IdoNotes (and sleep)

HCL has announced and launched HCL Now: Cloud Native-as-a-Service for your HCL Software products in a cloud-first architecture.  Easily move your HCL Software products to the HCL managed cloud, start using new updates as they become available and ease administration work of on-premises deployments.  HCL Now also helps you avoid cloud lock-in by retaining ownership of your data and deploying in the cloud of your choosing.


Some early highlights and takeaways from the launch video and materials are:  Continue Reading here" HCL Now: Cloud Native-as-a-Service launches!" »

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On Tuesday, July 20th, 2021   by Chris Miller        

There was a webcast titled Energize Notes Domino Enterprises covering Notes 9, Project Hawthorn (IBM Mail for Outlook), SmartCloud Notes, Domino Double Check and more. Here is the slides and a link to the replay of this event (requires login)

Key points from the slides and webcast :

• Bridge to IBM SmartCloud renewal option - basically please don't renew your own on site infrastructure, move to us
• Use the browser plug-in (Notes Basic client) for your apps
• IBM Mail Next updates (here is a full blog post on what that means. IBM Mail Next explained so far

Link to the webcast replay inside of IBM SmartCloud.

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On Wednesday, April 30th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

IBM announced it is buying Silverpop, an Atlanta based company, for it's behavioral marketing platform.

Silverpop's behavioral marketing platform enables marketers to take action on customer behaviors in real time, deepen brand loyalty and deliver the perfect customer experience.

Silverpop is a digital marketing software company focused on helping marketers transform the customer experience— increasing engagement and driving revenue. Silverpop makes this possible by using customer data and each individual’s behaviors to inform and drive every interaction in real time  

You can read more at the IBM press release or the Silverpop website.

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On Tuesday, April 15th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

IBM is enhancing SmartCloud for Social Business in March 2014 to include Sametime with SAML support, IBM Docs enhancements, also web users and Notes user enhancements.
IBM Sametime chat with SAML support is coming

If your organization uses federated identity management handled by Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), you can now download and chat using a stand-alone Sametime Connect client and log in with your organization's authentication credentials

There there is SmartCloud Web user enhancements.        Continue Reading here" IBM SmartCloud for Social Business enhancements for March 2014" »

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On Wednesday, March 5th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

Connectria, a global managed and cloud hosting provider, has announced an expanded partnership with Tripwire, a leading global provider of risk-based security and compliance management solutions.

To enhance its Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant hosting solutions, Connectria has added Tripwire Enterprise Compliance Monitoring and Tripwire Log Center to its services portfolio. Tripwire Enterprise provides real time compliance monitoring for a wide variety of regulations, including HIPAA and PCI, and automatically detects critical changes that may affect compliance status or indicate security risks saving significant time and resources.

Read more from the press release on the Connectria website

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On Thursday, February 6th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

The Market Quadrant 2012 for Hosted Business Email and Collaboration by The Radicati Group, Inc was released.  While IBM was listed as a Specialist in the report, they also appeared in the lower left corner which shows a loyal subscriber base but behind on capabilities and innovation.

The Radicati Group evaluated 15 cloud-based Hosted Business Email and Collaboration vendors based on various technology platforms, including POP3/IMAP, Microsoft Exchange, and other proprietary technologies

The quadrant choices were mature, top, trail blazers and specialists.  Google showed itself as a Top Player. Functionality was rated 1-10 with 10 being the highest and Market Share assigned to installed base in reverse numbering.  Meaning the largest installed base was 1. (that is silly tome to not be consistent in numbering direction).

Their definition matches hundreds of current providers:

Hosted Business Email and Collaboration Providers offer cloud-based email services that provide robust, enterprise-grade functionality aimed at business users. These providers typically offer email services on a multi-tenant server located in their data centers.

Their statistic says that 21% of business email is hosted.  I find this number quite high and I am unsure of the sample rate. Reading through the requirements and other options, you can make your own conclusions on how they come up with such numbers.

The report is a long 48 pages but much of it is a listing of those companies in the quadrant. Using your own math you could plug in other companies or even dispute why a specific one got placed in a certain corner.  Definitely worth the read and the discussion about it.

You can download your free copy of the Hosted Business Email and Collaboration - Market Quadrant 2012 from The Radicati Group, Inc. right here.

