Poll: Lotus Domino/Notes or MS Exchange Server??? Pros/Cons from your own experience at work!

[DieselMan]

A Call to Experts!!!

What would be the better of the two, not just email-wise, but as an internal communication tool (mostly for database & file sharing, but also for contact management)? Please give me the pros and cons of one or the other if you have experience using them. Maintenance, stability, performance, user training, migration ease (Lotus cc:Mail), etc... Many thanks

 

[Xanathar]

I use both, and prefer the Exchange/Outlook implementtion much better then Notes R5. Exchange is much easier to use and install, has more useable options and great contact management.

However, scheduling and calander sharing, and integration with databases is much nicer in Notes.

 

[DieselMan]

Thanks for your reply, Xanathar. What about web-based clients? Which one does the job better?

 

[Xanathar]

I honeslty cant answer that one as I have only used the Exchange Webmail.

 

[spidey07]

As a groupware/application platform Notes is far superior. If you're just wanting E-mail then exchange is great.

For me notes and exchange shouldn't even be in the same category with each other. Notes is all about rapid application development and meant to serve as an extememly flexible front end/data distribution system to any data source you may have. On the other hand exchange is very easy to admin and has great E-mail functionality. Really depends on what you want to do and what kind of support you may have internally.

<start zealot>
If you want a stable groupware package that will scale to whatever size you desire then use notes and get some training. If you want another crappy MS product that crashes at will and simply cannot meet the needs of growing enterprises the use exchange.
<end zealot>

ps - yet another virus that exploits outlook/exchange addressing books is in the works.....hmmm. me thinks me likes notes for the 1000th time. Haven't been paged yet, virus scanner intact...have fun exchange boys.

 

[DieselMan]

Thanks for your inputs, spidey07.

Anyone else agrees/disagrees?

 

[Vegito]

I run an exchange shop.. exchange gets huge if people don't clean out their stuff... which what we don't do because need all the emails current and the only way is to download them into PST files and save it into CDR so the table doesn't corrupt. Veritas now has a offline storage which takes all attachment and dumps it into a directory so when you backup, you backup message instead of attachments which are huge..

I almost never have problem with exchange.. except minor details.. ie virus scanner &amp; backup software... If backup is on and it needs a new tape, it'll hang there and the virus scanner can't scan because the backup software locks the process.. but thats like minor stuff..

I never use notes but it should be okay too..

One thing I dont like about Outlook &amp; Exchange, if you have your personal calender and you have a company calender, you can't overlap the view so you can see both and see whats busy/available.. there might be a trick but no one seems to know yet..

 

[DieselMan]

forcesho, thanks for your inputs. These are some of the type of things I want to know (minor details such as backup and virus features) more about. Anyone else want to share your experience with either programs?

 

[Vegito]

I used veritas backup exec 7.3 and order 8.5 for w2k today.. upgrading to exchange 2k as soon as I can back it up .. I use McAfee Total virus suite.. has like a outbreak stopper... ie.. if there are massive increase in email, it may be a &quot;i love u&quot; virus, it'll shut down for you to examine... I have backup exec for SQL/Exchange Multiserver.. very costly, around 1500 with Open File Option and it's pretty good, done some good recovery, SQL recovery is awesome, I have it backup ever 1 hour on SQL.

The attachment backup does make exchange bigger.. so if you limit everyone's inbox and public folders, you should be fine..

There are other virus scanner for exchange but if you can setup a test machine and send yourself viruses to test...

 

[dirtboy]

I know this isn't e-mail related but I just upgrade from Veritas v7.3 to v8.5 and that software rocks.

 

[DieselMan]

Is this the same backup exec that Seagate sells?

 

[dirtboy]

Yes, it used to be known as Seagate Backup Exec.

 

[Pjosch]

I recently started using both Notes R5 and Outlook as an email client.
Untill now I think Outlook is much more userfriendly for an ordinary user.

The possibillities of Notes strike me though, some can become very handy. But I think they made great effort in making them some kind of hidden features. Maybe I should get more used to Notes to give it an objective view

From a diskspace point of view I noticed that the original overhead of Notes (mostly due to the pictures within Notes) is much bigger then Outlook. Notes added about 25M to my homedrive.
Dont know yet of this difference will change when both my 2 mailboxes will grow.

Oh yeah 1 last remark. Migration from Outlook to Notes sucks. Mine was 1 complete disaster

 

[DieselMan]

Thanks for your comment. I am still evaluating at this time so it's good to know all of your experience.

