Re: Domino On IBM i Poised For A Comeback

On Sep 24, 2018, at 2:56 PM, Paul Nelson <nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

So I've been right, all along, about outsourcing. Vindication is sweet.
:-)

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 409-267-4027
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rob
Berendt
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2018 1:17 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Domino On IBM i Poised For A Comeback

The off shore support was probably a major factor in the length of time it
took to get Domino working on Power 9. Too often we lost a day waiting
for replies, often to find out it was simply a request for more
information. Another factor was such a low commitment to this platform
that they simply did not have access to Power 9 hardware to work on the
issue. We ended up giving them the keys to the kingdom on one of our
lpars to spin up all the Domino they needed on Power 9 to shake it down.
General language skills could be better. They are very hard to understand
and have an irritating habit of constantly interrupting you with "uh hum".
(Had this happen while typing this up.) Although I understand US labor
laws make it extremely hard to discriminate against hiring personnel for
telephone support based on skill alone. Such as the ability to speak
English clearly or lack of any speech impediments. I had to watch an HR
video on this practice. Kind of like being unable to discriminate against
a knife thrower for your carnival act because he's blind.

And you're right about the hardware impact. We have two Power 9's and one
Power 8. All of them have 5 lpars of IBM i each. Seven lpars of IBM i
are dedicated to Domino.

Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: "Jim Oberholtzer" <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 09/24/2018 01:18 PM
Subject: RE: Domino On IBM i Poised For A Comeback
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



All of my customers still running Domino have moved to the cloud offering
IBM has, and are not looking back.

A few of them have applications that are still running but that's most of
it. One customer had a 1 character change in an "ini" file and it killed
BRMS backups and several other things. It took over two weeks to finally
find the "IBM recommended change" (as part of a PMR that was open) to
track
down what was happening.

If HCL is serious, the first thing they do is get all native English
speaking support people for US support. (IBM too for that matter) Then
they need to be serious about responding in a timely fashion.

Too bad too since it's lowering the workload on the system by quite a bit.
One customer killed a P9 upgrade plan since they did not have to support
Domino, now they have sufficient horsepower to wait a couple of years.

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rob
Berendt
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2018 11:53 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Domino On IBM i Poised For A Comeback

Paul,

Thank you. I stopped reading his articles because of his repeated
political
comments, despite my requests to cease. While I firmly support his
freedom
of speech I also have the freedom to get my news elsewhere as I find
political opinions in a technical magazine, or this list, inappropriate.

That being said, we will continue to use Domino to support web
applications
and numerous internal databases. However we will be migrating all email
off
of Domino in the immediate future. We've inked a deal with Office 365 and
CDW for their assistance to move forward with the migration. It was a
combination of things. They let it lag too long that it became extremely
visible. The Power 9 upgrade and the fiasco with Domino took way too long
to resolve. The complexity of supporting it and the constant database
corruptions. The total lack of day 1 support for the last few releases of
IBM i, and the amount of time which dragged on until it was finally
supported went way too long.


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail
to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: "Steinmetz, Paul" <PSteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 09/24/2018 11:57 AM
Subject: Domino On IBM i Poised For A Comeback
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



Rob,

Are you still using Domino?

Domino On IBM i Poised For A Comeback

September 24, 2018 Alex Woodie

IBM hasn't exactly been knocking the cover off the ball lately when it
comes to the Domino family of products running on IBM i, or any platform
for that matter. But when IBM and its new development partner HCL finally
unveil Domino 10 to the world on October 9, it will be the start of a
great comeback story.

That's the prediction of Domino consultant Kim Greene, who has been
working with the software on the IBM i platform for many years. Greene has

been closely watching events unfold since HCL Technologies partnered with
IBM to develop Domino and related products last October, and according to
her, things really couldn't be going much better.

"Domino is not dead," Greene tells IT Jungle. "It's alive, and amazing
functionally is coming in version 10, and they're planning point releases
after that as well as plotting out version 11. There's a ton of focus and
energy."

Things were looking downright dismal for IBM i Domino shops last
September, before HCL Technologies stepped into the picture. There hadn't
been a major release in nearly a decade, since version 8.5 shipped, and
IBM gave mixed messages about support on IBM i. Rumors about the possible
death of not just Domino, but Domino on IBM i, were circulating. IBM's
emphasis on the cloud was ill-received, and many Domino customers migrated

to other systems, although Greene says most of those were Domino shops
running on Windows.

But thanks to the infusion of energy that HCL has brought - as well as a
more enlightened perspective on the matter from IBM - the future for
Domino as a whole (and Domino on IBM i specifically) appears bright once
more.