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On Thursday, January 3rd, 2013   by Chris Miller        

Connectria is growing again and this time announces it's alliance with Citrix to provide Software as a Service (SaaS) enablement in a hosted cloud. If you want to see how successful your applications can run in a hosted cloud we have an offer ready!

To demonstrate the ease and success of SaaS enabling applications in a hosted Cloud, Connectria offers a low risk, low cost pilot.  With Connectria's QuickStart Pilot, Connectria will stand up ISV applications in a 5 user, fully functioning Citrix and Microsoft environment for 90 days.

To learn more about the offering and working with Connectria and Citrix join us on the webcast “Easily Move Your Apps to a Hosted Cloud” on December 12th.  Connectria will be having a drawing for a free QuickStart Program (not just a pilot) for one lucky winner You can register for the webcast right here.



Eat.Sleep.Host    It is what we do.  Connectria Hosting

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On Tuesday, December 11th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

I keep an eye on what goes on with Microsoft Office 365 as many of you should and Binary Tree was just selected as the migration tool to take users away from Lotus IBM Notes and Domino.

Binary Tree, a provider of software solutions for migrating to Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office 365, announced that Microsoft has selected Binary Tree migration and coexistence technology to streamline the migration process for customers moving from Lotus Notes/Domino environments to Microsoft Office 365.

This agreement allows Microsoft to offer Binary Tree technology to streamline the customer's migration coexistence experience.

As Binary Tree was a large vendor at Lotupshere for many years showing coexistence and migration into IBM Notes and Domino, it is interesting to see the flipside take place and have Microsoft themselves choosing the tool.  Congrats to them as a long time business partner to both.

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On Wednesday, November 14th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

This week I had the opportunity to spend some time at the IBM PureSystem Labs that work with PureFlex and PureApplications. While the PureFlex systems were well defined on the specifications webpage (even after taking 12 clicks to find) the PureApplications systems were not.  I included what single image I could find into the video thanks to an IBM rep that was nearby.

The amount of horsepower in each rack with the interchangeable and expandable chassis slots makes it a great data center in a box approach.  Coupled with the management platform, you are able to spin on resources on demand and even take them away when demand drops.  Check out the video for more.

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On Thursday, September 13th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

I saw some press releases for Notes2Apps from G-workplace, a firm that provides migrations from Lotus Notes to Google.  The Notes2Apps tool is supposed to move data from you applications into Google Docs.  Reading what is performed I would not consider much of this a migration, but more toward archiving.

• Default templates are already mapped but custom templates are all options.
• Any Notes view with rows becomes a spreadsheet in Google Docs
• Notes documents become PDF files
• Workflow has some limited features in AppScript
• Content centric docs become HTML files
• You can move to a Google site (html) or a Shared folder (based on reader/author)
• Category fields become meta data
• Doclinks are not converted

However, Notes documents are a viewer for free form fields and data. Not a single page to be archived.  A view is living data, not a screenshot to be placed into a spreadsheet.  How do you work with the data in PDF or spreadsheet when the fields no longer relate?

With the removal of doclinks, even the HTML pages they create become standalone with no connectivity between them to show workflow or relationship.

They also offer Notes Sync Google but that just moves attachments on a Notes document into Google Docs.

Has anyone tried this yet? Success?  Let us know in the comments

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On Thursday, July 5th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

I am happy to finally announce that Connectria is opening our fourth data center, this time in Dallas, TX to meet our expanding cloud services.

Connectria Hosting, a global managed hosting provider, today announced that it secured a new location in a Tier 4 CyrusOne data center in Lewisville, Texas.

The CyrusOne facility, a Tier 4 designated facility according to the Telecommunications Infrastructure Standards for Data Centers (TIA 942), is now the fourth data center location for Connectria, with existing data centers in St Louis and Philadelphia.

A Tier 4 designation is the highest level a data center can achieve, designed to host mission critical computer systems, telecommunications facilities and storage environments with fully redundant subsystems (cooling, power, network links, etc) and compartmentalized security zones, controlled by biometric access control methods.

As we expand our reach into cloud hosting with the IBM i launch cloud launch this is an excellent time to talk to us about your needs.

Related posts:

• Connectria's cloud computing ranks 2nd in North America & 4th worldwide in performance
• Connectria expands cloud hosting options

Visit the Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.

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On Wednesday, May 9th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

Connectria just announced a cloud hosting solution for IBM i platform after two years of testing and working with IBM.  This has been under wraps as we worked with them on building this offering.

