Migration Verus Modernization

Editor's Notes

• #3: In this presentation I am going to cover three things. Notes applications, homes, and pencils. Why pencils? Well lets just say pencils are not talked about enough in this community.
• #4: This presentation is largely based upon empirical evidence gathered by Red Pill Now over many years. For those not familiar with Red Pill Now, let me give you a quick synopsis… As a company we have been an IBM Business Partner since 2012. We have on staff two current and two former IBM Champions. Those four people alone account for over 100 years of experience with Notes/Domino. One of our partners, Nathan T Freeman, was a co-founder of OpenNTF the open source community for ICS. We are recognized thought leaders having presented at many ICS conferences around the world for many years. Because of all these things we know lots of people and the products in this industry. If there is something we don’t know we almost always know somebody who does.
• #5: Our experience has been gained working with a lot of companies in a lot of industries around the world.
• #6: So lets start by talking about Notes applications.
• #7: Let’s start by looking at the need for Modernization. I define modernization as the the process of narrowing the gap between what we have and what is needed.
• #8: Over the past ten years it would be fair to say IBM and many of its customers have allowed the gap between what Notes applications are capable of doing and what is needed or expected by the users of these applications.
• #9: Over the next few years companies are going to be looking to narrow that gap. Either by migrating away to something else or by finding ways to modernize what they have.
• #10: A recent survey by one of our partners SWING Software quantified this, finding that 93% of companies plan to migrate or modernize their Notes applications.
• #11: To help us understand migration we are going to look at houses.
• #12: If your Notes applications were a house, this is what migration would look like. We take what we have and completely replace it with something new.
• #13: In contrast, modernization looks more like this. We take retain the parts of what we have that we want to keep. In the case of our house in would include key components that define it such as the floor, walls, and roof. We then transform the rest with something that is more relevant to our current times.
• #14: Let’s now look at some of the reasons for selecting each of these approaches.
• #15: Cost is often the biggest determining factor in transformation projects. Typically modernization projects are significantly cheaper than migration projects.
• #16: Modernization almost always results in a much lower level of risk. The existing application is usually left untouched providing an important fallback. There are less risks of interruptions to important business operations. Fewer changes usually lead to fewer bugs. For CIOs there is a lower risk of project failure.
• #17: Another important consideration is the skills required to move away from Notes.
• #18: Migration can often make sense when Domino no longer provides a good strategic fit for an organization.
• #19: The people around you and higher up the tree. Not about reason and evidence. Other motives at play. This is the one that I get asked about the most. The decision to move away from Notes without providing a clear explanation of why, or even to what! It is a decision being made on perceptions and emotions without a lot of logic. We need to understand and recognize when Notes is being replaced as part of what I call a religious experience. It is difficult to debate such decisions that are not based in facts. Its also difficult for such projects to be a success if its not clear what the objectives are.
• #20: Anxiety may exist about the future direction of the Notes/Domino platform. IBM have failed to make the case for the ongoing use of the Domino platform. At least until the recent Domino 2025
• #21: No matter the reason it is important to carefully identify the options available to getting there before we act. The options we consider will very much depend on how we view the problem.
• #22: If our Notes applications were viewed pencil it would probably look like this. Useful, but well worn, desperately in need of a lifeline to extend its life.
• #23: The traditional approach is to view your applications like this. Largely the same, with some maybe bigger than others.
• #24: In this scenario we usually start by making a single choice for our portfolio of Notes application. Either to migrate them to another platform, or modernize them as Domino applications.
• #25: For migration there are a wide range of products and tools from which to select.
• #26: Likewise, when it comes to Modernization there are also a growing list options. The ones shown here example are those used in Red Pill Now’s Take 5 service.
• #27: Having selected a solution this traditional approach usually dictates we use it for all our Notes applications. One reason for this is the vendor usually convinces us that thee solution can be used for all our applications.
• #28: In this example we have decided to replace our Notes applications with Salesforce
• #29: If however we were to view our Notes application more like this. One in which our applications are unique and different. Some perhaps are shades of the same basic color. Rather than make one decision for all of our applications, we are now making a decision for each application.
• #30: Each application has its own strategy. The key strategies now grow from two choices to four. We may decide to retire applications with little or no use. We may decide to retain some applications as-is if we cannot justify the cost and/or identify significant value. Modernization of the application will will no call renew, if for no other reason than renew starts with the letter “R”. Likewise migration, or Replace, is our final option for the application.
• #31: The same options still exist, except we now categorize them in different ways,
• #32: When our application strategy is complete we may end up with something like this. In this case we have selected multiple solutions for each strategy.
• #33: Another way to look at our is more like this in which it is broken down into specific components.
• #34: So what are the components of an application. First of all we have the data that the application is responsible for collecting and managing. Next we have the business logic that controls the rules by which the data is gathered and acted upon. Together the data and business logic represent the core of an application. These two components are then wrapped by a platform such as that provided by Notes. This an important but often forgotten part of each application. The ability to delete documents, manage security, print selected documents in a view, or navigate to a hidden view are just a few of the many features the Notes client makes available to every application that will not be present in a Web client without additional programming. Finally we have the user experience. The way the application looks and behaves. This is the one area in which the Notes client in particular has fallen behind in recent years. It is the one area that has gone ahead in leaps and bounds in recent years. Mobile devices, IoT, touch screens, voice assistants, and cognitive are elevating expectations of our users.
• #35: Those same basic strategies for applications still apply. Only now we consider applying to one of the components from which an application is composed.
• #36: For example when it comes to the data the opportunity exists to take data held in Domino and extend it as a graph database using the Graph API developed by Red Pill Now’s Nathan T Freeman and included as part of the OpenNTF Domino API.
• #37: For Business Logic there are opportunities for significant renewal by moving to a microservices approach. Taking business logic written in @Formula and LotusScript and placing into an agent provides a way for that business logic to be triggered by custom web applications as well as modernization solutions such as Sapho, Darwino, Aveedo, and TeamWorkr Mobile.
• #38: Darwino provides us with is an example of Platform renewal. By replicating Domino data with a Darwino database stored in a New-SQL datastore as JSON it is possible to build new capabilities on top of the Darwino platform at the same time as retaining the power of the Notes platform.
• #39: When it comes to the user experience there are a lot of choices. One that we recommend is one of approach, known as design thinking. Always start with the desired outcomes and work your way back to the solution. That way, if your applications aren’t all pencils you’ll know not to reach for the pencil sharpener.
• #40: In this presentation my goal will be to explain what these three objects have in common.
• #41: I would like to conclude with one important point. It is important to modernize your Notes applications. You have choices. Dream big. Start small. Act now!