"They're crystal clear that IBM HCL supports IBM i for Domino, Sametime,
and Traveler going forward," says Greene, who is based near Rochester,
Minnesota. "It's a firm commitment. There's no longer a 'Well, we'll wait
and see.' They're working hard to address that and making sure that people

know that it is fully supported."

Greene was one of about 60 Domino industry luminaries who were selected to

attend an HCL factory tour in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, this July, which
oddly enough featured a "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" theme to it.
Greene says new IBM's new Domino exec, Andrew Mandy, tracked her down to
talk about Domino on IBM i.

"He specifically asked to meet with me," says Greene, the principle of Kim

Greene Consulting. "He said, 'I'd like to understand the IBM i better and
understand what we need to do to reach the market and make sure we're
getting the word out that Domino, Sametime, and Traveler are fully
supported on IBM i. They're definitely wanting to make sure that word gets

out properly."

The good work over the past 12 months goes beyond the messaging and
optics. According to Greene, version 10 brings a cornucopia of useful new
features - including support for Node.js - that should put Domino back on
the map when it comes to developing and running Web and mobile
applications.

"Domino 10 is going to blow the doors away for low-code development," she
says. "You no longer have to learn a proprietary technology such as Xpages

to do your mobile and Web application development. Node.js is really huge
in the industry, so adding the Node.js enterprise framework to Domino
unleashes a new era of development for the platform. You can find lots of
developers that know [Node.js]. And it's not that difficult to learn the
[Domino] API set."

There are also the self-healing capabilities of automatic cluster database

symmetry and the automatic database repair function that will automate
keeping NSF and DAOS content synchronized in a cluster and repair and
replace damaged or missing NSFs and NLOs between servers. It's very common

for Domino customers to have missing pieces in the document-oriented
database, and with Domino 10, fixing that is much easier. The Notes client

has also been updated, and Traveler and Sametime are slated for
enhancements. (IBM Connections, the other piece of IBM's Domino puzzle,
was not part of the deal with HCL and its future is not certain.)

"Once Domino 10 comes out and customers see it, it's going to be like,
holy wow," Greene says. "If you take Domino 6, 7, 8, and 9 and combined
them together, it doesn't even hardly touch 10. It's an amazingly huge
release."

There are other changes occurring that raise the prospects for even more
compelling features to enter the pipelines since HCL and IBM have
developed a client advocacy program that allows Domino clients of any size

to meet directly with the Domino developers.

"A person like myself who is a business partner can bring in a customer
and meet directly with the technical people," Greene says. "They find out
what is it that you need, and they listen. They want to make sure that
what they develop makes sense and is something that people want. They're
not after just the big huge monster customers."

Customers can also have a direct impact on future Domino features through
the Domino2025 Product Ideas Lab, where they can submit their product
request and vote on ideas. This lets the smaller Domino shops have their
voices heard when it comes to product ideas, not just the big companies.

Here's another positive sign on Domino on IBM i: HCL and IBM are looking
to hire more Domino IBM i developers who can help build functionality for
the IBM i platform, Greene says. They would join a Domino team that feels
reinvigorated with a new sense of purpose, she says.

"What I find really amazing is the Domino developers are just jazzed," she

says. "They're getting to do the things they wanted to do for the last
seven to eight years. It's like the handcuffs came off and they're able to

get in there and do the things they know need to be done, because they've
always listened to their customers and partners. They obviously want to
make their product better. If you don't make it better, you don't sell it.

They all get it."

Greene is definitely happy about the change of direction that has occurred

with the platform that she has committed a good part of her professional
career to serving (she has recently started working with MongoDB, which is

a document-oriented NoSQL databases that in some ways is similar to
Domino. Indeed, IBM and HCL have taken to calling Domino a NoSQL
platform).

However, there is one caveat to all the good news on Domino in general,
and Domino on IBM i specifically. While Domino version 10 will ship for
Windows and Linux platforms in the fourth quarter, the version of Domino
10 that supports IBM i will take a little while longer. There's not even a

beta version of the code available to try.

"We're not getting it right away," she says, "but we're getting it really
soon."

For more information about Domino 10 and the launch party HCL and IBM
scheduled for October 9, check out the Domino Destination website at
www.ibm.com/collaboration/ibm-domino.

Thank You
_____
Paul Steinmetz
IBM i Systems Administrator

Pencor Services, Inc.
462 Delaware Ave
Palmerton Pa 18071

610-826-9117 work
610-826-9188 fax
610-349-0913 cell
610-377-6012 home

psteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pencor.com/

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