Connectria’s IBM i Cloud Hosting Solutions have been designed to run on the reliable IBM Power Systems Servers to deliver all the benefits expected from a Connectria Cloud Solution, including reliability, scalability, flexibility and affordable pricing. Customers of Connectria’s IBM i Cloud Hosting Solutions will be able to purchase the IBM i capacity and support they need, when they need it, for as long as they need it -- backed by Connectria’s world-class 24/7 IBM i administration and support.
Starting as low as $495/month, Connectria’s IBM i Cloud Hosting solutions are an excellent alternative to purchasing an IBM i System and running it yourself. For each Virtual Machine, customers can add processor, memory or disk capacity as needed, as well as scale from as little as 595 CPW to more than 50,000 CPW. In addition to the IBM i capacity that customers purchase, they will also purchase Connectria’s world-renowned 24/7 IBM i administration and support to ensure their IBM i systems are secure, reliable, and running at peak performance.

There are three hosting options available for you.  Visit the site for more information about this awesome new offering!

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On Friday, April 6th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

Connectria has been a leader in the IBM/Lotus hosting and remote management world for some time now.  We are happy to announce that our performance and growth is being seen across the services and portfolio. This quote from MarketWatch summarizes the announcement:

Connectria Hosting, a global managed hosting provider, today announced that as of February 23, Connectria ranked an impressive 2nd in the North American market and 4th on a global basis in Cloud Computing Performance (over a 30 day period view) as measured by the Global Provider View on CloudSleuth.

This is an independent benchmark study of cloud hosting providers.  They sample the same applicaiton types across the providers to begin making the ratings:

The Global Provider View application uses the Compuware Gomez Performance Network (GPN) to measure the performance of an identical sample application running on multiple cloud service providers. The application continuously measures vendor page delivery performance from more than 35 Internet backbone nodes across the globe. For anyone considering a cloud vendor, the Global Provider View provides near real-time vendor performance comparisons on a regional and global basis.

You can read more about this announcement on the above MarketWatch link, Infoboom and Sys-Con Media.

Visit the Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.

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On Thursday, March 1st, 2012   by Chris Miller        

A long time user of Lotus Notes, the University of Nebraska, made big waves last year when they announced the move away from Lotus Notes for their entire faculty and staff at campuses (students moved long ago).  The article from Daily Nebraskan states they spend $1M USD annually to use the software and will reduce costs by half when they switch to the web based Microsoft Office 365.

NOTE: The University of Nebraska Medical Center is not migrating to the new system because of concerns about security.

Interestingly they said their Lotus Notes environment only had 1G of storage per person and the new Microsoft system offers 25.  This is alrgely due to their limitations the university set and had nothing to do with the software as we know.
Continue Reading here" Microsoft offers superior web based interface per newspaper" »

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On Thursday, February 16th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

Connectria is pleased to announce Connectria Cloud Storage, an Amazon S3® compatible cloud storage service as an expansion to it's portfolio of cloud solutions.

Ideal For Cloud Backups & Cloud Storage Where HIPAA Compliance, SOX Compliance, PCI Compliance, SAS 70 Compliance Or SSAE 16 Compliance Is Required.

You can get more information on all the cloud offerings as well as contact options for more information on the Cloud Hosting pages at Connectria.

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Connectria is a hosting and cloud provider for all of your IBM and Lotus software and hardware needs.


Visit  the Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.

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On Thursday, November 17th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

With an early morning surprise, Ed Brill made the announcement of the IBM XWork Server.

By license, an IBM XWork Server is an application server only that is licensed on a fixed-term, per-install basis. No PVUs, no CALs (see, I listen!). Just a fixed annual license of approximately US$2,000 per server install. That's it.

We have been patiently sitting on this news that brings a Domino based server to the masses for a fixed price, with the name Lotus removed.  This allows enterprises, ISV's and partners to bring powerful workflow solutions to enterprises quickly.  I am not sure what it has to do with being a social business as Ed mentions in his posting, but the approach to get more XPages apps in the wild is excellent.

Connectria will be launching their own offering tomorrow around the hosting and management of IBM XWork Server, making it easy for you to purchase an ISV solution or roll your own XPage based applications to your own users or the world.

