Introducing Lotus Protector
March 11 2008
Notes & Domino administrators manage some of the world's largest and most sophisticated enterprise e-mail deployments, with reliability that is (we believe) the gold standard for the category. When it comes to deploying, administering, and supporting an enterprise-wide messaging and scheduling system, with multiple client types and over complex topologies.... well, you're just not going to beat Lotus Notes and Domino, and the people who make it run.
But over time there has developed a second, separate layer of infrastructure that need to be managed in support of Domino -- in fact, for any e-mail system, not just Domino. For example, connections to the Internet introduce threats that need to be addressed, so the SMTP interface needs to present a locked-down posture, and filter unwanted content such as spam and viruses. At the same time, continuing growth in sheer e-mail data volume, plus increasing regulation of corporate information, particularly compliance and legal discovery, combine to create pressures to better manage the ever-bigger chunk of an enterprise's data that goes through people's mailboxes.
Most of todays infrastructure on that second layer doesn't have much to do with specific Domino skills, and often may not even the responsibility of the Domino team. Typically these products/solutions simply sit on the network or out at the edge, treating whatever is inside as the next relay in a generic SMTP stream. Often that's a sensible strategy for increasing throughput, especially when inspecting for things like spam and viruses, which can comprise over 90% of SMTP e-mail volume.
Of course some vendors integrate with specific Notes/Domino (or Outlook/Exchange or GroupWise) APIs to create extra value, and we're always looking for ways to help our ISV partners improve their products for our mutual customers. But some things are just hard problems for everyone. For instance, encryption (popular with Domino customers) always throws a wrench into things when you need to inspect a piece of content. And the client-server nature of Notes/Domino can often result in data in multiple places. Since security systems can operate at different points in a network, it's problematic to make everyone's stuff work reliably across different functions and locations. It is a pain point that our customers have shared with us.
Lotus Protector is the brand for a new family of security products being introduced over the next 12-24 months. They create solutions for common e-mail security and compliance needs, but do it in a way that's consistent with the way Domino administrators operate. For example, Lotus Protector products place a premium on being able to interoperate with Domino's user and security frameworks, and integrating features tightly with Notes clients, presenting the most natural user experience.
The first Lotus Protector release is an antispam/antivirus appliance based on technology from Internet Security Systems (ISS), a company acquired by IBM in 2006. This top-notch edge server solution is the result of some serious IBM/ISS research, and offers important capabilities like IP reputation filtering, which can drop the worst of the SMTP detritus before you even take receipt. We're entering beta soon on Lotus Protector for Mail Security 2.1 (it's not 1.0 because of the proven ISS Proventia code base), and expect to have final product in market in 1H 2008. A second major release is planned around year-end, introducing some pretty interesting Notes/Domino integration.
Going forward there will be Lotus Protector announcements in other security areas. All offerings will solve specific e-mail related security and/or compliance challenges. Each will be optimized for the interests of a Lotus Notes/Domino customer. Stay tuned. Feel free to comment here on your needs and desires regarding email security for the Protector roadmap.
But over time there has developed a second, separate layer of infrastructure that need to be managed in support of Domino -- in fact, for any e-mail system, not just Domino. For example, connections to the Internet introduce threats that need to be addressed, so the SMTP interface needs to present a locked-down posture, and filter unwanted content such as spam and viruses. At the same time, continuing growth in sheer e-mail data volume, plus increasing regulation of corporate information, particularly compliance and legal discovery, combine to create pressures to better manage the ever-bigger chunk of an enterprise's data that goes through people's mailboxes.
Most of todays infrastructure on that second layer doesn't have much to do with specific Domino skills, and often may not even the responsibility of the Domino team. Typically these products/solutions simply sit on the network or out at the edge, treating whatever is inside as the next relay in a generic SMTP stream. Often that's a sensible strategy for increasing throughput, especially when inspecting for things like spam and viruses, which can comprise over 90% of SMTP e-mail volume.
Of course some vendors integrate with specific Notes/Domino (or Outlook/Exchange or GroupWise) APIs to create extra value, and we're always looking for ways to help our ISV partners improve their products for our mutual customers. But some things are just hard problems for everyone. For instance, encryption (popular with Domino customers) always throws a wrench into things when you need to inspect a piece of content. And the client-server nature of Notes/Domino can often result in data in multiple places. Since security systems can operate at different points in a network, it's problematic to make everyone's stuff work reliably across different functions and locations. It is a pain point that our customers have shared with us.
Lotus Protector is the brand for a new family of security products being introduced over the next 12-24 months. They create solutions for common e-mail security and compliance needs, but do it in a way that's consistent with the way Domino administrators operate. For example, Lotus Protector products place a premium on being able to interoperate with Domino's user and security frameworks, and integrating features tightly with Notes clients, presenting the most natural user experience.
