish company, MySQL AB, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems on 26 February 2008, and the MySQL software that comes with Foundations is provided under the GNU General Public License. I'll leave those philosophical questions for another time when I have been more fully fortified with red wine.

For now, here is the list of the software packages that currently ship with Lotus Foundation Server:

• Apache 2.2.2.0
• Bind 9.3.2
• Busybox 1.1.0
• Cyrus IMAP 2.2.12
• Cups 1.1.23
• E2fsprogs 1.3.8 (ext2/ext3 Utilities)
• Ext3 (version used in Kernel2.6.16.21)
• IP Tables 1.3.5
• Kernel 2.6.16.21
• Lilo 22.7
• MySQL 5.0.18
• Netatalk 2.0.3
• Openswan 2.4.4
• NFS 2.13.3
• Open LDAP 2.3.19
• Perl 5.8.8
• PHP 5.1.2
• Postfix 2.2.9
• ReiserFS 3.6.19
• Rsync 2.6.6
• Samba 3.0.22
• Telnet 1.2

I'll look at some of these packages in more depth in future posts.
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Foundations Technology: Proxy Server

Lotus Foundation Server comes with a self-configuring Firewall that keeps unwanted visitors out of your network. This is A Good Thing.

If you do want to let some of The Great Unwashed past the Firewall (perhaps to look at a few public web pages or to place an order) then you can do that with the integrated LFS 'Fast Forward' module. FastForward allows you to create up to four sites on your server with each site mapped to a separate IP address. Those IP addresses can then be mapped to your Domain Names so you could run four separate web sites.

Let's imagine that you own the IP block from 98.1.151.143 to 98.1.151.146 and are looking to use them to permit Public access to four different web pages (each with its own layout and color scheme) on your server.

Travellers.org maps to 98.1.151.143
BudgetFlights.com maps to 98.1.151.144
LowCostHolidays.net maps to 98.1.151.145
SuperSaverAirFares.com maps to 98.1.151.146

This can be really handy if your customer wants to get three quotes before he makes a decision :)
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Foundations Technology: idb (Backup)

Including Domino messaging and applications services in their server product was a good move for Nitix and I'm sure that demonstrating that 'proof of concept' in the marketplace was instrumental in convincing IBM to reach for their checkbook and buy the company. The downside is that many of the other technologies beavering away inside the Foundations (nee Nitix) server always seem to take a back seat to Domino and never get their own Moment in the Sun.

Consider the Foundations backup solution, idb (Intelligent Disk Backup). It's a great alternative for a SMB who needs backup but doesn't want to use a Daily-except-on-Friday-except-on-the-Last-Week-Of-The-Month-unless-it's-a-Public-Holiday color-coded schedule of a larger organisation. idb will stream your server data to a backup disk automatically as often as every 15 minutes. Since idb disks are hot-swappable then your offsite backup is always up to date and ready to go when you decide its time to leave the office for the day.

idb supports Complete System Restore, Specific Directory Restore and Specific File Restore. The last two options allow you to overwrite the original directory on the computer (Normal Mode) or restore into a new subdirectory (Safe Mode). You can also optionally restore the system configuration for your server.

If you don't want to use additional hard disks as backup then there's always Rsync. Let me quote the Foundations manual for this one:

Rsync is a Unix based utility that enables incremental files and directory synchronization from one location to another. This can be used to copy data files from the Lotus Foundations server, to another system which must also support rsync. An advantage to using this file transfer method is that only the changed portions of the files are transferred, rather than the entire new version of the files and directories.

Further down the track I can see a model where USB devices are an alternative backup strategy for a SMB who has only a couple of hundred mb of critical data and a once-a-day backup is all that's needed. How much would it cost to get a handful of 1GB memory sticks and use them as your Off-Site Backup storage medium? There's a bit of work to be done to tweak the Linux USB drivers first but if the demand is there then I'm sure IBM will get their Best People working on it.

Foundations is exciting technology for a number of reasons even without Domino Messaging and Applications.
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Foundations: It's easier than you think

I am continually surprised by the simplicity of working with Lotus Foundations Server. More often than not I find that any technical roadblocks are caused by my instinctive reaction to look for a complex Unix-like solution when in reality LFS has already done most of the work for me.

I've already commented on how Foundations automatically sets itself up as an internet gateway and firewall. All you need is a server with two network cards. You plug a connection to your internal hub into one socket (eth0) and plug your ISP-facing network cable into the other socket (eth1) then assign an IP address to your server and select the option to enable DHCP. Total time taken is less than a minute.

