Leadership By Numbers

In the past, IBM's WebSphere product line was criticised for being late to incorporate current standards. At the beginning of the New Year, IBM has released an evaluation edition of their V6 release as one of the first J2EE 1.4 certified run times in the marketplace. But, they haven't merely released the application for public perusal, they also include documentation and tutorials.
So, what about Lotus Notes? How has it been faring? IBM has just released its 2003 financial results that reveal a 2 percent growth for its Lotus division versus 10 percent and above for all other software offerings. This sounds bad, but is more a reflection of a mature market having reached a saturation point for enterprise messaging systems. There just aren't that many more accounts to be won--everyone is using email and Lotus Domino is secure in a dominant position. But, there won't be a lot of new Domino accounts, just like there won't be a lot of new Groupwise accounts. The good news is that Lotus is continuing to embrace the technolgies of the other divisions. Lotus Workplace and portal integration with a DB2 backend will do more than merely extend Domino's lifespan, they mark a trend to extend its functionality into new technologies.
So, yes, I'll be eagerly looking over the latest Websphere release. Let's see, I have a three day weekend this week and a four day weekend coming up. Timing is everything.