Note that the name Lotus is missing, the logo is now blue and Domino conveniently stacked as the application layer no one needs to see.  Licensing is simplified and Ed describes it quite well.  Just remember this is an annual cost of only $2,000 to run incredible workflow solutions.  There is no inherent email license, yet mail-in databases are part of the application solutions.

For more information, join the "What's New in 8.5.3 Notes, Domino, Traveler and XWork Server" tomorrow at 10am CST

Then look for the announcement from Connectria around the hosting and managed offering.

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On Sunday, October 2nd, 2011   by Chris Miller        

A webcast was held to discuss the IBM SmartCloud and Private UC Cloud launch initiatives.  Over 900 people popped into the meeting.

• IBM projects the Cloud will be a $7 business for IBM by 2015
• A new website will launch tomorrow  at  ibm.com/smartcloud
• This is all about rethinking IT. (or how to move your stuff to our servers)
• They had a very tiny busy slide showing Business Process as a Service
• They will be announcing the ability to have a public, private or hybrid cloud (have you seen the Connectria website?)
• New segments will include Smarter Commerce, Social Business and Business Analytics & Optimization
• The new Cloud Computing specialty for partners has launched, as announced in February 2011 at Partnerworld and ibm.com/cloud/partner
• IBM had 2k successful cloud engagements in 2010
• 50% of Fortune 10 and Fortune 50 working on an IBM cloud

Now a change over to clients transforming business using the cloud.  They mentioned IBM or internal organization, not partners.

• IBM Smart Cloud Enterprise and Enterprise+ will be launched
• IBM Smart Cloud - foundation for Value-Add services and applications
• Enterprise has self service with advanced premium support; 99.5% availability; virtual and some physical isolation; bring your own software/pay as you go/free developer use; hourly usage with reserved options; Linux/Windows
• Enterprise + has fully managed; 99.9% availability; multiple levels of isolation; IBM provides operating system and tool licenses; monthly usage based and fixed contract; Linux/Windows/AIX
• There are nine different virtual (Intel) server configuration choices
• There are six data centers
• Multiple VLANS for a single virtual machine

Also launched is a IBM Private UC Cloud

• Partner software like telephony management, phone presence and unified messaging
• Lotus software like Quickr, Connections, Domino, Sametime
• Tivoli software for provisioning and management

The end -state vision slide (#21) showed SAP management.  Partners were not listed as options in the hosting or cloud solution offerings

From April 8 to Jun 10th 2011 there is no charge access to some capacity in Toronto center.   North American Promotion code #PRO1689 with 32-bit Copper and 32-bit silver machines

Over to Bethann Craig for LotusLive offerings

• LotusLive won some new clients: Bumba Desa, IndiaFirst Life Insurance, Lofotkraft, Shriram Transport Finance Company

Over to Don Boulia for Blueworks Live

• Document and run processes in the cloud
• IBM Workload Deployer V3 to manage elastic workloads
• IBM BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud. - built on BladeCenter as a single bundle/price/packaged with hardware, software, network and storage.

Cloud Standards Customer Council with Angel Diaz, VP of Software Standards

• This is a reinvention of standards for cloud.
• There are 55 organizations already in the council.  You can apply right here

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You could also watch a current Consultant In Your Pocket event (free no registration needed but signing up for the newsletter encouraged) on Seeing Shapes in the Cloud.


Visit  the Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in cloud hosting for IBM/Lotus Software hosting and management.

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On Thursday, April 7th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

I am pleased to announce that Connectria is EU Safe Harbor Compliant according to the standards on how Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is to be handled.  You may view our certificate here on the Safe Harbor site and the countries for which we are covered.

For those curious to what it means

US-EU Safe Harbor is a streamlined process for US companies to comply with the EU Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of personal data.  The process was developed by the US Department of Commerce in consultation with EU.

Intended for organizations within the EU or US that store customer data, the Safe Harbor Principles are designed to prevent accidental information disclosure or loss. US companies can opt into the program as long as they adhere to the 7 principles outlined in the Directive (below).

Background

The European Union has for many years had a formalized system of Privacy legislation, which is regarded as more rigorous than that found in many other areas of the world.

Companies operating in the European Union are not allowed to send personal data to countries outside the European Economic Area unless there is a guarantee that it will receive equivalent levels of protection.

Such protection can either be at a country level (if the country's laws are considered to offer equal protection) or at an organizational level (where a multinational organization produces and documents its internal controls on personal data).

The Safe Harbor Privacy Principles allows US companies to register their certification if they meet the European Union requirements.

