Monthly Archives: February 2009

There has been a lot of blogging about cloud computing. I would like to point out that the discussion has been primarily focused on businesses.  But perhaps the focus needs to shift.   For the past several years, at the Gurupalooza and Meet the Developers sessions, someone will inevitably ask “IBM – what are you doing to cultivate the use and training of future Lotus Notes/Domino users/technical staff and leaders?”  And the answer always seems a bit fuzzy.  “We know we need to do more…”  It was so, so encouraging this year that the 2009 Lotusphere Idol winners were two students from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.  

But wait a minute, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and many, many other universities are moving to cloud systems for their student email offerings.  Why?  Because the vendors are providing the service for FREE!  Yes, free.   The two primary vendors are Google and Microsoft.  Why would a university want to move to a cloud-based system for email?  Keep in mind that universities and colleges are under the same pressures as private businesses to find cost savings in this economy.  So when a vendor comes along and says “free”, CIOs should examine this offering as an alternative to an in-house solution.  Remember we’re talking about students, not faculty.  Students who graduate and become alumni.  And the hope is that these alumni will donate money.  Think about the costs involved in maintaining life time accounts for hundreds of thousands of alumni with virtually unlimited storage space.  Why would a university want to channel funds into an in-house system if someone would do it for them…at no cost?   

Of course there are pros and cons for this decision.  Those universities who have moved to the cloud have considered all aspects inherent to their particular environments.  Universities are under legal constraints with regards to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and local or state privacy and/or records maintenance requirement s.  Both Microsoft and Google offer solutions to address these concerns.

At Lotusphere this year, I had an opportunity to talk to several individuals about cloud computing and the trend of universities to move student email to cloud-based systems.  Comments included, “how can Google afford to offer free email?”  or “how will Microsoft make money by offering a university a free email system?”  Not being privy to either Google or Microsoft’s thought process, I can only guess that they have indeed found a way.  But does that really matter?  Perhaps the more important fact is that the next wave of students will be graduating with cloud email accounts intact (as many schools are offering this as a service for alumni), and those same students will one day be managers and decision makers.  “What email system are you familiar with?”  And the response most likely would be Google!  

As IBM announces its SaaS offering for Lotus Notes/Domino management and LotusLive, it occurred to me that the focus was still on fee for service.  Universities do receive Lotus products for free under academic licensing agreements for faculty and staff.  But with the spiraling costs of hardware, hardware maintenance, document retention, backup systems, etc., the opportunity to move students to a cloud-system as a cost savings seems too good an opportunity to pass up.  

Perhaps IBM is missing an opportunity as well.  Why not offer some derivation of LotusLive free to universities as a central meeting place for students and faculty?  Why not offer some form of hosting for student/alumni email as well?  So when these students become managers and are asked the question- “What email/collaboration system are you familiar with?”  The answer would be Lotus Notes!