Confused about the future of Workplace and Lotus Notes/Domino? You are not alone. IBM's move to promote Workplace and Notes/Domino as two overlapping product families is creating bewilderment among customers, according to Gartner Group.
For its part, the analyst concern outlines a likely product road map in which Lotus Notes/Domino will be superseded by IBM's Workplace.
In a "Gartner FirstTake," analyst Tom Austin insists that IBM will not abandon Lotus Notes/Domino devotees. Still, he pointedly predicts that "separate-but-equal development paths" for Notes and WebSphere developers will eventually disappear. He suggests 2009 as a target date.
This Gartner view does not map to IBM's official position. Big Blue has pledged ongoing support to Notes/Domino developers, albeit with a growing helping of Java tools in the mix. IBM is promoting JavaFaces plug-ins and wizards as a means to ease the Domino developers' migration.
Gartner's Austin estimates that it will take three to five years before Workplace actually becomes the next architectural generation of Lotus Notes/Domino. Austin, at least in part, credits IBM for a strategy that is "aimed at solving business problems," rather than focusing on "generic collaboration and communication."
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IBM's Workplace will be the future of Lotus Notes/Domino -GartnerGroup site