 

[IJump]

I would have to concur that Exchange would be great for Email/Contact management. My experience is that the Outlook web client is pretty easy to set up (as long as you make sure you have the latest SP, I didn't the first time, oops) and use. Beyond that, exchange might not be best for you.

Exchange is definately the target of more virus type stuff, as all of Microsoft's products are because of their prevelence. If Notes was the more popular product, it would be the more common target.

I personally don't care for Notes/Domino. If you are going to use it, I would agree with getting some training. I found it to be less intuitive than Exchange. Maybe because we are all used to Microsoft's ways.

Either way, good luck.

 

[Vegito]

Right, exchange and due to the outbreak of vbs virus.. but hey, what can you do.. there are people out there thats trying to ruin you.. what ever antivirus you pick, make sure they update quick!

 

[DieselMan]

Ok, so far, I have a feel the majority of you find Exchange/Outlook easier to use. Please keep on the comments coming. I still have about a week before making a final decision. I will be evaluating Notes/Domino over the weekend, on a test server, and probably Exchange/Outlook during the week, but I may not be able to fully understand the pros/cons of either given the short time frame.

 

[DieselMan]

bump! I still want to hear more from you all!

 

[Shadow07]

I have had experience with both worlds. I have never actually touched a Domino server, but I have supported the Lotus Notes client with Lotus Notes v4. The only good thing that I can say about Lotus Notes is that the encryption is the stongest of any that I have seen. A person can get locked out of thier mailbox real easily.

I have also worked with Exchange 5.5/2000. I can say that Exchange 2000 just plain rocks. Microsoft really put some thought into this new version. The web interface is clear, consise, and can work on almost any client that you install IE on. One big note: YOU WILL NEED TO HAVE ACTIVE DIRECTORY INSTALLED AND WORKING FOR EXCHANGE 2000 TO WORK. AD IS A REQUIREMENT FOR EXCHANGE 2000.

To me, the web interface and the Extensible Storage Engine, the ESE which is used byt SQL 2000, Exchagne 2000 and AD, is by far the fastest on the market and probably the most reliable. The price per seat, or client, for Exchange is far cheaper than that of Lotus Notes/Domino. Have you read the Microsoft whitepaper on the differences of Exchange 5.5/2000 and Notes/Domino? If not, read here, here, and here.

 

[DieselMan]

Shadow07, I thank you very much for taking the time to share your impressions of the two systems with us. You wouldn't believe the amount of &quot;heat&quot; building up around my office at this point. I have co-workers who have been exposed to the Lotus world, others with the Microsoft world. I am having a hard time recommending anything, but your experience with the two systems will probalby have a heavy influence on the final decision. Again, thanks.

btw, my T1 line installation has been once again delayed by Verizon... this gives me more time to beta test our systems

 

[Shadow07]

One more thing to add. From my prior experiences, Lotus Domino and the Notes client is slower than that of Exchange and Outlook. While you might not get the absolute highest level of security with Exchange, you will probably get the best application that you can customize virtually any aspect of the program (Exchange and the Outlook client). Also, I highly recommend you read the articles and the links I provided for you.

 

[spidey07]

also, remember that with outlook/exchange you will be spending most of your time fighting viruses and crashes.

Sorry shadow, I have a lot of respect for you but simply cannot ignore this severely important point. my experience: Lotus is a far superior groupware/workflow product. Exchange is a great e-mail server. Depends on what you want to do. I am however disappointed that for comparisons you quoted microsoft's home pages. If you believe that load of crap then I've got a bridge in brooklyn i'll sell ya

Also, notes runs on many different platforms where as exchange totally locks you into microsoft (your AD point is a perfect example of microsoft not playing nice with others). That's a big deal to most large enterprises as they prefer not to use NT/2000.

opinions are sure to flare as this subject is a heated debate. Both are great systems, but there are significant differences that need to be addressed.

<edit> - sp.

 

[Wolfie]

I work at Imation and Notes is all they use. For Email and database. It's a wonderfull program and it is insanly powerfull. But support kinda sucks because of it's size. If you are going to support it make sure you either take classes or some kinda training to learn everything from the notes.nsf to knowing how to reset someone's account.
If you are going to use something for ease. I would choose Outlook. But for stability I would almost always choose Notes. Another thing too is those anoying virus'. Most of the time they don't affect notes clients.

Wolfie

 

[DieselMan]

Wolfie, thanks for your input! Guys, you are all great! The problem is, I am still having a hard time making a suggestion...

 

[Shadow07]

Ok. Then what is your network like? What type of OSes do you run, both server and client? What type of network directories do you have in place?