I had a similar issue trying to find a way to see the directory structure of the server. A colleague and I wasted an hour stuffing around with Unix-type 'ls' commands in 'telnet' and 'ftp' sessions before we realised that the whole server structure was visible in Windows Explorer. It was embarassingly easy to change the 'Windows Workgroup/Domain' setting under 'File Server' to match the existing workgroup setting on our network. That should have taken less than a minute also if only we hadn't convinced ourselves in advance that the answer couldn't be that easy.

A third issue is that when LFS is first installed the server generates a quasi-random name for itself (eg 'aadvark' or 'eggplant') along with a security certificate for that name. I've naturally changed that name to a more meaningful identifier with WebConfig - let's pretend it's 'Server01' - but of course the original security certificate still thinks it applies to a server named 'aadvark'. So if I try and access my email using Domino Web Access then I create a security error since the 'aadvark' certificate is being applied to the 'Server01' installation. This time life is a bit easier since LFS pops up a dialog box asking if I would like to create an exception so that Server01 at www.bcd.net.au can use the 'aadvark' certificate. I click on 'Yes' and (providing I have enabled my email servers to accept internet connections) I am now happily working with email provided by Domino Web Access.

My current problem is trying to get the IBM Business Partner logo to appear on my web site using the "< img src=name_of_file.gif />" command in the index.php file. I'm sure that when I find the answer I'll realise that I had mentally made the problem more complex than it actually was.

Lotus Foundations: It's easier than you think.
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Is the SMB server market shrinking?

This post makes some interesting points about the shrinking market for Microsoft Small Business Server but I don't think those trends will adversely affect the market for Lotus Foundations server. Lets look at the points this blogger makes:

"First, a little background. The VAR Guy spent 2006 and 2007 working for a 15-person company in New York. Aside from a file-and-print server, there wasn’t much need for an on-site email server or database server... With the rise of hosted Exchange, on-demand CRM and even hosted databases, more and more small businesses don’t want the hassle of running and maintaining their own servers..."

Print servers will always stay in-house - what company would route their print jobs via the internet with its attendant data transfer costs and potential delays? So if you're running a local print server anyway, then why pay 'x' dollars per month to outsource day-to-day file storage when you can do it on-site for close to zero incremental cost? Sure, a SMB might stick some special purpose servers into the cloud/net/server farm but there is still a comparative cost advantage in keeping their day-to-day data in-house. So my money is saying that SMB will keep their local computer closet humming for a few years yet and they'll certainly be interested in anything that reduces cost or increases return on their investment in that department. The exception might be when the increasing IT workload requires doubling the IT workforce (from one employee to two) and at that point the SMB might consider outsourcing some tasks rather than employing additional staff.

"Unless you have specific vertical-market apps that you need to run in-house, the time is right for small businesses to start outsourcing as many applications as possible to a service provider. "

I don't think so. When has SMB ever been a trendsetter? Most SMB are too busy earning their daily bread to waste time planning for a transition to the bleeding edge of the technology wave. IMHO SMB keep their current infrastructure and applications until it becomes impossible to maintain (Sorry... I can't sell you XP... you'll have to buy Vista) or an IT vendor can explain an immediate and tangible business benefit to justify the upfront cost (Replacing your modem with cable will cost 'x' dollars in cash but save you 'y' dollars in business efficiency because you can do immediate updates rather than overnight transfers). SMB will invest in different technology, but rarely at the bleeding edge. They prefer a low-risk maturing technology with a large installed base - sounds like a job for Lotus Foundations Server based on the mature Nitix technology.

This other blogger makes a point that Exchange, Dynamics and SharePoint are all available as hosted services, but so what? Microsoft is selling overly complex and expensive drill bits when all the customer wants is holes, and that customer wants those holes to be as inexpensive and uncomplicated as possible. Installing Microsoft SBS 2008 or EBS 2008 means upgrading hardware and that's a potential sticking point for an organisation whose total IT spend (including staff) might be less than $150k per year.

On the other hand a SMB could upgrade to Lotus Foundation Server which will happily run on an existing server with 2GB ram and also provide email, firewall, files sharing, optional print server, web site, Domino applications services plus plus plus

The market for Microsoft's Small Business Server might start shrinking but that's Microsoft's problem - not IBM's.
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A company that dumped Nitix for Windows

In February 2007 Western Materials dumped Nitix and installed Microsoft Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003. What prompted this organisation to move back to the Dark Side? My source material for this story is a document downloaded from Microsoft's web site and you can decide for yourself the ratio of substance to spin. If you think I'm ready too closely between the lines of Microsoft's story then feel free to add your own interpretation.

