eWeek again, this time discussing the LotusLive suite in favourable terms
Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler said IBM makes the unification claim because LotusLive is designed from the ground up to be an integration platform for cloud-based services. “The APIs for identity, security and content are quite sophisticated and Web 2.0 native (REST-ful as they say).” Moreover, LotusLive is an extranet collaboration platform, allowing IBM’s channel partners to not only trigger secure conferencing, calendaring and content exchange for their customers, but to integrate and deliver new applications.
“I’m not aware that the other services yet do that, though the market for cloud-based extranet collaboration platforms will heat up this year,” Schadler predicted.
However, to even things out, they are not so sure about the mix of SaaS and hosted solutions that make up the brand, nor the many product renames:
“It’s getting really confusing, given the different feature sets and naming conventions,” Creese said. “LotusLive has a lot of features [e.g., Web conferencing, file sharing, profiles, contacts], but chunks of it are not available yet.”
So the promise for LotusLive is great, and given IBM’s delivery track record, the execution this year is almost certain. The key question is whether IBM can get its SAAS marketing straight lest it blow away like a cloud.
Still, very interesting coverage…