 You can view the above certificate site for more information.

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Connectria is a hosting and cloud provider for all of your IBM and Lotus software and hardware needs.


Visit  the Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.
You could also watch a current Consultant In Your Pocket event (free no registration needed but signing up for the newsletter encouraged) on Seeing Shapes in the Cloud.

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On Wednesday, April 6th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

I am happy to share my slides from BLUG 2011 titled Seeing Shapes in the Clouds. This session walks through numerous architecture designs for moving to the cloud and questions to ask your cloud provider.

Do not forget to watch the numerous replays from the conference on YouTube

Browse all of my shared presentations

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On Thursday, March 31st, 2011   by Chris Miller        

IBM finally announced the new Domino Utility Server for LotusLive.  since I have gotten pings, a customer call and expect more, let me break down what this means for you, our customer, in the simplest terms I know so far.  Let's start with the first part of the announcement:

Based on the same model as the Domino Utility Server, this new license allows you, as LotusLive Notes subscribers, to use the included Notes client for access to Notes/Domino applications

You must be a LotusLive Notes subscriber to be eligible for this server license model.  I do not see any minimal user count amount on LotusLive to be eligible, so set a user up over there.

That means that instead of paying per-user software subscription to continue to use Notes/Domino applications, regardless of client/browser access method, you can now switch to a server-only based licensing model. Instead of paying for everyone in an organization to continue to use those applications, you can pay for anyone in the organization to use those applications.

So now both Notes client and browser access are allowed,  One cost opens access to everyone in the company

The Domino Utility Server for LotusLive model is available in the IBM Cloud and Amazon models, in addition to on-premises deployments if you are moving or considering a move to the cloud.  

If you use LotusLive then you can keep a Domino server in-house or with a partner if you are trying to outsource management, backups, monitoring and more.  All for a fixed Domino server license cost.

Special pricing is planned so you can trade up from Domino Enterprise Servers, in conjunction with deployments of LotusLive Notes (or LotusLive Notes and LotusLive Engage).

You can free up Enterprise license cost, per user application costs and more.  You must have a user on LotusLive Notes.

The Domino Utility Server for LotusLive licensing model may be utilized with other "pay as you go" offerings through IBM Cloud, Amazon EC2, or business partners providing Domino application hosting services

I have tested the IBM Cloud.  You can watch IdoNotes Episode 105 screencast of my trials here.  Amazon will allow usage based models (good for very small models) in the public or private.

However, the key is the last part.  We (Connectria) are now able to offer you a Domino application server model that you can easily implement at a fixed license cost.  Internet connection, private connection, backups, networks,  firewalls, monitoring. Just another item to strengthen our position as a Lotus software hosting leader.

Read more about How to Choose and Migrate to a Cloud Email Provider by Forrester where Connectria is mentioned.

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You could also watch a current Consultant In Your Pocket event (free no registration needed but signing up for the newsletter encouraged) on Seeing Shapes in the Cloud.

Visit  the Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.

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On Tuesday, March 29th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

Forrester has launched two recent reports and ReadWriteWeb Enterprise wrote a nice summary including Connectria in the article.  We pride ourselves in over ten years of Lotus Software hybrid or outsourced hosting and remote management.  

Diversified hosting and telecoms, such as AT&T, Connectria, ....

Forrester doesn't offer any specific recommendations about any particular company. Instead, it encourages decision makers to consider their organization's needs and existing partnerships. The firm also recommends considering hybrid models.

You could also watch a current Consultant In Your Pocket event (free no registration needed but signing up for the newsletter encouraged) on Seeing Shapes in the Cloud.


Visit  the Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.

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On Tuesday, March 29th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

I am not quite sure how to think of this.  Sure it was a sponsored email and scheduled webcast, but not one I would expect to see from DominoPower.

Support for Lotus Notes 7.0.x ends next month. Don't panic! This is the perfect opportunity to migrate to Google Apps.

I have nothing more to add on here.  Go see the article yourself at this URL

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On Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011   by Chris Miller        

ZDNet ran a blog posting, which is now confirmed by Microsoft, that they will be launching a free hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) offering.  Microsoft will host the servers and they are betting it will also be covered on a webcast RIM has tomorrow.

