Hell, sometimes it takes a look back to realize - yes, you're getting old. September 2024 marks another milestone in my business live - it was September 1994 when I first got exposed to Lotus Notes 2.0 beta at IBM at that time. Little did I know at that time, that this piece of Software would change and sustain ab big chunk of my professional career. But boy, it did and still does.
Now HCL Notes/Domino always has been a love/hate relationship. Nothing in between. While I agree that the Notes Client sucked and sometimes still does, the HCL Domino Server is still the masterpiece I love to work with (still). As old as Notes/Domino have become, as old are discussions about what it can/should be used for and what not. Even in the yellow-bleeding community, this debate carries on until today - I have read an expression last week by someone from the community that Notes/Domino are for personal productivity and not for business apps. IMHO, nothing could be further from the truth but also true in the same moment.
In my 30 years, we have been building a ton of large-scale applications for hundreds of customers in various industries. In many cases (like so many other Partners in that space) we kept pushing the boundaries on what the system is capable of and so today, I have working solutions for CRM, KMU ERP, Web Shops, Contracting systems, Travel agency work systems, Large-scale Web Portals, POS Implementations, Court procedure applications, Workflow Management Solutions, IoT Data Collection, Sales Tour Optimization, foster care management and so much more. Besides, the Notes/Domino core apps like Mail/Calendar/Resource Management. What unifies these solutions is that they have been extremely fast in developing them, easy to maintain and easy and cost-efficient to extend and adept. That's what makes them last - being it Web or Client Apps, Classic Web Development or XPages or multi-tier apps using PWAs or ProCode or Low/No-Code environments. Notes/Domino always was great with data interfaces and APIs and integration.
Looking at the latest Early Access Drop (14.5), a lot of the personal productivity components are coming back to Notes (and Nomad) which is highly appreciated as every app that runs on the platform helps boosting productivity.
HCL Notes/Domino have come a long way - in the latest releases, HCL did a lot of things right. Container deployment, Auto-Update, Cert Manager, OIDC all the way, latest Java stack in the App-Server, TOTP and PassKeys, lifting the boundaries and limits of the NSF container and Cloud ready deployments are breathing new life into the platform. Heck, we even got an Appstore!
Thank you, HCL for these efforts - my customers truly appreciate those. Now, my only thing on the wishlist would be future-proofing ProCode Web Dev with the platform and future-proof XPages. But there's always something, right?
Most customers are asking me about other customers. "Are there still other doing HCL Notes/Domino?" is a question I regularly get. I happily can tell them about a lot of examples where the platform is used and thriving. We have a lot of customers coming back - re-investing in applications they already have or building new ones. And still Notes/Domino are going strong on update costs and TCO. Well, it even got a whole lot more efficient over the last 3-5 years.
Are we only doing Notes/Domino today? No, the landscape has broadened a lot. But this App-Server is still a strong centerpiece to a lot of projects we do every year. And I would encourage everyone who's thinking about implementing a Low-Code Platform today to take a look at HCL Notes/Domino. This is not your grandfathers Lotus Notes anymore.
And if you need help - we and the community are here to give you a hand. As we have always been for the past 30 years. Check out our OpenNTF Discord channel - we're alive and kicking! So, Godspeed, HCL Notes/Domino - to infinity and beyond! #domino4ever
Heiko.