Many of my customers, colleagues and friends in the community have been asking me when and “if” Domino 10 is going to be available on the IBM i. The rate of questioning increased after the announcement that HCL is going to purchase Domino, progressing beyond the current partnership agreement between IBM and HCL.
At first I was a bit perplexed why there was more concern with the purchasing agreement vs. the partnership agreement. I asked some questions and the answers became obvious. People’s assumption was that the IBM i would be supported by IBM because it owns the system and HCL does not. While I completely understand this assumption, reality couldn’t be farther from the truth.
HCL has listened to ALL customers of the Domino platform and has realized that IBM i customers are very committed to the product and many use it to provide key components of their businesses. In addition, HCL gets what Domino really is, an application development platform. They don’t see it as just an email, calendar, and contacts solutions which sadly is how the ones in IBM who decide where $$ go see it; rather HCL sees the significant advantage this low-code platform provides to companies to give them a competitive advantage.
HCL is fully committed to the IBM i platform, in ways we have not seen since the early 2000s. I am under NDA, so I cannot say exactly when Domino 10 will be available on the IBM i, what I can safely say is it will be in the first quarter of 2019.
Stay tuned, it’s coming soon!!!
Excellent news!!!