We have exciting news for Microsoft Online Services customers. We are in the process of updating pricing for Hosted BlackBerry Service for Exchange Online to make this service available free of charge.  Starting today, BlackBerry mobile e-mail for new Exchange Online customers is now free through our Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).  For existing customers, we expect to be able to provide more information later this month on how you can take advantage of this change.

The service will be hosted, licensed and supported by RIM who have committed to offer their new BlackBerry cloud based service for Exchange Online starting at $0 per user per month.

With Lotus launching LotusLive Notes Hosted BlackBerry just a short time ago (read my live blog posting), this will be another layer in the battle for places comparing the two offerings.

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On Wednesday, March 16th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

In an email announcement I received today, IBM Lotus is poised to announce and talk about application-specific licensing (ASL):

IBM Application-Specific Licensing (ASL) provides you with a vehicle to
deliver your solution bundled with IBM software, under one contract, to
clients anywhere in the world at a consistent price, and supported
end-to-end by your organization.

So for all of the ISV's that are developing applications, remove some of the licensing hassle with ASL for your solution!

If you need somewhere to deploy these custom applications, and the company does not have Lotus Domino in house, come and talk to use at Connectria.

Visit our new Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.

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On Wednesday, January 19th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

I  light of the recent IBM announcement that Ed pointed to (then later pulled for a couple days as a premature linkation), IBM is attempting to enter a market that Connectria and other Lotus partners have been excelling in and building infrastructure around for years now.  There are some large gaps in cost, scalability and performance that IBM will need to address to make this function.

Since there is no viable ASP mode for Lotus Notes clients, it is presumed that IBM will have to offer you a dedicated Domino server on VM, partition or dedicated machine or make it web access only to be a true SaaS offering.  With the entry level of 1,000 users (yes for now as Ed said) at $8 USD/month, you end up spending almost $100,000 USD in a year for a hosted Domino server with only 1GB of mail per user (currently stated) and a little bit of Quickr.  It also appears that this is a messaging only license, so we need to see what else it brings to the table.

My point, without disclosing too much of what we have learned in trying to be a true SaaS model with Lotus Notes clients, you can find a partner that has been handling SMB (which means down into the 10's of users, not thousand) and up to infinity at a cheaper cost with more true experience in this market space.  Just a thought.

Oh yeah, and you can even add on just about any other Lotus or non-Lotus product you want.

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On Tuesday, October 21st, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Reading Network World the other day, I found this little clip hidden in the corner.

Companies should not outsource their core business functions and staff.......Gates urged IT companies to beware of outsourcing too much to save costs and to keep their key engineering resources and intellectual property at home.

It goes on to say that he is referencing research and development efforts for the most part.  Well duh!  That is the reason we exist here and here.  Because email, IM, e-learning, team collaboration and (you get the idea) is not a core component of any company we host and mange for.  They all have other core competencies.

That is the whole goal and exactly what he wants you to focus on.  He likes the IT consulting if you are not an IT company.  It was just construed in a weird way in that article to make it seem like he was saying do not outsource at all.

Actually it was the opposite.  If you make widgets, make them.  Do not concern yourself with the other areas.

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On Wednesday, July 27th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

It is a simple press release with a big bang.

Connectria Lands Two Contracts for Remote iSeries Management, Server Outsourcing

Two iSeries shops recently entered deals to move iSeries administration to Connectria, a provider of managed hosting services for iSeries and other platforms. Louis Vuitton, a French manufacturer of luxury consumer goods, will be utilizing Connectria's remote monitoring and management service for batch job processing, alerting of job suspensions or interruptions, PTF and upgrade management, maintenance scheduling, and back ups. Meanwhile, a consumer goods company of another sort, Ecko Unlimited, has also enlisted Connectria for some iSeries assistance. The New York City-based designer of "lifestyle brands" targeted at the hip-hop scene previously relied upon Connectria for basic iSeries administration functions, such as job scheduling, PTF applies, and back-ups, which were performed remotely. Now, Ecko has elected to put its iSeries equipment in Connectria's hands. In addition, Connectria will be hosting Ecko's Lotus Notes and Domino applications in its data centers. Connectria is an IBM business partner based in St. Louis. It charges customers about $2,000 to $3,000 per month for iSeries remote monitoring and administration, following one-time setup charges ranging from $3,500 to $8,500.

We don't seem to make these press releases very often as a lot of companies like to keep it under wraps.  But this one made it through all the proper channels

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On Wednesday, July 13th, 2005   by Chris Miller