Exchange-Lotus Migration Tool Updated

A new Transporter Suite will help customers move off of IBM’s Lotus Domino to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, SharePoint Server 2007, and Windows SharePoint Services. The .NET application has both command-line and graphical interfaces and could be extended by partners or customers to be used as a general purpose extract, transform, and load (ETL) platform.

Competing with Lotus

Lotus Domino is a complex database/workflow server product that performs multiple roles, including serving as a database for structured and unstructured data (such as e-mail or documents), a messaging hub for connecting people or applications, and a development environment. It combines capabilities that can be found in various Microsoft products, including SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint Server. Lotus Notes is the desktop client for Domino, which is used to access e-mail, Domino applications, discussions, and workflow processes.

Although Domino’s predecessor, Notes Server, offered enterprise collaboration and e-mail before Microsoft did, Domino has fallen behind Exchange in the e-mail market, although both products continue to grow. Their competition is intense: in 2006, IBM introduced a program giving partners up to US$20,000 to migrate customers to Lotus from Microsoft, while Microsoft updated tools for migrating Domino/Notes applications the other way.