IP: So much for interoperability

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
>
> [Note:  This item comes from reader Janos Gereben.  DLH]
>
> At 15:23 -0700 10/23/01, Janos G. wrote:
> > From: "Janos G." <janos451 () earthlink net>
> > To: "D.H." <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> > Subject: So much for interoperability
> > Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 15:23:18 -0700
> > MIME-Version: 1.0
> >
> > iPlanet cuts instant messaging interoperability deal with AOL
> > Nick Patience - www.the451.com
> >
> > Sun Microsystems' iPlanet division has made a significant last minute change
> > to its first instant messaging and collaboration toolset, which it launched
> > this week as an addition to the iPlanet Portal Server. Sun signed a deal
> > with AOL Time Warner to start testing the iPlanet IM tool with AOL Instant
> > Messenger. The two companies are both owners of iPlanet, but Sun always
> > controlled the entity and formally takes control in March 2002, while AOL
> > has already laid off most of its 500 iPlanet staff, with Sun hiring about
> > 300 of them.
> >
> > In signing the deal, Sun is following the lead of IBM's Lotus division,
> > whose SameTime collaboration tools represents the major competition to the
> > iPlanet Instant Collaboration Pack and which already interoperates with AIM.
> > However iPlanet said it views the portal companies, rather than SameTime as
> > the real competition and said that SameTime is still mainly used mainly for
> > "employee to employee communications."
> >
> > And when the451 spoke to iPlanet last week ahead of the official launch this
> > week, there appeared to be no plans to include interoperability with any of
> > the popular IM networks with the software as the company didn't believe that
> > was an important factor for enterprises when deciding on corporate presence
> > and IM software.
> >
> > AOL chose Lotus as the test case for interoperability forced upon it by the
> > FCC as a condition of it agreeing to the acquisition by AOL of Time Warner,
> > which closed in early 2001. Lotus had already been licensing the AIM
> > technology since 1999, although AOL claimed the interoperability was via a
> > slightly different protocol.
> >
> > These arms-length deals appear to be AOL's method of keeping its hand in
> > with the enterprise software industry in which otherwise, it appears to have
> > no interest.
> >
> > But despite the similar tie-ins with AOL, iPlanet and Lotus insist they are
> > on different paths. For its part, iPlanet believes that IM and other
> > applications that leverage presence information are best served through a
> > portal interface. That's because portals are becoming the de facto front-end
> > method for organizing and presenting not only corporate documents, but also
> > employee data. John Fanelli, iPlanet's director of communications and portal
> > products believes another reason portals are, and will remain, so popular is
> > because most employees are project-based these days and are often members of
> > multiple project teams simultaneously.
> >
> > Lotus sees things differently. Bethann Cregg, the company's director of
> > product marketing for collaboration products says Lotus doesn't view the
> > world through portals, although it has a tie-in with IBM's portal software,
> > it views that as juts one type of application in which its software can be
> > used. Cregg said the idea is that presence information should be integrated
> > into whatever application it is that the user is working in.
> >
> > To that end, Lotus is now more interested in licensing its technology to
> > other companies rather than selling SameTime as a standalone product. That's
> > really only happened within IBM at the moment, but she said the company is
> > working to expand beyond the Big Blue family. She points out that Lotus also
> > launched a portal called K-Station (K for Knowledge in this case) earlier
> > this year, although the company does not pretend to be a major portal
> > player.
> >
> > The NetLert technology that Sun acquired as the basis for its presence-based
> > application appears to be a fairly basic combination of chat rooms and buddy
> > lists right now and lags behind the SameTime technology, which includes
> > real-time meetings including audio and video conferencing, but no doubt
> > iPlanet will work quickly to catch up and point to the portal integration as
> > more significant. But it will be interesting to see which approach the
> > market prefers.


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