Being enterprise software, one usually needs considerable expertise and time to obtain optimal performance and functionality. This is especially true for a product as comprehensive and feature rich as Lotus Domino 6.5 which is fully programmable and can provide workflow, knowledge management, document management, archiving, database and collaboration services via a client-server or browser based thin client model.
As a messaging and collaboration system, Lotus Domino Enterprise Server is an excellent choice as it provides email, remote web access, groupware databases (such as discussions and team rooms) and Internet services (web, LDAP, news) straight out of the box. A less expensive Message Server is also available which only provides the email and web based email access.
Even though Domino is complex, the product ships with a comprehensive 'suitcase' of extremely well written manuals allowing administrators, users and developers to quickly become expert with the product. For those who prefer class-room training, IBM and its training partners provide a full range of certification courses in administering, developing and using Domino.
Domino 6.5 uses wizards extensively which makes it possible for an experienced administrator to build a basic messaging server in under an hour. If you don't have Domino experience, you can always hire a Domino partner or consultants to help with the installation, configuration and development of collaboration tools.
True to IBM's promise, Domino 6.5 does more with less by being able to support more users on existing hardware and employing GZIP compression between the server and client or browser to reduce network traffic by up to 70%. Whilst you would not do this in practice, we tested Domino 6.5 on an minimum spec NT 4 (SP6a) dual Pentium 166 server with only 256MB RAM and it performed adequately (albeit slightly sluggish with web access). On our dual processor Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition Server, performance was excellent with speed limited only by the available internet bandwidth.
Internet integration has been a part of Domino (formerly Notes) since Release 4, although it wasn't until Release 5.08 of iNotes that effective browser based email access was available. Domino 6.5 builds on this with the significantly improved web client that features both on-line and off-line mail access. Making extensive use of Java applets, the web client provides most of the features of the rich Notes client including integration between the email, task list and calendaring modules (allowing you to transfer emails directly into your calendar or to-do list), access to your contacts list, view only unread mail, phone messages which are automatically emailed to the recipient and the ability block mail from spammers.
Domino Off-Line Services (DOLS) is an application that downloads off the server to support secure encrypted offline storage of email. Although you would want to download the 22.5Mb DOLS client whilst connected to the LAN, once installed it makes efficient use of Domino replication technology to synchronise your off-line email store with the server allowing you to use the browser based Domino access whether on or off-line. DOLS is also available for Outlook clients allowing users who want full integration with Microsoft Office to take advantage of Domino's replication and off-line storage capabilities.
Other user enhancements include the ability to only view unread emails in your inbox (to minimise the clutter if you receive many emails a day), set follow up flags and actions for email messages, set icons to quickly see if an email has been forwarded or replied to and allow Notes to be your default email program. Notes makes an ideal portal since users can populate their Welcome page (the initial screen) with collaboration and team tabs (which open relevant team and Quickplace databases), access to instant messaging, a search applet and application launcher.
Anti-spam functionality is also a significant component of Domino 6.5 with tools to allow administrators to reject emails from blacklisted domains, specify blacklisted domains and develop content based rules to reject emails based on subject, sender and content. New to Domino 6.5 are QuickRules which allows users to set individual rules which reside on the server to block specific senders, sort and prioritise incoming emails and delete junk emails. Additional protection against viruses and inappropriate content can be obtained by using third party software such as Symantec Anti-virus 3.1 for Domino which seamlessly integrates into the Domino 6.5 environment.
Security has also been enhanced in Domino 6.5 with the ability to encrypt email on the fly (using public/private key encryption) and to encrypt data whilst travelling across the network or internet.
As part of IBM's realisation of the Lotus Workplace Platform, the Notes client now integrates with IBM's Sametime (instant messaging) server. This allows you to immediately 'chat' with someone who has just sent you an email and create an on-line meeting from within Notes. As development of this integration proceeds with Domino 7 and beyond, developers will be able to integrate Domino solutions with J2EE technology, open standards (such as Java and .NET) and take advantage of the full relational database capabilities of DB2.
If you don't run Microsoft infrastructure and are looking for a robust, secure, easy to use and administer messaging system you can't go past Domino 6.5. With its multiplatform support, collaboration tools, integration with instant messaging services and the flexibility and scalability to deliver enterprise workflow solutions it is little wonder that Domino has over 100 million users and is the choice of many enterprises and government departments.