Filed under: Business, Utilities, Office, Google, IBM
Google makes it easier to ditch Lotus Notes
The tool is a Lotus Notes database, which means IT pros who are used to notes shouldn't have much trouble with it. It migrates everything from Notes to Google Apps: email, calendars, and contacts. This is welcome news to folks who are still stuck with the quirky interface and sometimes-frustrating incompatibility of Notes, but will it get companies to switch? The success of Google Apps in the enterprise market might not be about how easy it is to switch, but about how comfortable businesses are with moving their data to the cloud.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian said 1:40PM on 7-15-2009
Keep in mind that this is email/calendar/contacts ONLY. This tool can not "migrate" your customized databases. (Nor can any other tool.) Your only choice would be to completely re-write any Notes/Domino application using another technology. Make sure that you count this in your cost estimates. Leaving Notes is MUCH more expensive than you think it is.
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Money Mike said 3:17PM on 7-15-2009
I had high hopes for a second, until I read your comment. You're absolutely right. In my unit, we use two mailboxes (which certainly could be switched over) and a brand new database, which obviously couldn't. And even if we didn't, there are plenty of other databases in use at my company. Unless everything could be switched at once, I know it won't be happening.
Besides, why would businesses want to move personal, proprietary, and/or private information to the cloud?
Don't get me wrong, I would love it if the switch was made. We were just upgraded to Notes 8.0 and even though it's much, much better than the old version 6.5 we had for years, it's still not a very user-friendly program. I would love to be able to use Gmail's features - most notably the "labels" feature and how you can just drag the labels onto the email, or vice versa. Now that I'm used to it, I'm very aware of my business emails that should be filed under multiple categories.
Mihir said 2:32PM on 7-15-2009
The Google cloud is notoriously famous for sniffing through your emails / conversations and displaying 'relevant' ads on your inbox page. No responsible / sensible organization would want to take this risk of making their confidential information available to Google. Even though Google might claim that user information is kept strictly confidential, when it comes to enterprises, one cannot trust. One of the most popular diggs on the web http://digg.com/security/Google_is_watching_you corroborates this fact. I am sure in the enterprise space, specially the large ones, Microsoft or IBM do not have to worry.
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StuBee said 8:49PM on 7-15-2009
I've seen large companies try to migrate from Lotus Notes (for no other reason than the 'grass is greener' philosophy), and I don't think I've seen it completed for any type of costs savings.
As the earlier poster pointed out..this is email only. Lotus Notes is database centric..with Mail just being one of those apps. If you just migrate mail you are left with your apps still in notes...and no proper integration between them. Most likely you end up still paying for the Lotus Notes licenses so your DB's can still be accessed, in addition to the additional licensing for your new mail platform.
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Atul Saxena said 3:27PM on 8-14-2009
I want to contribute my comments
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