Compare: Exchange Server 2010 vs. Lotus Notes and Domino
Microsoft Exchange continues to deliver the leading messaging experience for end users and deliver on the business needs of IT. IBM Lotus Notes and Domino continue to work to add features and functionality to their software that are native to Exchange. Exchange differs from Lotus Domino in the following ways:
Superior user experience: Don’t take our word for it, take our customers’. In a recent case study by Brinks Home Security, Rob Trotter, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Brinks Home Security, said, “Users understood the advantages of moving to the 2007 Office release and Outlook 2007 from the very beginning. In fact, when we first announced the move from Lotus Notes to Outlook 2007 at an all-managers meeting, we got a standing ovation and cheers.” Exchange 2010 delivers more for the user experience than ever before with an enhanced conversation view for mail triage, speech-to-text transcription for voice mail and MailTips to improve messaging efficiency and avoid accidental or unintended e-mails. Although recent versions of Notes updated the user interface, it lags behind in key users features and the addition of Eclipse as an underlying structure has increased both the memory and disk footprint that has required, in some cases, new hardware to take advantage of the new release.
The road to enterprise services: Microsoft delivers multi-tenant scalable solutions that provide advantages in total cost of ownership, flexibility, and IT control. Services isn’t just about taking an on-premises server and putting it in a data center; it’s about building in scalability from the beginning, and Exchange Server 2010 delivers that architecture natively. IBM does not offer this full range of deployment choices but provides only limited outsourced solutions. And their LotusLive iNotes offering is based on their acquisition of Outblaze, a consumer grade e-mail offering that creates a separate messaging experience for those users. This calls into question IBM’s ability to scale Lotus Domino to millions of users while maintaining low costs.
A single unified communications platform: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 continues to address users’ needs by providing new capabilities for unified messaging, integrated e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging (IM), Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, and mobility management. All of these capabilities are provided within a single Exchange product compared with the multiple, disparate products that an IBM deployment requires.
Built-in enterprise mobility: In Exchange Server 2010, mobile users can access their messages from a truly universal inbox with SMS text messages, e-mail, voice mail, and saved IM conversations. IT administrators can control the devices that connect to their networks though a block/allow list to ensure that only approved devices connect to the Exchange Server messaging data.
The best part of mobile access in Exchange Server 2010 is that it is all built into Exchange Server. You do not need to buy extra servers and client access licenses (CALs) from third-party providers or manage another, separate system for mobile access.
In contrast, Lotus Notes Traveler, Lotus’ mobile experience for Domino, which was recently rewritten to provide support for Exchange ActiveSync, provides only a basic mobile experience that analysts have said should not be deployed without “a third-party security and management offering.” Exchange has 47 mobile policies to manage and protect information and security of the devices that connect to your network.
Single, industry-leading directory interoperability: The Exchange team built the first native active directory application, Exchange 2000, almost nine years ago. IBM announced this feature for Domino 8.5.x releases, and by the time it is shipped, Exchange will have a ten-year head start on interoperability with the leading directory service in enterprises today, providing rich, powerful experiences to end users and IT Pros alike.
Storing, archiving, and retention: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 addresses the needs to specify what data is stored and for how long with native e-mail archiving and robust retention policies that provide the tools you need to meet increasing compliance requirements. Exchange Server 2010 also enables powerful cross-mailbox searching capabilities that can be delegated through role-based access control, to ensure that the right people have the right tools to protect your organization. Domino provides only limited archiving and in most cases requires third-party products, with additional cost and complexity, to achieve the compliance capabilities that Exchange Server 2010 delivers natively.
With Microsoft Exchange 2010 customers can choose cheaper, lower-cost storage types including DAS, SATA, and JBOD without sacrificing reliability or performance. IBM provides Domino attachment object store (DAOS), but customers are not provided with a true range of storage options to reduce costs for all users.
Delivering tools for the global economy: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 includes the ability to share calendars with users outside your organization and associate permissions that you are comfortable with. In this release, secure messaging is not only supported within your organization, but for external users as well. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 now enables secure communications with vendors, partners, and customers who previously required third-party tools or separate account management.
As you can see, Microsoft delivers innovation and capabilities that are well ahead of our competitors in many areas, and provides real value to customers.
