IBM offers bounty for Exchange customers

IBM upped the stakes in an ongoing contest over corporate e-mail software with a program that offers business partners up to $20,000 to dump Microsoft's Exchange in favor of IBM's Lotus software on Linux.

Dubbed "Migrate to the Penguin," the latest IBM incentive plan, to be announced later on Thursday, is an expansion of its Move2Lotus program, which is aimed at winning over third-party consultants and software resellers that work with Microsoft's Exchange.

IBM is offering a limited-time rebate for IBM partners that move customers from Microsoft Exchange to Lotus Notes and Domino on Linux. The offer gives $20 per licensed Exchange user, or "seat," maxing out at $20,000.

In addition, IBM is offering a service to have customers' Domino servers hosted on a trial basis rather than have the software installed on in-office servers.

The expanded competitive offer is the latest salvo between IBM and Microsoft, the two dominant suppliers of e-mail and collaboration software to corporate customers.

In January of this year, Microsoft released a set of software tools designed to simplify the process of moving Domino data onto Exchange.

In a recent interview, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, "We have more big customers than ever looking to do Notes-to-Exchange migrations."

[pilaa]

Domino Clearly Superior than Exchange

I have managed hundreds of Domino servers at a time and find the biggest advantage is in its customizability, security and replication (which is second to none as far as I am concerned). The system is reliable (even on Windows!) and would be even more managable and secure utilizing Apple's OS X than Linux in my book. If IBM really wants to put a dent in Microsoft in the group collaboration space then they need to get with Apple and the Linux community collectively and launch a serious add campaign. (Which it seems they are now starting to do)... Just my 2 cents worth...

[regulator1956]

You're That One Guy

I've heard there might be one guy that prefers Domino / Notes to Exchange / Outlook. You must be the guy.

""The system is reliable (even on Windows!) and would be even more managable and secure utilizing Apple's OS X than Linux in my book.""

OK, I admit I'm not a BSD expert, but why would Domino running on BSD Apple Unix be more managable and secure than when you run it on Linux Unix ?

[Captain_Spock]

Now that IBM is looking....

... for more players for the "LOTUS DOMINO" game... what about the players who may be interested in an WWW-CENTRIC "SPREADSHEET" tournament! ;-)

[libertyforall1776]

Where's Lotus Domino for Mac OS X Server?

Why doesn't IBM make Lotus Domino for Mac OS X Server?! This
would be a much more manageable solution for small-medium
size businesses, which are likely the target switching customers...

http://www.apple.com/server

Likely in next release - so we are told (called Hannover)

see subject line