The first Lotus Protector release is an antispam/antivirus appliance based on technology from Internet Security Systems (ISS), a company acquired by IBM in 2006. This top-notch edge server solution is the result of some serious IBM/ISS research, and offers important capabilities like IP reputation filtering, which can drop the worst of the SMTP detritus before you even take receipt. We're entering beta soon on Lotus Protector for Mail Security 2.1 (it's not 1.0 because of the proven ISS Proventia code base), and expect to have final product in market in 1H 2008. A second major release is planned around year-end, introducing some pretty interesting Notes/Domino integration.
Going forward there will be Lotus Protector announcements in other security areas. All offerings will solve specific e-mail related security and/or compliance challenges. Each will be optimized for the interests of a Lotus Notes/Domino customer. Stay tuned. Feel free to comment here on your needs and desires regarding email security for the Protector roadmap.
DominoWiki - article on FIPS 140-2 for Domino 8.0.1
February 23 2008
It has not been widely publicized, but there is a great new resource of technical information from the development team for Domino geeks at DominoWiki. One recent article that caught my eye was one on FIPS and how to use the new 8.0.1 encryption options. Hope this adds another valuable information source to the Domino community.
Domino 8.0.1 has shipped
February 23 2008
The product is now available for download along with Notes 8.0.1, DWA 8.0.1 and Lotus Traveler. Take a look at the previous posting for list of enhancements and this announcement letter and this technote for more feature info and of course the release notes. The fix list is also posted here on the support web site.
No excuses now for not moving to Domino 8.0.1 with its compelling cost saving advantages like database compression or native 64 bit Windows support. This is on on top of the many improvements that were added previously in 8.0 (and 7.0 if you never moved from 6.x).
No excuses now for not moving to Domino 8.0.1 with its compelling cost saving advantages like database compression or native 64 bit Windows support. This is on on top of the many improvements that were added previously in 8.0 (and 7.0 if you never moved from 6.x).
Whats new in 8.0.1 brochure
January 25 2008
Catching my breath after Lotusphere. There is some good info and news posted on the Lotus web site For example there is an updated What's new in Notes and Domino 8.0.1 brochure which includes listing on Domino 8.0.1 new features. For those not attending Lotusphere this week, we also communicated that 8.0.1 is expected to be available next month. For Domino 8.0.1, improvements include database compression, native 64 bit and FIPS 140-2 support.
Completed Redbook for Notes & Domino 8 Deployment
November 14 2007
Final published version of this invaluable document is now available on the Redbooks site here.
The download numbers for the draft have been impressive at over 10,000 total since it was released as an internet draft on August 2 - including being the #1 most downloaded Redbook of any IBM brand during August ! It has also received great feedback for many of you
Here is the table of contents :-
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Planning the Notes and Domino 8 Deployment
Chapter 3. Deploying the Domino 8 server
Chapter 4. Deploying the Notes 8 client
Chapter 5. Coexistence: Domino/Domino and Domino/Microsoft Exchange
Chapter 6. Lotus Notes 8 client features
Chapter 7. Productivity tools
Chapter 8. Domino Web Access
Chapter 9. New administration features
Chapter 10. New concepts in administration: Eclipse, composite applications, and provisioning
Chapter 11. IBM WebSphere Portal integration
Chapter 12. New application development features
Appendix A. Considerations for upgrading from Notes and Domino 6.5.x to 8
Appendix B. Lotus Notes and Domino client feature comparison
The download numbers for the draft have been impressive at over 10,000 total since it was released as an internet draft on August 2 - including being the #1 most downloaded Redbook of any IBM brand during August ! It has also received great feedback for many of you
Here is the table of contents :-
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Planning the Notes and Domino 8 Deployment
Chapter 3. Deploying the Domino 8 server
Chapter 4. Deploying the Notes 8 client
Chapter 5. Coexistence: Domino/Domino and Domino/Microsoft Exchange
Chapter 6. Lotus Notes 8 client features
Chapter 7. Productivity tools
Chapter 8. Domino Web Access
Chapter 9. New administration features
Chapter 10. New concepts in administration: Eclipse, composite applications, and provisioning
Chapter 11. IBM WebSphere Portal integration
Chapter 12. New application development features
Appendix A. Considerations for upgrading from Notes and Domino 6.5.x to 8
Appendix B. Lotus Notes and Domino client feature comparison
Nov 14 webcast on Domino and System i
October 17 2007
One for your calendars if you use System i. Bill Hume, Director of Development for Lotus Domino will present our roadmap on this free webinar being hosted by COMMON. 'IBM/Lotus Domino and Collaborative Capabilities for System i'
See this link for details and signup form:
http://www.common.org/webcasts/index.html#domino
See this link for details and signup form:
http://www.common.org/webcasts/index.html#domino
Notes & Domino 7.0.3 are available
October 16 2007
Web downloads of Notes and Domino 7.0.3 are now live on Partnerworld and Passport Advantage sites. Here is the announcement letter for 7.0.3.
