Feature |
IBM Lotus Domino VS
MS Exchange 2007 |
Company |
IBM |
Microsoft |
Supported Platform |
Support Windows 2003, IBM AIX, Linux (on Intel), Linux (System Z), IBM
i5/OS, IBM z/OS, and Sun Solaris. |
Only Support 64-bit Windows Platform in production. |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
IBM Lotus Domino 8 is the
definite winner when it come to the number of platform it support.
Exchange 2007 support only Windows 2003 64-bit version which limit a lot
of organizations who is running at different platform than Windows. Even if
you are running windows 2003 you will be forced to buy window 2003 64-bit
edition, as the 32-bit addition is not supported in production any more. |
Complementary Products |
Sametime instant messaging, IBM WebSphere Portal, Tivoli
Directory Integrator, Websphere Application Server are only examples of
the IBM Complementary products IBM Lotus Domino Customers are applicable
for. |
Microsoft does not offer any specific
complementary product with Exchange 2007, but offer extra paid products
that can integrate with Exchange 2007. |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
IBM Lotus Domino 8 is the
definite winner when it come to the number of Complementary products.
Microsoft will charge you an arm and leg to get features equivalent to the
free complementary products IBM Lotus Domino 8 customers applicable for. |
Virtualization Support |
Hardware & Software virtualization support |
Does not support Virtualization |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* We are not sure what is
Microsoft idea of not supporting Exchange 2007 in any type of
virtualization at the moment and not even releasing a date when it will be
supported. Yes, it might work but won't be supported by Microsoft.
* In the
other hand IBM support Lotus Domino in both hardware virtualization (Power
Series) & Software Virtualization (VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3)
* As
Virtualization becoming to be the market trend at the moment due to the
fact of it saving money, space, hardware, and easy provisioning it seems a
real catch when Microsoft does not support it when exchange 2007 requires
a lot more roles and more hardware which could been virtualized and allow
good saving on the hardware cost. |
Upgradeability & Integration: In Place
Upgrade from earlier versions Integrate with earlier
versions Earlier versions Application Support |
Yes
Yes
Yes |
No
Yes, but not 5.5
No |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* IBM Lotus Domino 8 can do in
place upgrade of earlier versions of Domino, where Exchange 2007 can
only do a complicated migration of earlier versions. It even requite upgrading
Exchange 5.5 to 2000/2003 prior to migration.
* IBM
Lotus Domino 8 can integrate with earlier versions of Domino, MS Exchange
2007 can do the same with Exchange 2000/2003, but not with Exchange 5.5.
*
Applications written to work with earlier versions of Lotus will most
likely work with Lotus Domino 8, where applications written for earlier
versions of Exchange will more than likely not work with Exchange 2007
which is a huge waste of investment. |
Solution Type |
Complete Solution |
Messaging only
Solution |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* IBM Lotus Domino 8 offers
e-mail, Contacts, Calendaring, team spaces, forums, Integrated IM &
Presences awareness, and development tools.
* MS
Exchange 2007 only offer a messaging solution and if you need any further
functionality you have to pay for an extra product. |
Composite Applications: |
Yes |
No |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* IBM Lotus Domino 8 has NSF-based composite application that includes both
NSF and Eclipse components
that offers an easy way to make applications that integrate into Lotus
Notes without extensive coding. In the other hand, Microsoft does not
offer any equivalent to that.
|
Clustering Type: |
Application Level |
OS Level |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* IBM Lotus Domino 8 Cluster
is on the application level which make it more flexible and give a higher
availability than Microsoft Exchange 2007 Cluster which is OS Level
cluster and highly dependant on the OS Clustering capability of windows
2003. |
Replication Reliability: |
High |
Low |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* IBM Lotus Domino has
implemented replication for ages to be one of the most reliable and
efficient replication methods available.
* MS
Exchange 2007 is the first Exchange version to support replication. The
replication was not reliable in the RTM release and got a bit better with
SP1 but still not the best. In addition, Exchange 2007 replication is not
efficient and requires a large amount of dedicated bandwidth which can be
expensive. |
Software Release Approach: |
Fully Tested - Ready for Production |
Half-Raw till SP1 |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* IBM has release Lotus Domino
8 as a solid product fully tested and ready for production, but was a bit
late to market.
*
Microsoft as usual early to market with half raw product at the RTM
version of Exchange 2007 with many bugs and features missing few examples:
- Public
folders Management GUI
-
Replication was not working unless implemented directly by Microsoft with
some secret hotfixes.
- Single
Copy Cluster was not working unless installed with certain hotfixes in
certain orders which was not mentioned any where on Microsoft website and
not applying the fixes will make the cluster resources jump from a node to
the other.
Note:
these were few of the issues Microsoft fixed with SP1, but even SP1 had
its own issues that Microsoft admit in the release note of SP1 and the
installation of SP1 has not been smooth for many customers. |
Maintenance: |
Install & Forget |
Time-Consuming |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* Microsoft as usual has kept
their product maintenance quite time-consuming doing updates for exchange,
operating system fixing failures and recovering data stores. It seems they
are trying to help administrators look busy to keep their jobs.
* IBM has
kept again the Install & Forget approach. After Domino has been installed
you only need to visit the box if you need to add or enable a feature. It
does not mean administrators will lose their job, but will have an easier
life. |
Microsoft Office Integration |
Yes, but require a free connector |
Out of the Box |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
* As Microsoft Office is a
Microsoft product which as expected integrate better with
Microsoft Exchange 2007 and without the need for any extra packages, though IBM has
released a connector for Lotus Domino that will provide a quite good integration with
office. In the other hand, IBM has their own mail Client Lotus Notes which
is a great one. |
Security: |
offers advance security features including:
local encryption, digital signatures, Server & user defined level SPAM
control, and granular access control. |
Although Microsoft has put a lot of effort into building
some spam protection and enhancing their security features in Exchange
2007 they still struggle as usual with many security leaks, virus
propagation and security holes. |
Encryption: |
up to 4096 bit RSA encryption
keys and 128 bit symmetric keys |
offer some type of encryption, but optional. |
Costs: Initial License costs for only
messaging system (non redundant): Initial License costs for
only messaging system (redundant): Initial License costs
for full solution: Full Solution including hardware,
licenses, and software cost. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) |
A bit more
expensive
Cheaper
Cheaper
Cheaper
Lower |
A bit cheaper More Expensive
More Expensive
More Expensive
Higher |
ITComparison Team Comments
-: IBM Lotus Domino 8 VS MS Exchange 2007 :- |
Exchange 2007 get to be cheaper only if you
calculate the initial licenses for non redundant setup. In all the other
calculation and TCO Exchange 2007 will be in a loss situation. Exchange
2007 require newer 64-bit hardware and more servers (at least 6 server in
case of redundancy) where Lotus Domino can reach full redundancy with two
servers only, this is due to the new roles Exchange 2007 came up with.
More servers means more licenses and clustering with Exchange require
windows enterprise licenses which not required with Lotus Domino. All this
give Domino an initial setup advantage when you look at the full setup
cost. In addition, if your setup require features like forums, portal, and
instant messaging you will have to pay for an extra three separate
products with Exchange where all of these are integrated into Domino
server for free. All that Make Domino the TCO winner. |