Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

IBM's fight over Web 2.0 will dwarf past clashes against Microsoft

Social software, product integration Lotus's best weapons in Web 2.0 battle
By John Fontana , Network World , 01/24/2008

Orlando – IBM/Lotus this week shifted into high gear its integration, social software and unified communications story as it prepares for a Web 2.0 scuffle that likely will dwarf its past e-mail clashes against Microsoft.

The Web 2.0 battle will encompass many foes beyond Microsoft, including Cisco, traditional telephony vendors and online giants such as Google and Yahoo, and will produce product and vendor options that are sure to test the strategic investment skills of IT executives who told Network World in 2007 that they view collaboration technologies as “important” or “somewhat important” to their future productivity goals. (Learn more about Collaboration products from our Collaboration Buyer's Guide.)

At its annual Lotusphere show, IBM/Lotus hammered away at the way it will integrate its product portfolio that includes messaging, real-time communication, and new social software and rapid application development tools.

But compared with past editions of the conference, in which Lotus seemed to be steering the course of collaboration evolution, the company now seems to be playing from behind in many areas, including messaging, Web conferencing, unified communications and software-as-a-service while Microsoft, Cisco and others are grabbing headlines.

But IBM/Lotus has its gems as well.

The company’s move last year into social software with Lotus Connections and this year’s expansion of the platform give it perhaps the strongest set of tools built for corporate users vs. competitors who are working with adaptations of consumer products.

In addition, the delivery with Notes 8 of the company’s open client framework built on Lotus Expeditor and Eclipse, a container for executing XML-based application components, provides client integration designed for users who want to buy and run only the components they need, dictate the pace of their adoption and retain options to fill in any gaps with home-grown software.

In addition to Notes 8, the framework is the front end for Sametime 8 and Lotus Symphony productivity applications. It will eventually front every back-end server and service so users can get functionality ala carte while maintaining a single interface.
In addition, integrating those same servers with other clients, such as Microsoft Outlook and partner software such as Carestream’s imaging tools, won’t lock users into the Lotus platform and will expand IBM/Lotus’s range of potential sales.
IBM/Lotus last week also announced partnerships with SocialText and Atlassian to integrate wiki technology from each vendor into Lotus Connections.

Partner Content
CA logo

CA Network & Voice Resource Center

Comprehensive Network & Voice Management Visit CA Network & Voice Management Resource Center and get insights into industry best practices, information that helps you to address your challenges.

CA Network & Voice Management Resource Center

whitepaper

Managing Voice Over IP for Successful Convergence

Voice over IP (VoIP) has much to offer in cost savings but some customers have concerns about VoIP call quality compared to the quality of traditional voice services. This white paper will help you learn how to take the right steps so that voice quality is assured.

Managing VoIP for Successful Convergence

whitepaper

The Changing Face of Network Management

Managing your network is serious business. This paper discusses the benefits of integrating configuration change-awareness into your network fault management solution

Download Whitepaper

Comment
Login
Forgot your account info?
Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to moderator approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed
Save The Date!
What They Are Saying

In all of these letters that you have posted, Chuck, I have yet to see one that apologizes to PZ Myers...- bullet

Join the Discussion