The key availability dates are:-
Noteworthy platform support additions in 7.0.3 include Windows Vista support for Notes, Designer, Admin clients and RHEL 5 Linux support for Domino server. The 7.0.3 fix list is already posted here.
Update - link to 7.0.3 product page
The key availability dates are:-
- October 16, 2007: English
- December 19, 2007: French, Spanish, Italian, German, Catalan, Portuguese-Brazilian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese-Traditional and Simplified,
- February 29, 2008: Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, Czech, Polish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Slovenian, Thai
Noteworthy platform support additions in 7.0.3 include Windows Vista support for Notes, Designer, Admin clients and RHEL 5 Linux support for Domino server. The 7.0.3 fix list is already posted here.
Update - link to 7.0.3 product page
Domino 8 performance advantages - report published
October 11 2007
Check out the new Domino 8 performance report on Developerworks. It reveals very significant reductions in I/O utilization compared to Domino 7, and at the same time shows no other significant performance tradeoffs e.g: similar CPU usage compared to Domino 7. To sum up the report conclusions in one line.
"Lotus Domino 8 not only equals, but outperforms the previous release!"
Remember that all of this an be achieved with no changes in your current Domino 7 hardware. This is a very compelling TCO reduction for the cost of a server upgrade. Many of these I/O performance gains are made possible by tuning done within the Notes 8 mail template and by enabling ODS 48 on the server databases.
All the Domino platforms are covered in the report. Actual I/O savings will vary by platform, but here is one quote related to the Windows 2003 platform.
"This test confirms that Lotus Domino 8 improves on the performance and total cost of ownership (TCO) when compared to Lotus Domino 7. Upgrading to Lotus Domino 8 and the Notes 8 mail template showed a reduction of I/O usage in our tests with a decrease of more than 50% total disks reads and writes. "
The reported data is based on the use of a new Notes 8 Notesbench test workload which is described in this new report. IBM Lotus Notes 8 workloads: Taking performance to a new level. This heavier and more realistic workload uses larger mail files and document sizes and adds in loads from other common Domino server tasks such as transaction logging, journaling, Domino Domain Monitoring and more. These new workloads are also now part of the server.load test suite that is available with Domino 8 should you wish to run your own benchmark tests for sizing.
"Lotus Domino 8 not only equals, but outperforms the previous release!"
Remember that all of this an be achieved with no changes in your current Domino 7 hardware. This is a very compelling TCO reduction for the cost of a server upgrade. Many of these I/O performance gains are made possible by tuning done within the Notes 8 mail template and by enabling ODS 48 on the server databases.
All the Domino platforms are covered in the report. Actual I/O savings will vary by platform, but here is one quote related to the Windows 2003 platform.
"This test confirms that Lotus Domino 8 improves on the performance and total cost of ownership (TCO) when compared to Lotus Domino 7. Upgrading to Lotus Domino 8 and the Notes 8 mail template showed a reduction of I/O usage in our tests with a decrease of more than 50% total disks reads and writes. "
The reported data is based on the use of a new Notes 8 Notesbench test workload which is described in this new report. IBM Lotus Notes 8 workloads: Taking performance to a new level. This heavier and more realistic workload uses larger mail files and document sizes and adds in loads from other common Domino server tasks such as transaction logging, journaling, Domino Domain Monitoring and more. These new workloads are also now part of the server.load test suite that is available with Domino 8 should you wish to run your own benchmark tests for sizing.
Domino 6.5 end of service timeline announced
October 10 2007
Ed Brill covered this topic in his blog , but in case you missed it here is the announced timeline for End of Service (EOS) for Notes and Domino 6.5 products. Key EOS date is April 30 2009, giving users lots of time to plan migrations to Domino 8.x or 7.x.
Lotus Notes Traveler podcast
October 5 2007
Bruce Elgort and Julian Robichaux have added a new Taking Notes podcast discussing the recently announced Lotus Notes Traveler mobile email feature which will be delivered in Domino 8.0.1. Bruce interviewed my fellow product manager Shawne Robinson who is responsible for mobile email.
Topics discussed include:
Topics discussed include:
- Is this a separate client or does it work in conjunction with the native mail apps on Windows Mobile?
- Is it push, pull, or some sort of hybrid?
- How does the administration work on the Domino side? (HINT: it's a Domino server add-in, and one of the supported configurations will allow you to access mail files on Domino 7 servers)
- Security and encryption (128-bit encryption out-of-the-box, with an option to use Lotus Mobile Connect for even more secure connections).
