Domino provides support for the Java language, virtual machine (both on the server side and in the Notes client), and supports several related standards such as the servlet specification, but Domino is not a mainstream application server or Java development platform. IBM has another product in its stable that not only fits this description but also is the leading J2EE Web application server in the market today. And it has a pure Java development environment. That product is WebSphere.

Domino and WebSphere: two lanes wide
IBM's software strategy is to componentize the rich capabilities of Notes and Domino, Tivoli, and other products and to either rebuild them in Java or repackage them with standards-based interfaces (protocols, APIs, and SDKs). IBM's plan, which already bears the stamp of Ambuj Goyal, is to leverage the technological capabilities of products across brands so that each set of products can incorporate and benefit from features today found in other products with incompatible architectures.

This plan requires a sophisticated technology roadmap that amounts to a large portfolio of modular components that can be mixed and matched to create new products. It also requires integrated solutions, seamlessly incorporating capabilities from multiple product lines. It's a bold vision and a road with many challenges but also many benefits.

IBM Lotus executives went out of their way at the Lotusphere 2003 conference to emphasize that this new strategy includes Domino, although Domino is not the centerpiece. Domino developers, for example, can continue developing applications as they do today indefinitely. At the same time, Java developers building on WebSphere will have increased access to Domino through the Domino Toolkit for WebSphere, an add-on for WSAD to be released later this year. Similarly, Domino version 7 will transparently integrate with IBM's DB2 database product from the perspective of Domino developers.

From IBM's perspective, they're leveraging the experience and capabilities of Domino to expand the market opportunity for WebSphere. This strategy could become a major competitive advantage for IBM as they prepare to battle Microsoft's .NET platform with a Java-centric standards-based suite of technologies under the WebSphere brand.

Customer benefit
In addition to expanding their share of the application server market and challenging .NET, IBM's software strategy promises several benefits to the software industry and to customers. In terms of technology, IBM's new strategy promises improvements in code reuse and interoperability. If realized, this will reduce the cost of developing software products. The focus on standards also means improved flexibility. IBM's slogan, "e-business on demand," reflects their technical plans for modular, reusable software components that can be rapidly assembled into solutions for virtually any set of business and technical requirements.

The bottom line for customers is reduced cost of development and integration as well as freedom from vendor lock-in, where a customer that invests in a technology is compelled to deal with only one vendor (that can dictate any terms it chooses) indefinitely. Of course, concepts such as a flexible solution portfolio and reusable components with standards-based interfaces, while excellent from a development perspective, are not suggestive of packaged turnkey software products. Domino fits the latter description, and it will continue to be effective indefinitely as an internal IT infrastructure solution for email and basic groupware and as an SMB (small and medium-sized business) solution for intranets, extranets, and the Internet. Web application development for large companies, however, will come under WebSphere, particularly for large-scale and transaction oriented applications.