Less of a load on server resources...lots here from http compression to indexing.

Security. Security deserves a lot of talk when it comes to Lotus Domino. A fully configurable application platform, which provides a dedicated mail client, is used by most embassies in DC (I know), used by the Fortune 1 company, the CIA, etc. and it still has no viruses. Security is a much bigger concern in 2005 than just a few years ago. The threat of a zero-day security compromise means that the architecture has to be inherently secure because there just isn't a firewall structure that exists which will block a zero-day attack. It's cheaper to protect a secure system.

I'll also be spending a fair amount of time dealing with Business Partners and the education channel. It's a very complex relationship (IBM has it's own training centers) and requires a lot of effort to make it profitable.

So, that's what's off the top of my head.

Tony, John, and Erwin
Three more of our authors had some short comment and thoughts. DominoPower Contributing Editor Tony Patton is also well known for his excellent LotusScript and Domino development books. He tells us:

As for Domino 7, it promises many performance improvements by reducing the CPU load as well performance enhancements to the IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol) and Web Server pieces. As a developer, I'm excited with the increased XML support and Web Service integration. You can now develop Domino-based Web Services within the Domino Designer IDE and you can use LotusScript as well as Java.

It seems like IBM has realized the large, established LotusScript community. One other big issue is the increased DB2 integration. I'm not sure if the option to use DB2 as the data store is in the release.

John Roling, who writes for DominoPower as well as our Connected Photographer Magazine is also Senior Groupware Administrator for Czarnowski Exhibit Services and has been to Lotusphere regularly. He tells us:

This will be my fifth Lotusphere, and I have a feeling that this one is going to be the best one yet. We'll get info on all of the new ND7 functionality, as well as more vision on how Workplace will really be tying everything together. The Rich Client proves that IBM isn't abandoning all of us in the Notes space and I'm excited to see how it's all going to work.

Erwin van Hunen tells us, "I'm looking forward to DB2 integration and maybe even more: Web service support in R7. I expect again a great event, with lots of networking possibilities, which for me is the main reason of going."

Erwin's a very special guy to us. In addition to being another great DominoPower author, Erwin's the Lead Technical Architect for the best podcasting utility we've ever used: Doppler Radio. If you're not familiar with podcasting, it's a new form of downloadable broadcasting that goes to your iPod or other MP3 player. We'll be covering it extensively in Computing Unplugged, but Erwin's written the application we use every day. We'll have a link to his site at the end of this article.