Thoughts on Lotus Protector, or is Domino still a viable MX?
One announcement at Lotusphere which seemed to attract little comment at the time and has had no press since was to do with a new product named Lotus Protector.(Is it just me, or does that sound like the name of an altogether different type of product?)
Lotus Protector is "an integrated suite of messaging security offerings that will augment the security of the Lotus Domino e-mail environment, protecting the information assets of an organization everywhere in the messaging chain."
This probably explains the fact that, despite suggestions I have made that some of the features in Domino - where it is deployed as MX - could do with a little attention to bring them up to scratch (example), IBM/Lotus has latterly seemed less than enthusiastic about picking them up.
Lotus Protector is the result of IBM's acquisition of Internet Security Systems (ISS) in 2006. That acquisition brought with it something called Proventia Network Mail Security System and it is this which apparently forms the basis of Lotus Protector.
IBM has a page about Lotus Protector which includes a summary of vision, plans for the product and anticipated benefits.
In 2008, IBM currently plans to launch IBM Lotus® Protector, a new line of security offerings to complement customer investments in IBM Lotus Domino® software. Lotus Protector is an integrated suite of messaging security offerings that will augment the security of the Lotus Domino e-mail environment, protecting the information assets of an organization everywhere in the messaging chain.
Having a single-source solution for all messaging security needs will deliver many customer advantages, from easier purchasing to integration, both with Lotus Domino and throughout the planned Lotus Protector software suite. Acquisition, ownership, and management of this enterprise-grade solution will be easier than individual offerings from multiple competitors. And it will be backed by IBM's strong reputation for security, reliability and scalability.
Let's attempt to enumerate those many customer advantages.
- Easier purchasing - Could it be easier than it already is for me to purchase and maintain IBM software via Passport? I think not.
- Integration with Domino - Can Lotus Protector integrate with Domino any more effectively than Domino already integrates with itself?
- Integration with the planned Lotus Protector software suite - As the latter is not described in any detail in any document I have seen, it isn't really possible to assess the purported advantage of such integration.
I don't know why, but all of this leaves me with a slightly uneasy feeling.
There is a slight aroma of vapourware about the whole thing. I could be wrong (I hope I am), but there's nothing of any technical substance in any of those fine words to suggest otherwise.
In the mean time, is it IBM's intention to walk away from Domino as an MX server and to encourage us all to adopt an appliance based solution? Appliance or service based border solutions have long been necessary in Microsoft Exchange shops, Exchange lacking as it does most of those MX features of Domino which we now take for granted. By contrast, the fact that Domino was/is a viable MX server has, for me, been one of Domino's competitive differentiators.
But if I must again consider the possibility of retiring my Domino MX servers and replacing them with either an appliance or a service based solution, where is the compelling argument that says Lotus Protector is the answer?
Today, if I want an appliance based solution (and I know that many Domino shops already use such solutions), I have a huge array of very competent choices.
I can buy from Ironport, Barracuda, Borderware (MXtreme) and any number of others. This is a very mature and competitive market. Is there really room for another player, still less one arriving so late?
In this light, Gartner's take on Lotus Protector is interesting.
IBM is a late entrant to this market and has a great deal of work to do to catch up with best-of-breed vendors that have continuously invested in features to keep pace with rapidly changing threats. ISS was not noted for e-mail security solutions and had a negligible anti-spam market share.
That's not much encouragement to consider IBM for anyone interested in buying border messaging security.
And of course you don't have to buy border security anyway. It is both possible and relatively easy to build a fully featured and very effective border MX appliance using only open source software.
So, are these really my choices?
- Continue using Domino as MX although the Domino feature set associated with that duty is effectively frozen.
- Buy a service from Messagelabs or one of its many imitators.
- Buy an appliance from an established vendor.
- Wait for Lotus Protector to ship, and then buy it sight unseen.
- Build an appliance using open source software.
If so, I think I'll go with 1 for a while and then 5.
Although Ed, if you've got your ears on, I will gladly evaluate Lotus Protector for you if you want. I'll even write about it, if it's any good.
Category: Domino
Technorati: IBM Lotus Domino Lotus+Protector
1. Chris Miller11/03/2008 15:59:52
Homepage: http://www.IdoNotes.com
Before I read and answer the rest, Protector is going into beta and I did a podcast with them just a short time ago. See Episode 48 on Feb 28 2008.
http://www.idonotes.com/IdoNotes/IdoNotes.nsf/dx/IdoNotesEpisode48.htm
2. Nathan T. Freeman11/03/2008 16:04:13
Homepage: http://nathan.lotus911.com
http://takingnotespodcast.com/blogs/takingnotes.nsf/dx/TakingNotesEpisode77.htm
3. Ed Brill11/03/2008 17:40:04
Homepage: http://www.edbrill.com
The offering is derived from the existing ISS offerings -- www.iss.net. The Lotus-branded effort will go to beta in about three weeks, and is planned to ship 30 June 08 as a 2.1 release -- since it is not new code. I don't have a way to get you into beta or evaluation mode, yet, and details on some of your questions are still TBD. We did a salestalk today for Lotus business partners and my salesforce where Lotus Protector's first details were covered. There will be more starting in April.
4. Craig Wiseman11/03/2008 18:19:12
Homepage: http://www.wiseman.La/cpw
<SIGH>
Yes, this seems to be an issue we're all facing. IBM seems big on making sure they stuff the Workplace technologies into Notes/Domino (to make that investment 'worth it'), but seems to be ignoring other significant areas. Like one of the cores, in this case internet mail.
I sold one of my customers on the IBM Managed Services spam/virus offering. It turns out that it's resold MessageLabs, except their contract doesn't let MessageLabs talk to us, we have to go through an IBM contact that is very slow in responding and at times completely clueless. Overall, happy with the service, profoundly unhappy with the support/human interaction part. I'm hoping that the Lotus Protector offering is better.
5. Ben Rose12/03/2008 10:38:44
Loving the image.
6. Jan-Piet Mens12/03/2008 11:38:03
Homepage: http://blog.fupps.com
> and then 5
If you have the knowhow, and you probably do, that really is the most flexible path you can take. If I can be of assistance, shout. 
7. Martijn de Jong13/03/2008 10:50:29
I've also been looking at this product both with anticipation to evaluate and with a lot of scepsis. After all, the acquisition of ISS was the reason IBM dropped the already integrated SpamGuru from Domino 8, which basically forces us to start using an extra product against spam if Domino's own measures for that aren't enough (I personally have about 3-4 spam mails a day, despite all the blacklists etc and I'm hating it). I understood that it can also be used inside VMWare, which makes it easy to evaluate. However, I wonder if there will be any real benefit over an OpenSource variant with ClamAV and ASSP.
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