Does anyone have any good current references comparing domino and exchange. Pro’s and Con’s. My company is considering switching to Exchange.
Thank you.
Subject: Domino vs. Exchange
Sorry to hear that. Read through these:
Shawn
Subject: Lotus Competitive Site
I’d reverse the question. Can you outline the business reasons why your company is considering switching? What is Domino not currently doing for you today, that you think Exchange will, especially given the cost and complexity of switching.
Given that information, perhaps we can help address those issues.
Alan Lepofsky - IBM/Lotus
Learn more at my Lotus Notes Tips and Tricks Blog
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Subject: RE: Lotus Competitive Site
That’s part of the problem - I’m not getting concrete answers to why. I just know that there have been users here that have always ‘disliked’ Notes. I hear exchange is faster, better UI, more options for integration…nsf’s are not really databases. I’ve also heard that new hires are coming from outlook, so of course, that is there preference.
Subject: RE: Lotus Competitive Site
‘nsf’s are not really databases’ is like saying ‘penguins are not really birds’
Do you have any business logic in notes that they aren’t seeing until it is too late.
Have you gone over virus’, database applications and cost?
Shawn
Subject: RE: Lotus Competitive Site
It sounds like a political move instead a decision based on real business value. If all you’re using Domino for is e-mail then replacing it with Exchange might actually make some sense. But if you’re doing any custom applications on Notes or Domino, you will find replacing Domino with MS technologies a very difficult process. And if all users are complaining about is the Notes mail UI, use Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook. The mail stays in Domino but they can use Outlook as the front end.
Subject: RE: Lotus Competitive Site
nsf’s are not really databases…
I’m not sure this point is discussed in the link Alan posted – there is a lot of information there, but this assertion is so way out in left field that it might not have been addressed.
If you want to compare Notes and Exchange on whether they are “realy databases,” it is well to remember that Exchange is not any sort of database.
If your application calls for a relational database, both IBM and Microsoft have separate relational database products to sell you.
Nsfs are really databases, but they are non-relational databases, with the application also included with the data in the same file.
IBM has never claimed that Notes is a relational database, and that is not its purpose. Notes and Exchange are really application development platforms. Notes makes it easy to store your application’s data in a free-form database with rich content that is accessible to outside applications thru various APIs, URL requests, and web services. With Exchange, you’re totally on your own in this regard. Notes gives you more.
Both Notes and Exchange can be used to build user interfaces to relational databases, if your application requires it. Notes makes it easy to integrate the relational data with the more flexible, rich data and easy-to-create UIs of Notes applications, in many cases without writing code (via DECS). This is not a capability offered by Exchange.
We also provide multiple ways to access relational data through code. Our LC LSX – included with the product – is the one I like best. It hides the details of the native APIs of several different database platforms to let you write code that doesn’t care what kind of database you’re accessing (read: reusable). You can also use ODBC if you wish, but the native APIs are more efficient. Our API can come up with simple SQL statements for you if you let it, so that you don’t need to worry about the idiosyncrasies of the different database platforms – how to express dates and numbers, which character is a quote, how do you escape a quote, etc. There are many cool features of this API that make it easy and efficient to use.
Exchange, on the other hand, makes you write your own SQL queries and your code can then figure out what to do with the results.
Subject: Domino vs. Exchange
We’ve had that discussion, too…
It’s like comparing peas with carrots 
The main point is that if you use Notes you can have many features more (databases e.g.) than just mail & calendar…
With Microsoft, there could be a need of buying other software in addition to Exchange to get the same functionality.
But anyway, if you just use it for mailing and calendar, there are well priced licence models from IBM which can really compete with Microsoft…
And you can use even Outlook as frontend !