7 Different Facts That An IT Manager Should Know About Lotus Notes
IT enterprises know about IBM Notes and Domino servers. But, there is a high probability that they are unknown from utilizing its full advantages not only in the form of an email client but, also as other phases of it. You will be shocked to hear that the individuals who are working with Lotus Notes since 2 decades or more are still having difficulty in explaining Notes and Domino. They are unable to clear the concepts associated with this email client and an associated server.
Therefore, here we came with a team of experts who are having a keen knowledge of Lotus Notes and can explain it briefly. In this informative blog, 7 basic Lotus Notes tips that an IT Admin should know, who is working with the IBM email client.
1. IBM Notes is More than an Email Client
Majority of the business users know about the Lotus Notes as an email client. They spend their more time with its email file system. It is an infinite debate on the question that which one is better – Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange server? In other words, it is an unreasonable type of comparison.
Apart from email service, you can do much more with IBM Notes app. You can:
- Download the open-source MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) like Sendmail
- Download an open-source email client like Mozilla Thunderbird
In comparison to Microsoft Outlook email client, Lotus Notes is unable to come in category of ‘best-in-class’. But why to see only the mailing factor? IBM Notes renders more than an email management, which proves itself valuable for business.
IBM Notes is a full-featured rapid app development platform. It uses a semi-structured pattern for data storage, which enables documents creation and processing. The documents are shown like a form to end users that reveal the pertinent fields of applications. The thing illustrates that one can utilize IBM Domino for building software associated with the electronic workflow. This will develop request, inform approvers through email and after the approval, process the request.
2. Notes As An Application Development Platform
Another Lotus Notes tips is that several organizations avoid getting closer to an individual technology or vendor. If these things are not done in a concentrated manner then, technology’s proprietary nature could limit down the upcoming options for a company when it comes to integration with other platforms.
A wide variety of the open standard technologies is provided by Notes like HTML, JavaScript, LotusScript, and Java. Software developers who are known for these technologies can use this Notes application development platform. This will produce the complex workflow program in short time period.
Developers require the Designer client to develop and enhance multiple parts of Notes apps like views, forms, and agents. This can be done by viewing and testing coding in Notes program or even in the web browser for instant feedback. Developers will be able to get more productivity facilities in a short time via IBM Notes.
3. Domino is Server and Notes is Client
The IBM Lotus Notes and Domino is the full name of IBM’s software. This Lotus Notes tip describes that the term ‘Lotus Notes’ is an email client, whose setup file is downloaded, installed, and configured in personal PC. It can be used to work with both Notes applications and email files.
The term ‘Domino’ is the server program designed by the IBM Notes team, which operates on several OSs. In Lotus Notes client, when users connect with the server copy of their email database, the server that serves the user’s mail database content is Domino. It is responsible for the data security and control that resides under it. A robust security model is programmed for this server, which controls the accessing in IBM documents at the initial level. This comprises the user accessing as well as database and network traffic encryption.
From an Intel Pentium 2 to ‘big iron’ of IBM mainframes, Lotus Notes and Domino works on most of the available OS. This attention towards the platform support denotes that IT field can utilize the data center architecture and existing servers for consolidating hardware.
4. IBM Notes Maintain Long History of Backward Compatibility
Backward compatibility between different versions is one of the core features of Notes. It is possible to use version 1 of Notes application with recent Notes 8 release without any conversion or compatibility challenges. There are some software that boasts their compatibility across edition like Notes. This feature states that investment on IBM Notes will return its value for long-term in future.
The Domino server migration comprises of operating the install utility for the recent edition. The server gets upgraded in less than 15 minutes. All the program built in the earlier Notes editions continue their work without applying any mandatory conversion rules.
5. Works in Online As Well As Offline Mode
In spite of the fact that whether the internet connection is available or not, IT employees demand 24*7 data accessing. IBM Notes program provides this facility by internally replicating information in between the local applications & files and the server. When the network connection gets established, automatically the data synchronization takes place. Simultaneously, two or more people could update separate fields because of the replication at the field level. The Domino server syncs all the update to reflect them in future.
Users replicate the email files on their own PC locally to work productively in an offline mode. When the network occurrence takes place, all the modifications get synchronized with the server and drafted emails are sent to their respective authorities.
6. Available for Notes Client and Web Browsers
It is possible to code Notes client software and web-based applications. An HTTP server is provided in the Domino server, which provides a content-based request on simple HTTP. It grabs the design of the program and information and appends it into the HTML ‘on the fly’ for the browsing purpose. This provides a greater flexibility for end users with higher chances of pay off.
7. IBM Notes/Domino is “not dead”
Several times IBM Notes have been stated dead. Some people took an assumption that it will get replaced by the web-based email clients. Lots of humor were coming to ears when several new technologies came into the existence. But, IBM Notes was equally competing with all the challenges and humor.
Lotus Notes appended all the web capabilities when businesses demanded intranet applications. Another coding language i.e., Java came as a new feature in the updated version of Notes. The ability to build composite
applications got available in the Notes Domino 8.
Conclusion
Enterprises need to keep one thing very clear in mind that Lotus Notes is something more than ‘just an email’. You should squeeze out all the investment that you make while purchasing its services. This post discusses the fundamental IBM Lotus Notes tips which will help you to know more about it. Rest, if you are facing any problem while utilizing the program’s other feature then, contact the IBM support executive; but, don’t ignore them because you are paying for all, not only for email.
