A Bit of a Push

I've got a bunch of meetings at Lotusphere 2012 justifying Connections and Sametime Media Server on IBM i. 

I really want to bring us over the 500,000 user license mark.  200,000 was the original goal.  Half a million is a statement.  We're at 406,551 right now.  On stage, at lunch, or in the hallways I want to tell people there's 500,000 licenses.

http://spitcher.wufoo.com/forms/make-ibm-i-your-social-collaboration-platform

There's currently 400,000 "i" systems worldwide.  Many of you run Lotus software.  Please make yourself heard.  Business partners, please speak on behalf of your customers.

Connections on IBM i: Not Supported...But Will it Work?

I had a thought today after perusing Frankeni.com.  I check the site every few months or so to see what Larry Bolhuis has been up to.  You see, Larry has been doing some fun stuff over the years with old AS/400's all the way up to current systems.  Essentially, he'd take a system and break support rules by installing all sorts of components that aren't "allowed."  I've never met Larry personally, but I'd equate him to the Eddie Van Halen of the early 80's who'd take a guitar, literally take a chainsaw to it, paint it, and install proper pickups and a tremolo bar.  It still works...maybe even better.  And it looks so cool.  My favorite "system" of Larry's would be the System/34 turned into a workbench (check out the system gallery).  That's a fun way to spend a week off.

Perhaps I was a little inspired.  Here's the deal...

IBM i has a lovely feature called Portable Application Solutions Environment (PASE).  It's a no charge feature that ships with the OS.

PASE allows you to run AIX (and other) packages natively on IBM i, even without a recompile.

I say to myself: "Hey Steve...doesn't IBM Connections run on AIX?"  Why, yes.  Yes, it does.

Potentially, IBM Connections could run "as-is" with no modifications under PASE.  

Now, I don't want to install anything unsupported on a production machine.  As fortune and good timing would have it I'm replacing a System i model 520 running IBM i 7.1 with a new Power Systems 720 this Wednesday night.  I figure while doing the restore to the 720 I'll have a bit of downtime. If not, I'll find time over the next few nights afterward to load it.  The 520 isn't doing much as it's not our primary box, so once it's out of commission I can turn it into a test machine anyway.


Best case scenario is that Connections will install and run without issue.  Worst case...we know PASE is not an option.  At least in my simplistic test.  But perhaps my install logs and running server logs would show very simple problems to fix.  Who knows?  I don't believe any customer has tried this and no one from IBM has told me they have as of yet.

Since I'm only entitled to the Files and Profiles components of Connections under Notes/Domino 8.5.3 licensing, my testing will be limited, even if it's successful.  If anyone else is out there running IBM i who is entitled to all Connections components wants to lend a hand by loading it on a spare system, it would be much appreciated.  Shoot me an email at stevepitcher at scotsburn dot com.  Please do not install this on a production server and compromise your support.

I plan on turning on all logging features so that I'll have a clear picture of what, if anything, fails.  I'll gladly share that information with IBM or any other customer who wants to do some trail blazing.

PASE is as "native IBM i" as it gets.  IBM i administrators could potentially manage it via Qshell, similar to the WAS components of Sametime that run on IBM i.  If this works as planned, it certainly makes porting much easier.  Supporting and developing for future releases or fixes is also simplified dramatically, in my opinion.  Reason: if IBM is developing Connections for AIX, and Connections for AIX will run through PASE on IBM i without any additional coding or compiling, we now have a low cost and low maintenance option for providing IBM i customers with IBM Connections.  Perhaps IBM would need to do some work in the quality assurance area to ensure everything translates perfectly, but that is much less effort than a full scale port.  I offer IBM nothing but enthusiasm for their products here, along with as much information I can give them to help a lot of IBM i customers get on board with Connections.

By the way, our petition has over 167 customer/partner responses, showing interest in over 405,000 potential licenses.  I ask you to tack your name on if you haven't already.

Perhaps getting Connections on IBM i is not as daunting a task as everyone thinks.  We'll see...

Happy New Year! 2011 briefly in review...

 I wanted to quickly reflect on 2011 as I've had a heck of a year, both personally and professionally.