According to this document the prime mover in this migration was Matt Martinkus, Chief Financial Officer at Western Materials. In times past Western Materials "... had an internal employee who handled IT. He was bright and did a good job but the reliance on one person left us too vulnerable."

Matt moved into the CFO role a few months previous to the February 2007 migration to Windows Server and "...one of my first acts as CFO was to find a good Microsoft partner to support us".

He picked Parsec Computer, a Gold Certified Microsoft partner who took over supporting the Nitix infrastructure for Western Materials. Matt didn't look for help from the dealer who had sold them Nitix since "...they had been acquired and were moving away from Nitix".

Matt goes on to say that "Nitix seemed to be lukewarm about helping us" , but if he had taken the job and immediately introduced a Microsoft Partner to support their Nitix servers I'm not sure what room there was for Nitix to get any technical traction with the client.

Matt listed a number of reasons for the move to Microsoft. Some of them are impossible to review from this distance eg. Were the server crashes and the delay in opening files a failure of Nitix or of some other technology? However we can look a bit deeper into some of the other reasons that Matt listed:

1. Microsoft Office: The first issue is lack of compatibility with Microsoft Office programs, especially Outlook. At the time Nitix only supported the Outlook 2000 client and Western Materials were using Outlook 2003. The installation of Nitix had apparently fixed the original business problem of paying 'tens of thousands of dollars a year' to maintain frame-relay connections but now there was a new issue of maintaining compatibility with the Microsoft email client.

2. Speed of accessing files: This was another problem. Western Materials didn't rely on their existing Nitix vendor to resolve these issues because "... you could tell [Nitix] wasn't their core competency." but I don't see where they bought in another Nitix partner to help.

3. Mobile Devices: "[Nitix] didn't adequately support mobile devices" is a valid comment. Nitix doesn't support mobile devices but they have their best people working on it and I'm not allowed to tell you that an answer might be available towards the end of 2008.

4. Server Crashes: "A few times per month the server would crash..." Hang on a minute Matt! You're having regular server crashes and your VPN is slow and you aren't impressed with your current dealer so the best answer is to bring in some Nitix-illiterate Microsoft consultants? How about bringing in some Nitix-qualified experts to reconfigure the software and look for performance improvements that way? Sounds like the Cadillac buyer from Texas who always buys a new car when the ashtrays on the old one are full. It's difficult to argue with that kind of logic.

5. IT Maintenance: Western Materials had to pay Parsec for everyday tasks such as managing employee e-mail accounts."We were paying thousands of dollars per month in support costs just to keep existing IT services running." I'm curious about the size of Western Materials support bill before Parsec Computer came into the picture. If you ask someone to support a server technology they hadn't seen before then a spike in your support costs is inevitable while they come to grips with the different software. Strangely enough there's no mention of what happened to their bright, hard-working IT guy. Isn't 'managing employee e-mail accounts' one of the reasons why you have full-time IT employees, or is Matt suggesting that Nitix should have automatically added a new email account whenever a new employee walks through the door?

In the end Matt wanted server software which supported Outlook 2003 and mobile devices and in early 2007 Nitix couldn't do that. It is worth noting that Western Materials bought 'three custom-built server computers' while 'Nitix firewall and VPN services were replaced with dedicated hardware devices.' It would be interesting to see what the total investment in hardware was for this exercise and whether Western Materials will need to invest in another round of servers if they want to migrate to Windows Server 2008 and Exchange 2007.

'Now that the company is running Microsoft software, Parsec computer is able to better support Western Materials.'

Well that's a no-brainer. Parsec is a Gold Certified Microsoft partner so of course they can support Microsoft products better than they can support Nitix. I'm sure Parsec Computer is a fine and ethical computer services organisation and I see nothing wrong with them trying to sell their chosen products into a potential customer but note the weasal words in this paragraph - the objective is to get better support from Parsec so the answer is to switch to Microsoft software.

It seems to me that Matt Martinkus chose to standardise on Microsoft products mainly to support Outlook 2003. Whether he had that agenda before he came into the job is a question everyone has to decide for themselves.

We've all heard the story before.


NOTE: Lotus Foundations includes IBM Lotus Notes® and Domino® (v8.0) and provides IBM Lotus® Domino® Access for Microsoft® Outlook 2003 and 2007.
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Four companies who moved to Nitix

Why would companies move to Lotus Foundations? What are the key factors that would lead organisations to invest in a comparatively unknown technology to support their critical business processes? Here are four case studies of organisations which moved their IT infrastructure to Nitix:

1. Tina Gasperson wrote an article about the Freedom Partners network of car dealerships moving from Exchange Server 2000 to Nitix. The key pain points were overcoming the limitations of Exchange being tied to Windows workstations, creating a VPN to link geographically remote sites and the ability to control employee web surfing.

