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How do you guys think of Domino/Notes vs MS Exchange?
- Thread starter domino888
- Start date
Zirconium3
MIS
My company is considering moving to an Exchange solution and chucking Lotus Notes.
Note my exact words above, "Lotus Notes" my company has no idea of the power sitting inside their Domino server and use less than 10% of its capability i.e. mail and very simple DB's only.
It's a crying shame. We got hit by bugbear just hours after it was discovered, and before we could raise sheilds so to speak, thankfully I can be certain that we didn't proagate the infection, only 12 staff actually executed the virus payload, and we were able to bring it under control in minutes by shutting our print server down.
I shudder to think how bad it could have been if we were using an MS product.
Our IT strategy seems to be "give the users what they want" unfortunately they seem to be asking for something that looks and acts more like Outlook or MSOffice.
I have worked with Lotus Notes on and off over the past 5 years and have really seen in evolve. in fact The last place was using it to store and archive scientific papers, reports and technical documents, all indexed and searchable. All done with bullet proof Notes security for reviewing and proofing.
When I think of my current employer and the things they could do with Notes to streamline and enhance their business (essentially the same except they don't produce scientific reports) and yet don't it dismays me.
Time to start looking for a Domino friendly employer I think!
Zirc.
Note my exact words above, "Lotus Notes" my company has no idea of the power sitting inside their Domino server and use less than 10% of its capability i.e. mail and very simple DB's only.
It's a crying shame. We got hit by bugbear just hours after it was discovered, and before we could raise sheilds so to speak, thankfully I can be certain that we didn't proagate the infection, only 12 staff actually executed the virus payload, and we were able to bring it under control in minutes by shutting our print server down.
I shudder to think how bad it could have been if we were using an MS product.
Our IT strategy seems to be "give the users what they want" unfortunately they seem to be asking for something that looks and acts more like Outlook or MSOffice.
I have worked with Lotus Notes on and off over the past 5 years and have really seen in evolve. in fact The last place was using it to store and archive scientific papers, reports and technical documents, all indexed and searchable. All done with bullet proof Notes security for reviewing and proofing.
When I think of my current employer and the things they could do with Notes to streamline and enhance their business (essentially the same except they don't produce scientific reports) and yet don't it dismays me.
Time to start looking for a Domino friendly employer I think!
Zirc.
I feel for zirconium3 and tylervo.
Our conglomerate companies (one IT dept for all) are split over the usage. The two large companies use Exchange, the two smaller companies use Notes/Domino 5.
The problem for us really stems from the controlling hand of the business execs making the decisions without understanding the tools. So we received Lotus with zero training for the IT staff. We all learned by books and hard knocks. 3 years into Domino now and we three administrators are just now getting a grasp of the full potential. Users got even less. The execs wanted to throw Notes their way with zero training. As a result, users just barely made it work. I finally got to train about 400 of them on basics with a few bells and whistles, but the company still thinks of it as a simple email system with a few databases attached.
Bottom line opinion: if the company will not take the efforts to learn Notes/Domino well, go with Exchange. It is clear they only want a simple e-mail program. Of course you'll be vulnerable to every virus out there.
If the company has vision and will train to back it up, go with Notes/Domino. Version 6 is better than ever, and you can build so much infrastructure with Notes. My previous company knew Notes 4.6 intimately, and had databases for timecards and personal information bulletin boards with very easy instructions for users to follow. Users were also given much more instructions empowering them to create useful materials.
One interesting point about Lotus is that we are less susceptible to the "knuckleheaded" user opening a virus. Used to be when they did that on Exchange, it would grab outlook or Exchange client and replicate itself. Now if the user opens the virus, only their box is infected because most viruses out there don't seem to be written to use Notes to replicate. Of course there is no substitute for AV software, but its nice to know if the AV fails for some reason that we are less vulnerable.
Our conglomerate companies (one IT dept for all) are split over the usage. The two large companies use Exchange, the two smaller companies use Notes/Domino 5.
The problem for us really stems from the controlling hand of the business execs making the decisions without understanding the tools. So we received Lotus with zero training for the IT staff. We all learned by books and hard knocks. 3 years into Domino now and we three administrators are just now getting a grasp of the full potential. Users got even less. The execs wanted to throw Notes their way with zero training. As a result, users just barely made it work. I finally got to train about 400 of them on basics with a few bells and whistles, but the company still thinks of it as a simple email system with a few databases attached.
Bottom line opinion: if the company will not take the efforts to learn Notes/Domino well, go with Exchange. It is clear they only want a simple e-mail program. Of course you'll be vulnerable to every virus out there.
If the company has vision and will train to back it up, go with Notes/Domino. Version 6 is better than ever, and you can build so much infrastructure with Notes. My previous company knew Notes 4.6 intimately, and had databases for timecards and personal information bulletin boards with very easy instructions for users to follow. Users were also given much more instructions empowering them to create useful materials.
One interesting point about Lotus is that we are less susceptible to the "knuckleheaded" user opening a virus. Used to be when they did that on Exchange, it would grab outlook or Exchange client and replicate itself. Now if the user opens the virus, only their box is infected because most viruses out there don't seem to be written to use Notes to replicate. Of course there is no substitute for AV software, but its nice to know if the AV fails for some reason that we are less vulnerable.
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