<!– div.lotusnotesemailheader{display: none;} –><!– div.lotusnotesemailheader{display: inline;} –> Last week Lotus Announced the end of support for Notes/Domino 7.0.x ( see http://budurl.com/ezpa ). According to the announcement end of support for Notes 7.0 – 7.0.4 will end on April 30, 2011.
Lotus Notes/Domino 7 was released in August, 2005. Release 7 was highly anticipated among the Lotus community and new capabilities and features such as support for DB2 databases, Domino Domain Monitoring, Activity Trends for increased server management, Lotus Notes Smart Upgrade, improved performance, greatly reduced CPU usage, and others created quite a pre-launch buzz in the market. Release 7 also saw the introduction of some improved end-user features as well, such as improved calendar and scheduling, a Quick Follow Up feature for mail, and better Lotus Sametime integration. In addition, Release 7 offered better integration for Web standards and better integration with IBM WebSphere Application Server and Portal.
In his blog post about the announcement, Ed Brill commented ( http://budurl.com/269d ) that “We made this decision a couple of months ago…at a time when the 7.x codestream had already become the least-prevalent version of Notes/Domino active in market today (8.x is the majority/most prevalent, followed by 6.5, followed by 7). With upgrades to 8.x well underway, a solid 7.0.4 maintenance release, and an 18-month runway before end of mainstream support for 7.x, it feels like the right time to make the call.”
Gurus in the Lotus community seem to agree. Warren Elsemore, a senior architecture consultant for BE Systems, popular speaker, and author, TOLD lOTUSusERgROUP.ORG, “Notes has moved on and so have user requirements. The sorts of tools we’re using now, such as LinkedIn and Tripit weren’t even around in 2005. Now, people want to integrate them with their Notes clients. We can do that with Notes 8.5 – but not with version 7.” And, Debbie Lynd, long-time Lotus Guru, author, and well-known speaker noted that “release 7 was a god send when it came out, but it’s about the standard for IBM Lotus as far as announcements go. Bear in mind, though that as we get closer to 4/11 if major accounts have not had time to upgrade, we may see this date adjusted.”
Both Elsemore and Lynd pointed out, however, that a full 2 years notice is typically adequate for most companies, even the very largest. “Notes/Domino 8 and 8.5 are some of the strongest releases in Notes’ history – so if you aren’t already looking at an upgrade you really are missing out,” Elsemore adds.
clearly the E.O.S. for Notes 7.0.x will act as somewhat of a catalyst for additional upgrades to 8.x, but as Ed Brill mentioned companies on R7 are the smallest end of the spectrum and while most companies are now on 8.x, there are actually more companies on 6.5 than on 7. This bodes well for more upgrades happening soon as support for 6.5 ends in April of 2010 as announced back in 2008 ( http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21287154 ).
Throughout most of the history of Notes/Domino there have been major releases every 2 years or so (more often depending on your definition of major) and there is a good chance that we’ll see a version release before this E.O.S. date arrives. Considering this, Elsemore offered “Unlike the Notes 3 era, we now have all the tools available to easily deploy clients and servers on a much more frequent basis, such as smart upgrade and update sites. It’s my opinion that it is more useful to consider the Notes client as a constantly moving and evolving client. That way you can make sure your business gets the most out of Notes, and doesn’t treat it just as an email system.”
He might be right. According to Ed Brill we should ” look for us to start talking about the next major release of Notes/Domino in early 2010, and to continue our pattern of new feature releases every 12-24 months.”
For more information on the End of Service announcement visit http://budurl.com/ezpa