2. Frederick’s Appliance Center in Redmond, WA had two old Microsoft Windows servers and two Cisco routers, and needed webmail, file sharing, and a reliable backup solution. The off-the-shelf Windows server solution that Frederick’s initially considered was much more expensive than NitixBlue. The installation of NitixBlue took only ten hours and requires little ongoing work to manage.

3. No names were provided for this case study for a bank and its branch office in rural Ohio which had been using a dedicated $1,200-per-month 56k line to stay connected. Nitix provided employees at both locations with email, Internet access and a VPN protected with server-based email virus protection. In addition, the Vice-President of the bank must now approve all websites that anyone attempts to visit, so no unauthorized or potentially dangerous sites are available. In 12 to 14 months, the bank paid for the entire upgrade through its savings alone.

4. Swish is a chemical maintenance supply company based in Peterborough, Ontario with 13 locations across Canada. The costs involved in keeping every office connected with a frame relay system was costing $1,200 per month, per office. Other significant benefits of Nitix for this company were firewall, email and anti-virus. Return on investment for the cost of Nitix Net Integrators was six months and for the entire implementation was just over two years.

soapboxmode

My point in listing these companies was to show that the common factor for all of these case studies wasn't just email and it certainly wasn't collaborative applications since Lotus Domino wasn't in the picture at all. The moral of the story is that Lotus Foundations is first and foremost a small business server with an abundance of technical riches and that is how Lotus needs to market it. Any Domino consulting that comes from the client afterwards is a bonus.

/soapboxmode


Tomorrow I’ll be posting the story of a company that decided to move from Nitix to Windows.

Foundations and Monty Python's Black Knight

Do you remember the scene in Holy Grail where the Black Knight still wants to fight on after losing both arms and both legs in a swordfight with King Arthur? That vision came to me when my server refused to reboot after I had changed some hardware components. I figured that I needed to reinstall LFS so I booted from CD#1 and went to get some lunch. After I returned I noted that Foundations had booted and autodetected my internet settings so I didn't actually get around to checking the rest of the hardware until I'd finished lunch and wasted half an hour catching up with PlanetLotus. When I checked Webconfig I got a nasty surprise.

My (non-RAID) hard drive was dead.

It had ceased to be.

Bereft of life, it rested in peace.

Foundations, on the other hand, was quite happy to boot from a CD and do what it could to resume normal services. It's internet and firewall and local DNS services were all humming away and doing their job.

Losing your hard drive? For some software it's only a flesh wound.


All hard drives mentioned in this blog were fully backed up at the time of their demise. I've now invested in a new IBM X-Series just in time to claim the depreciation in the current financial year.

Yes, but what does Foundations actually do?

When talking to clients (and sometimes other IBM Business Partners) I get the feeling that IBM hasn’t really done a great job in explaining what’s in the Foundations box. I figured it might be worthwhile to give a high level overview of the product using the Table of Contents from the User manual as a prompt:

1 Introduction: Just an overview to tell you how wonderful Foundations is and how it will save the world while making your coffee and paying off the US National Debt.

2 First-time Lotus Foundations setup - Net Integrator: How to install Foundations if you buy it with the Nitix hardware bundle.

3 First-time Lotus Foundations setup - third-party hardware: How to install Foundations if you buy the software to put on a non-Nitix server.

4 Connecting to WebConfig: After you boot your server from the Foundations CD#1 you can connect to the Foundations server from a browser and start building your Foundations environment.

5 Configuring Lotus Foundations: Lots of meaty configuration options from picking your server name to doing software activation, enabling ftp/ imap/ pop3, configuring DHCP and network routes.

6 Client access licenses: Setting up users. Foundations uses a "Per User" licensing model. That is, any number of individuals can connect to the Lotus Foundations-powered server; however, you must purchase a Lotus Foundations Client Access License (CAL) for each individual, or "user account," where access to Lotus Foundations services (such as email, file, print, MySQL and FTP services) is needed. For example, if an individual is only utilizing the Lotus Foundations-powered server as gateway or firewall, that person does not require a CAL.

7 DoubleVision: Foundations allows multiple internet connections to the server with automatic load balancing and failover.

8 User & team management: The Foundations email, file, Web, and FTP services are tightly integrated. Every user and team account that is created has instant and automatic access to all of these services. The System Administrator needs to create these user accounts and (optionally) add them to Teams.

