IBM Lotusphere 2012

IBMs annual event Lotusphere 2012 got off to a resounding start at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Some of the partners and clients of IBM discussed how the power of social media and advancements in the same have helped their businesses to grow and prosper. The key products and technologies unveiled at the event are as follows:

Smart Cloud

IBM has launched an updated version of its cloud computing offering, SmartCloud for Social Business. The IT giant said the new version simplifies access to business-grade file sharing, social networking, instant messaging, email and calendars. It will also enable users to co-edit documents in the cloud in real time.

The update will also incorporate IBM's previous cloud offering, LotusLive, meaning existing users can continue to log on to the new system. The vendor said LotusLive is part of SmartCloud for Social Business to help "bring together IBM's cloud initiatives and services".

IBM Connections

IBM will also release a software update to its social networking platform, IBM Connections. It said this will incorporate analytics capabilities, data monitoring and the use of IBM's new cloud services.The tech giant said the new software and services will "deliver comprehensive networking capabilities" to the workforce.

IBM Docs Beta

It also unveiled the beta release of IBM Docs, formerly known as LotusLive Symphony. The beta release is available now on Greenhouse (http://greenhouse.lotus.com). IBM Docs is a completely cloud-based set of social document editors -- word processor, spreadsheets, presentation tools -- focused on the needs of teams to share and improve productivity, both inside and outside the firewall. IBM Docs authors will be able to store documents in IBM SmartCloud Engage (formerly LotusLive Engage), co-edit documents in real time or assign users sections of the document so they can work privately easing the management of multiple revisions from multiple authors in team-based documents.

Lotus Notes/Domino Social Edition

The new release will enter beta this quarter and is expected to ship in 2012. Today's announcement features elements such as embedded experiences in Notes and iNotes -- and new components, e.g. the product name and some of the new capabilities. A key component of this release -- the Notes Application Player Plug-in was also demonstrated.

The vision for the Notes/Domino Social Edition is to establish web and mobile as the leading platform. For example, the Notes Traveler client for Android will be substantially improved on tablet devices, with better calendar views and presence awareness. The Application Player plug-in completes the picture for browser-based Domino users, making their application experience as rich as possible.

Notes/Domino Social Edition has several additional enhancements and components. They include embedded experiences, a modern approach to store forms in documents. Embedded experiences are applications designed using the Open Social 2.0 standard and the Apache Shindig container. They will provide a more seamless user experience by keeping the end-user in context of where they are already working. Surveys, YouTube videos, workflow approvals can be acted upon without having to open a new window/container/browser. In the Notes client, there will also be incremental feature updates, especially in mail and calendar, designed to improve usability. iNotes will have an updated implementation of calendar, which is faster and more dynamic. The Domino Server will have new features such as SAML support.

(The author was hosted by IBM in Orlando.)