Why you should Migrate your Notes® and Domino® platform to DOCOVA®

You don’t have to search long to find a number of proposed solutions for your Notes application migration problem.

Some solutions propose that you update your existing applications on Domino, usually by using Xpages, and update the interface to run in a browser, so you can get rid of the Notes Client. These solutions won’t work because:

• They’re too risky.  While we all love Domino, customers have been fleeing the platform for years.   IBM Notes and Domino market share has been steadily decreasing for quite some time.  Will Domino (and your redesigned apps) still be supported in the future?  Will you be able to find resources to support your Domino environment?
• They’re too costly. If the Notes/Domino platform is going away, any time and money spent trying to maintain your environment will effectively be wasted, and you’ll still need to find a long term solution.

Other solutions propose that you pull the data out of Notes and put it into their platform, and then access it through their generic interface.  This typically encompasses archiving solutions.  This approach allows you to get rid of the Notes client and Domino server, but what about your business logic and security? These solutions won’t work because:

• You will have to give up your application user interfaces and business logic.  Applications will need to re-written, users will need to be re-trained, existing functionality will likely be reduced.
• You will lose the overall user workspace interface.   With the Notes client, users can organize their applications either in the workspace or using shortcuts.  How will users find their apps in one of these environments?
• Chances are, only some of your Notes applications can be moved to one of these solutions,  others will require a different solution, resulting in several third party solutions that need to be managed instead of just one.

Finally, there are solutions that suggest you can migrate your application and data onto their platform.  Really?  Maybe for simple apps, but what about your key business apps that you use to run your company or department?  How is that business logic and security going to be migrated?

• Sharepoint is often being looked at as a migration solution for Notes applications.   With simple applications, Sharepoint may work, but for moderate or highly complex Notes apps, it won’t.   Arguably, how can it?  Sharepoint is a different platform with different constructs and approaches to security. Developers end up trying to re-create functionality in Sharepoint that Notes had, and costs go up and timelines are pushed out.  In many cases, we’ve seen these projects fail outright.
• How about that simple database with 2 million records in it?  How is that going to work with the inherent list limits of Sharepoint?
• You may find solutions that propose implementing a JS framework.  This approach promises to “modernize” your apps.  We read that as “re-develop”, which means complex, time consuming and costly, especially if you have a large number of apps to deal with.
• Solutions that fall under this category are the most risky as they combine a system migration with re-development efforts and we’ve seen these fail over and over again.  Often companies that try to redevelop applications on platforms like Sharepoint, or purely in Java, or by thinking a JS framework will solve all their problems, typically end up abandoning their Notes migration.

With DOCOVA, everything is migrated to your SQL platform of choice: the user interface, business logic, workflow, security and data.  Our methodology provides a process, so that costs and timelines can be established early in the migration process.   We also integrate with platforms like Office 365, giving you a choice in how applications are accessed.

We are in an era where custom business applications are what give a company its competitive edge. DOCOVA’s rapid application development interface provides you with the tools needed for enhancing migrated applications as well as building and deploying new applications.

Connect with us today to see first hand why DOCOVA is the best solution available.

Contact Sales for more information, pricing and demonstrations.

Sales@Docova.com

Or give us a call:

Phone:  +1 (289) 374-0045
Toll Free:  +1 (866) 331-1354