• At the tail end of 2010, my twin girls (Madeleine and Abbigail) were born.  Close enough to 2011 and so life changing I had to mention it first and foremost.
• After eight years with Minas Basin Pulp & Power, I resigned in March of 2011 and joined Scotsburn Dairy Group.  Scotsburn had just adopted Lotus Notes and there was so much potential in terms of collaboration solutions.  It was a great fit and a role I could really dig into.
• I was selected as an IBM Champion for IBM Collaboration Solutions.  Whoa...really? 
• I've done a number of webcasts promoting ICS and social business
• My writing for MC Press was pretty steady, but I decided to only put out about 6 articles in 2012. 
• In December I signed my first book publishing contract.  Look for iSocial – Leveraging IBM i on Power as Your Social Collaboration Workhorse in spring/summer 2012. My mom promises to buy a copy so you should too. ;)
•  I started a petition to get IBM Connections (later adding Sametime and Lotus Notes Traveler) on IBM i.  The tally right now is 167 customers and business partners representing 405,000 potential user licenses.  I have to thank Gabriele Spaszewski from a company called Dachser in Germany.  I'd like to think of Gaby as one of the strongest advocates of the petition through IBM in Europe.  Keep at it!  We'll get there!
• I totally should mention Kim Greene and Amy Hoerle for the above point too! 
• I've been very fortunate to meet a number of people at IBM and other customers whom I've read their blogs and articles for years.  Meeting a number of other IBM Champions and Lotus gurus in Boston in October was also a treat.  Lisa Duke, Rob Novak, Sharon Bellamy, Handly Cameron, Carl Tyler, Darren Duke, Bill Malchisky, Theo Heselmans, Chris Miller, Francie Tanner, Bruce Elgort...just to name a few. 
• Speaking of Boston, being one of the few people on Blackberry (it seemed) during a 2-3 day outage really stamped the importance of bringing other devices into our environment.
• Again, about Boston...I love that town by the way...I drove an hour or so to Plymouth and visited the Cabby Shack.  I had a 16 oz prime rib for $16 and a bowl of their world famous "chowda."  The chowda alone is worth the drive.  Hell, it's worth moving to Plymouth for.  Best chowda evah!
• My son started pre-school.  He's all grown up.
• Built a house!  Well, not personally...contractors built it. 
• Got an iPad.  For some, it's no big deal...but I've been Apple-ignorant my whole career.  I'm slowly liking it...like olives for people who never liked olives.  I love olives so the analogy is weak.
• Made a big effort to change my thinking about the perceived IBM i naming "issue."  There isn't an issue at all.  It's not iSeries, System i, AS/400 or anything else.  It's IBM i on Power Systems.  Trevor Perry sums it up pretty well here.

IBM Collaboration Solutions on IBM i - LinkedIn Group

I've been using LinkedIn very much in the last 6 months or so.  In drumming up support for our "Lotus on i" campaign it's been incredibly helpful.

With that in mind, I started a group in LinkedIn specifically for IBM Collaboration Solutions running on IBM i.  I was surprised there wasn't one already given the amount of i (IBM i, iSeries, System i, and even AS/400) installations out there.  The biggest congregation seems to be on the Domino400 mailing list on Midrange.com (which is great, by the way).

Anyway, if you're running ICS on IBM i (no matter what flavor) then please feel free to join our little group and discuss items there.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4195843&trk=anet_ug_hm

370,000 users? Ho Ho Ho!

Happy holidays everyone.  It's time for a little update and to spread some holiday cheer. 

The tally right now is 153 customers and business partners representing 370,000 potential user licenses demanding native support for IBM Connections, IBM Sametime and Lotus Notes Traveler on IBM i!

Perhaps by December 25th, Santa will deliver a couple of big submissions to bring us to the half a million mark.  The big shops help tremendously, but what would be really awesome would be another hundred SMB's with 1000 or less users to sign up too.  We're well aware that you're out there but we need to prove it.

What's funny is that IBM has been recently touting Power Systems over x86-64 with this tool.  Hey, it makes sense to consolidate.  But it's also very confusing to customers when we're being forced to use x86-64 for Connections (well, AIX on Power is supported but no Power Linux or IBM i), Sametime audio/video and Lotus Notes Traveler.

Everyone, please spread the word.  We want these products native on IBM i.

Please vote here.

225,000 Potential Users and 133 Companies...Not Too Shabby

Saying our little campaign had a good month would be a drastic understatement.

There is, in fact, a very decent amount of customer and business partner demand for IBM Sametime, IBM Connections and Lotus Notes Traveler on IBM i.  More and more people, especially ones running Sametime 7.5 who are at the IBM i 7.1 upgrade crossroads, are coming out of the woodwork and making their voices heard.

How fast do you think we can get to half a million?  By Lotusphere 2012 in January?  I really believe we can.  Heck, a couple of really big customers may put the one million mark within reach.  Either of those milestones are quite the achievement and a very strong statement.

Please spread the word.  We need your vote.

Have You Already Moved Away from Domino on i?

Did your company move away from Lotus Domino to another platform? 

Did you used to run Domino on IBM i (or iSeries, System i or AS/400)?

If you answered yes to both, I would like to hear from you and understand your story.  Feel free to e-mail me privately.