Lotus Software from IBM Announces Pre-Release Beta Version of Lotus Notes and Domino 6

Reinforcing its leadership in the messaging and collaboration market, IBM Corporation today announced the first pre-release version of IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino 6, including Lotus iNotes Web Access and Lotus Domino Designer. The pre-release version of Lotus Notes and Domino 6 (formerly code-named "Rnext") will be available within the next 30 days, while the final product is targeted for shipment in the third quarter of 2002.

Today's announcement marks the next step in the IBM Lotus software messaging and collaboration strategy and gives customers the information they need to plan a deployment schedule.


"In order to maintain our leadership position in this evolving and expanding market, we worked closely with our customers to determine what factors would address their e-business needs. These discussions, along with our unsurpassed technology, have allowed us to develop a high-quality messaging and collaboration solution designed to drive the e-businesses of the future," said Scott Cooper, vice president, Lotus Solutions, IBM Software Group. "Building on the success of Lotus Notes/Domino R5, we regard quality assurance as paramount in this release and want to continue our tradition of delivering secure, solid products for end-users, administrators and application developers."

Leveraging significant amounts of beta customer input and feedback, Lotus software developed Lotus Notes and Domino 6 to help customers lower the total cost of ownership by including numerous new features and capabilities geared toward enhancing end-user productivity.

As the next phase in IBM Lotus software's collaborative infrastructure strategy, such new features and capabilities in Lotus Notes and Domino 6 will include:

End-user capabilities - Users will enjoy improved mobility, including roaming user and multi-user support, as well as more control over replication and improved wireless access via PDAs, pagers and Web-enabled mobile phones. Lotus Notes and Domino 6 also offer updated mail and calendar user interface which can easily be customized, personalized and maintained, and general enhancements to the overall user interface, including customizable welcome page and easier to use bookmarks.

Application development capabilities - Developers will gain added convenience and time-savings through design element locking and reuse and sharing of personal agents. Additionally, Lotus Notes and Domino 6 will offer a simplified, integrated method of connecting to external data, previously available through a separate application, DECS (Domino Enterprise Connections Services) and added support for Web development features including JSP (Java Server Pages), a JSP tag library for Lotus Domino objects and Servlets.

Administration capabilities - Administrators will be able to leverage heightened availability, reliability, scalability and performance through improved user roles and remote management for configuring and distributing client upgrades/updates. Lotus Notes and Domino 6 also provide increased security and support for new security standards. Furthermore, it offers simplified policy-based management for creating broad transaction logging, clustering and network compression and greater ease of integration with existing infrastructure through tighter alignment with other IBM Software technologies, including DB2, WebSphere and Tivoli software.

With more than 90 million users worldwide, momentum for the next version of Lotus software's flagship product has grown steadily since its introduction in 1989. Studies from some of the industry's top analyst firms have highlighted the business value of Lotus software and positioned IBM as one of the leading providers of messaging solutions.

Lotus Notes/Domino 6 Pricing and Availability

Final pricing for Lotus Notes and Domino 6 has not been announced. The Lotus Domino server pre-release beta is available for Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000, IBM OS/400, IBM AIX, Sun Solaris/SPARC and Linux (IA-32) server platforms. The Lotus Notes client pre-release beta is available for Windows 32-bit operating systems and Macintosh clients, including Mac OS X. The Lotus Domino Designer 6 pre-release beta is available for Windows 32-bit operating systems. Additional Domino server platform support, including IBM OS/390 and HP/UX, will be added in future beta updates. Final pricing and availability of Lotus Notes and Domino 6 will be announced at a later date, and both products will be sold via direct distribution and reseller channels.

About Lotus Software from IBM

Lotus software from IBM sets the standard for truly innovative software and services that reflect the brand's unique representation of the new ways individuals and businesses work together to achieve success. Lotus software is further redefining the concept of conducting business through practical Knowledge Management, e-business and other groundbreaking ways of connecting ideas, thinkers, buyers, sellers and communities around the world via the Internet. Lotus software is marketed in more than 80 countries worldwide through direct sales and extensive Business Partner channels. Consulting, support and education services are provided by the Lotus Professional Services organization.

Lotus, Lotus Notes, Lotus Domino, iNotes and Domino Designer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation and/or IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. IBM, DB2, Tivoli and WebSphere are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.

Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.



NewsWire-less Home

---

Does your company have a solution, news, event, or scoop that WDN should know about?
Send details to editors@wirelessdevnet.com