9 File services: Foundations provides file sharing services for Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX-style clients. Files created by Windows users can transparently be seen by Macintosh users and vice versa.

10 Disk quotas: Defines the maximum amount of hard disk space allowed for a user's files and email.

11 NT domain services: Foundations can be configured as a domain controller or just as a domain member or can provide Windows file sharing services without a domain.

12 Print service: Foundations can manage the print queues for multiple network enabled printers.

13 Email services: Lotus Domino email and calendaring (including Domino Web Access).

14 Web services: Provides options to configure the inbuilt Apache web server with support for CGI scripts, Perl and PHP.

15 Web filtering: Netnanny for networks. The System Administrator can allow users to access to specific Internet sites, while blocking access to all others.

16 FTP services: FTP is FTP... Watch out for the (ahem…) ‘typo’ in the Lotus Foundations Start Manual that suggests loading the Foundations CD#2 from the server’s CD drive. That process doesn’t work. You have to FTP the files from your System Administrator’s workstation into the \autoinstall folder, and just to make it easy you’ll find that the default setting for FTP on the Administrator's account is ‘Disabled’.

17 Backup & restore: Foundations supports automatic continuous Data Backup as often as every 15 minutes to a Hot Swappable device.

18 Software update: Foundations periodically contacts distribution servers via its internet connection and requests an updated list of available software releases. You can view the list of available software releases and choose when to download and install the updates.

19 Virtual private networks: Extend your network across the internet to users on remote sites.

20 IPsec: Network traffic encryption. Foundations supports PSK keys but not RSA or PKI.

21 Remote access services: Allows users to access your Foundations network across the internet.

22 Firewall services: This service is auto-configuring and you can also choose to restrict outgoing traffic plus view a log of all requests to traverse the firewall.

23 Domain name services: Foundations supports DNS Lookup and Caching (converts domain names such as www.yahoo.com into IP addresses) and DNS Publishing (adds names for your own network such as www.yourcompanyname.com into the global DNS system so that people can find your IP address to access your website or to send you email). DNS Publishing is possible regardless of whether your ISP uses static or dynamic IP addressing for your connection.

24 Workstation viewer: Allows the system Administrator to list the workstations and servers that are connected through the local network. The Workstations screen tells you which computers are on the network, what their names and IP addresses are, and who is logged on.

25 FastForward: A Proxy server. Allows creation of multiple websites on your server with each site mapped to a separate IP address by using virtual network ports on the ethernet adapter.

26 Disk management: Configure the RAID array on your hard disks.

27 MySQL server: Version 5.0 of MySQL is provided with Lotus Foundations.

28 Hardware components reporting: Foundations has the capability to report on hardware that is detected in the server - including processors, memory, Ethernet and hard drives - and verify whether or not that hardware is currently supported by the version of Lotus Foundations being run. Quite a useful tool to confirm that your server hasn’t blown a component.

29 Log messages: Lotus Foundations keeps a log that displays the messages from all of the Lotus Foundations subsystems.

30 Network file system: NFS (Network File System) is a protocol invented by Sun Microsystems that enables clients using UNIX and similar operating systems to mount file systems from remote servers.

31 Rsync: A utility that enables incremental file and directory synchronization from one location to another. This can be used to copy data files from the Lotus Foundations server, to another system which must also support rsync.

32 Spam scanner: The (optional) spam scanner filters all incoming emails received via SMTP before the messages are delivered to the user's mailbox.

33 Virus scanner: The (optional) virus scanner implements Kaspersky virus scanning for files and email.

All of this for USD$849 for five users (plus a free account for the System Administrator) makes quite an attractive bundle. I wonder what it would cost to buy the equivilent services in Microsoft technology?

I'm also starting to ask myself what IT service a SMB requires that isn't provided by Foundations?

Foundations 1.0.0a ships!

Well that didn't take long. Here's an overview of the features in the upgrade:

ADDITIONS:

• MySQL is upgraded to version v5.0
• Printing services can be enabled via installation of a NVS package (LFS originally didn't have a Print server function)
• New support for separate roaming profiles for NT/XP and Vista users.

DELETIONS:

• phpMyAdmin is longer be included in the installation package but is available for separate download and installation.
• The original Nitix Webmail is no longer supported - use Domino Web Access instead.
  
• Removal of automatic detection for mismatched PFS configuration in a IPSec tunnel.

MODIFICATIONS:

• The default permission for newly created files is now 770, which helps guard against accidental sharing of files.
• The behaviour of ftp has changed.
• The behaviour of mailing lists has changed.