Let me first start by affirming that this post is in no way
intentional to convince you to switch Lotus Notes to Exchange. I very well know
that the world is divided into two (equivalent?) camps: one for Microsoft
Exchange and the other for IBM Lotus Notes. And it appears that they are
constantly battling with each other to prove that their particular platform is
much better than the other. You can just Google (or Bing) for “Exchange Server
vs. IBM Lotus Notes” and you will be surprised to know some of the interesting
facts about these two platforms.
In fact, as an MS Exchange-minded person; let me begin by
revealing you some features I like about IBM Notes: it is flexible. In last few
years, I have seen some relatively good solutions that were made with (and
around) IBM Lotus Notes. As far as my experience goes, there is not much that
it won’t let you to modify (or overwrite). It also comes with some useful
features like recurring meetings with sporadic dates (a feature that everyone
wants to see in MS Outlook!). And in some good way, I like the flexibility and
uncomplicatedness of the file structure: each mailbox is a database in its
particular right and signified by a single file (nsf) that you can put at
anyplace you wish to: including NAS storage.
My main point here is that both platforms have their
qualities and unique selling points. Don’t try to compare them: it can’t be
done.
Why do people
migrate?
I cannot disregard the statistic that during the last few
years I have perceived my share of migrations to Microsoft Exchange. Why is
that?
As a consultant, you get to hear the roughest stories.
Occasionally it look as if that any reasons is good to move away from Lotus
Notes: “Cost”, “Interoperability”, “Manageability”, “Following the market”,
“the CEO doesn’t like the client” and my favourite “I want my new mail to
appear on top”. From the above-mentioned reasons, I consider “Manageability” to
be the origin of all evil (from IBM’s point-of-view at least). I don’t know the
exact numbers, but the amount of experienced Lotus Notes administrators must
have been falling (quickly!)…
All in all, every single migration starts with a motive.
There has to be a reason. If you can’t catch a reason to migrate then simply
don’t.
In my individual judgment, there are numerous aims why a lot
of corporations are switching from Lotus Notes to Exchange Server. First of
all, IBM Lotus Notes is not a messaging platform; rather it is an
application/development platform that provides mail abilities. And while Lotus
Notes does a good job at handling email communication. But MS Exchange (in my
opinion) basically handles it better.
Manage the
expectations!
There is no doubt that MS Outlook provides a great value to
the users, but at the same time you must face the fact that some things are not
credible with this email client.
It is always expected to lose some data in migration. There are always one or more emails that have
been residing in the user’s mailbox for many months which are untouched by the
user or there might be a chance that those mails are corrupt. Even though, the
user no longer remember that mail or mails, but still there is a chance that
they will make your life difficult while performing migration. So, you must
prepare yourself to face this situation.
Do I discourage migrating to Exchange/Outlook from Lotus
Notes? No, not at all! Though it is possible that your efficiency might get
hurt during the first couple of weeks once the migration is done completely but
we typically see a great escalation later with a lot of pleased faces as a
consequence.
To coexist or not?
Definitely not! (Until and unless you are having a convincing
plan to do then) Anything other than mail flow among both platforms should be sidestepped
at all cost! If you still go for coexistence, you will have to bear huge amount
in operating both. And moreover it will create complications. That is somewhat
you don’t want to face: adding complication to something that is already complicated.
Most of the time, we only perceive coexistence set up in situations
where the old (Lotus Notes) environment remains to live on for a while (maybe
waiting for its apps to get transformed into SharePoint, who knows?)
Tooling…
Am I asking you to use a migration tool? Yes. If you are
looking for an ‘easy and swift’ method to migrate from one side to the other
and want to perform the migration in a right way, I’m quite sure using you a
professional tool would be a good option.
Final Words
In this post, I have only scratched the surface of what a
migration consist of. I haven’t spoken about all facts nor have I spoken about
all the diverse options and tools. But I hope that – for those planing to switch
or already have made the choice – this post can throw some insights and inspirational
considerations.
Rest assured: I perceive a lot of these migrations come to
an happy ending; generally the ones where a lot of time was consumed on examining,
scheduling and authenticating… ;-)
Just summon up: migrating from Notes to MS Exchange is more
than only changing a system. Try to look at it in a universal way: it is also about altering your operations,
even more important: your conviction.
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