Article: Is cc:Mail Dead?

Anyone who read the Netscape-centric article on the cover of the February, 1997, issue of Byte magazine entitled "Your E-Mail is Obsolete" showing cc:Mail Mobile for Windows overlaid with a red stamp that read "Undeliverable Return to Sender," probably thinks they need to migrate off of cc:Mail yesterday. The article in Byte, however, was simply uninformed.

Lotus cc:Mail customers might not guess from the Domino oriented Lotusphere 97 press coverage but one look at the products and the enthusiasm of the people behind them is enough to tell you that cc:Mail just keeps going and going. Lotus cc:Mail should change their logo to the Energizer bunny and their motto for 1997 should be "LAN-based E-Mail is Dead, Long Live cc:Mail!"

OUT WITH THE OLD: cc:Mail Meets Mid-Range Client/Server Challenge

The traditional file server model of LAN-based e-mail is on it's way out but this doesn't mean that cc:Mail is dead: far from it. While Microsoft is progressing in moving MS Mail users onto their client/server Exchange offering, Lotus has been unable to move most cc:Mail users onto Lotus Notes and Notes Mail. One reason for this disparity is that cc:Mail was generally a better system than MS Mail. Another important reason is that Notes and Domino require and industrial-strength client/server hardware infrastructure and is demanding of both for servers and workstations. Mid-range client/server messaging solutions including Exchange and Netscape Mail have taken aim at the gap between cc:Mail and Lotus Notes. Without taking anything away from Notes and Domino, the 1997 cc:Mail product lineup is a hard-hitting answer to the mid-range client/server messaging challenge facing Lotus.

IN WITH THE NEW: Database and Directory Sync Problems Solved

Lotus cc:Mail's new product lineup allow customers to extend their existing cc:Mail infrastructures to integrate with client/server technology and open Internet standards. As early as two years ago cc:Mail customers began implementing a full-time TCP/IP and Internet connected model of Mobile computing where the cc:Mail system's back end (post offices, Routers, and gateways) served as a management facility and as a routing infrastructure for messaging systems in which data were fully distributed, similar to POP3 (a simple Internet e-mail download protocol for workstations) and IMAP4 (a sophisticated Internet messaging protocol supporting a rich data communications feature set for workstation e-mail applications) systems. Today cc:Mail has gone beyond the fully-Mobile, full-time IP-connected model through its full support of open Internet standards.

In 1997 cc:Mail will introduce a server lineup that includes native multiple TCP/IP cc:Mail Router session support and also POP3 and IMAP4 (for robust, secure Internet or Intranet messaging) and LDAP (for client/server directory services). Once other vendors have their LDAP implementations on the market, LDAP servers will solve cross-system directory synchronization problems regardless of the back end technologies of connected systems. Further, the new cc:Mail servers completely remove the main architectural problem with cc:Mail: the vulnerability of the cc:Mail database to file sharing problems caused by workstations--database corruptions will soon be a thing of the past. In other words, the new servers will protect cc:Mail databases from workstations problems such as driver bugs and bad network cards.

POP GOES THE CLIENT: No Pressure to Migrate

On the client side, the 1997 cc:Mail product lineup includes a POP mail client with a true cc:Mail interface and feature set that provides complete back end flexibility with almost no end user retraining. In practical terms this means that the back end of the messaging system can be swapped out almost transparently to users with any POP server and that systems with multiple e-mail server types, e.g., cc:Mail, Domino, Exchange, and Netscape Messaging Server, can standardize on the award-winning cc:Mail Interface.

POP3 and IMAP4 support mean increased flexibility at the back end and this in turn means that the burdens of migration will be eased because a visit to the desktop will not be necessary when the server changes. At the same time, the pressure to migrate is reduced because with POP3 or IMAP4 as the standard multiple server types can coexist more easily.

STRONG JAVA: Feature Parity and Upgrade Problems End

If POP3 and IMAP4 support aren't enough, cc:Mail has unleashed a groundbreaking new cross-platform strategy eliminating the parallel code streams and cross-platform feature parity problems of the past by writing a powerful new e-mail client completely in Java (a programming language that allows programs to run within a web browser independent of the underlying hardware or operating system). Not only is the cc:Mail Java client truly platform independent, it solves the administrative headaches of workstation installation and upgrade because the program is downloaded by the users' web browser from a web server. cc:Mail's Java client is far and away the most significant messaging product yet
announced in 1997 by any vendor.

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE: Native HTTP Support and More

Lotus is the only vendor to provide native HTTP (World Wide Web) access to e-mail, making the web browser a universal client. taken together, the capabilities of cc:Mail as a system will rival those of all other messaging systems in the marketplace during 1997. cc:Mail will survive the market transition from traditional LAN-based e-mail (relying on file sharing) to client/server messaging by building on Internet-based servers on top of it's leading database technology.

With the robust cc:Mail DB8 post office architecture underneath the new cc:Mail servers, the 1997 cc:Mail product lineup will allow 11 million customers to capitalize on their existing investments in file server technology while providing total cross-platform interoperability and complete flexibility both at the front end and back ends of the system. cc:Mail provides 11 million users and new customers around the world with the lowest-cost means of (a) transitioning to client/server messaging; and (b) adopting open Internet standards. If a customer isn't ready for a groupware solution either due to infrastructure, cost, or business requirements, cc:Mail will continue to be the #1 choice.