Title: IBM Intranet White Paper IBM Security Classification: Unclassified Writer: Alex Cabanes;Donna Pierson;Paul Boulay Created Date: 07-22-96 Delivering Next Generation Intranets Today Intranets Improve Business Productivity IBM's intranet direction is to help customers easily accomplish their business goals through strategic internal corporate networks. From establishing departmental communications all the way through to revamping corporate business processes and extending organizational boundaries outside the corporation to suppliers and partners, IBM is addressing the different needs in each space -- from entry level offerings to full integration with backend systems through gateways. Our strategy is to help customers deve lop intranets with next-generation technology and by leveraging the investments in people, systems, and applications that customers have already made. Based on IBM's extensive cross-industry research, we find customers progressing through various stages of intranet planning and deployment for business applications. Intranets are being used to improve and streamline internal communications for organizational productivity and more cost-effective processes. As organizations progress in their intranet deployment, managing the information -- both new and existing content and documents -- quickly becomes more of an issue. Teams need to share information, re view, edit, incorporate feedback, as well as reuse and consolidate prior work effects. Intranets that enable collaboration to occur in real time can save significant time in project schedules, and prevent unnecessary reinvention. Corporations are extending their intranets beyond the boundaries of the company to include extended connections to suppliers and partners. Eventually, with multimedia, extensive networks, and next-generation intranets, long-distance interaction is another step closer to duplicating the effectiveness of in-person interaction. Key intranet elements Intranets are rapidly being deployed by taking advantage of Internet open standards and protocols, together with existing IT infrastructures, in highly heterogeneous environments. As deployment progresses, other information management issues arise, including: synchronization version control link management integrated e-mail directory services network management Security is a big concern in intranet deployment. Companies are concerned about employee confidentiality, infiltration from external networks, content integrity, access and authorization, and protection of intellectual assets. Access to new and existing information, such as relational databases, becomes increasingly important to make available via the intranet to support access and link corporate business processes. Rapid development of mission-critical applications continue to be of prime importance. Domino Bridges the Internet Environment and the Power of Notes Lotus Notes is the world's leading messaging and groupware product. With over 5 million users and several years of real world usage, it is the only product that can support the needs of your business to build mission-critical intranet applications that you can depend on. Bridging the open networking environment of Internet standards and protocols with the powerful application development facilities and backend connections of Notes, Domino provides businesses and organizations with the ability to rapidly develop a broad range of business solutions for intranets and is the center piece of IBM's intranet strategy. Domino allows standard Web browsers to directly and securely access and interact with the full range of function available on the Notes server including applications such as calendaring and scheduling. Domino bridges the open standards environment of the Web with the power of the Notes object-oriented database, replication, mail, security, collaboration, content management and rapid application development environment to deliver the most complete and powerful intranet solution available today. Domino goes beyond mere static publishing of Web pages to provide a secure, flexible, robust, and scalable platform for enterprise-wide intranet deployment, and the most comp lete support of fully interactive applications (client to server to enterprise systems) available in the marketplace today. The following are the key elements required for a secure, flexible, robust and scaleable enterprise intranet provided by Domino: Broad Platform Support In contrast to limited or proprietary platform support from other vendors, Domino will support the broadest range of heterogeneous platforms in the industry today, including Windows NT, OS/2, Sun Solaris, HP/UX, and AIX. Replication Notes bi-directional replication is a quantum leap beyond traditional Internet mirroring algorithms. It enables the synchronization of databases shared and modified on multiple servers with multiple users on each, as well as optimized performance and reduced network costs. Users in multiple locations can make changes directly against a local server, with all changes automatically synchronized. In addition, mobile users (e.g. sales force automation) can make laptop replicas of Notes databases and applications, including pages from Web sites. We are delivering this to the marketplace today! According to published reports, Lotus' replication function could prove to be an intranet killer-app and Lotus is recognized as the industry leader in providing synchronous replication technology. Collaboration Notes includes a full suite of collaborative application services, from straightforward discussion databases to enterprise-wide messaging, directory services and workflow to create high return on investment business process applications that transform an intranet server from a basic publishing medium to a compelling interactive application engine for any line of business. Other vendors attempt to define collaboration with lesser function, and their offerings are primarily limited to e-mail, simple discussi on groups, calendaring and scheduling. Security Just like Notes, Domino, through passwords, user authentication on both the client browser and server side, and encryption over the wire, to the database, and to the field level within the database, can secure information down to the field level if necessary. A user can be limited to access to a database, a view, a form, or even certain amounts of information contained on the form. Security extends to the server level: a server can be limited to talk to only certain users, or even set to only talk to certain other servers on a network. This allows customers maximum flexibility in implementing their enterprise security policy. Domino is built on open industry standards. For example, Domino supports SSL for encryption of transmitted data. Notes offers a public key infrastructure and digital signing today that exploits RSA-based public key and private key certificates. This offers unparalleled secure intranet/Internet access to Notes customers. Content/Application Development Domino provides the basic requirements for a Web site, including a page management system, full text search engine, and threaded discussions. Coupled with Notes' robust rapid application development environment, it will enable customers to develop the next wave of Web sites hosting mission-critical, interactive business applications. In a single integrated environment, Domino supports application development, content hosting, and site management, otherwise requiring multiple components to be developed. In addition, Domino's rich object store can contain any type of data/applet attached to a Web page -- audio, video, text, images, Java applets, Active X controls, plug-in's -- providing the content developer freedom of creation. Net.Applications Lotus is delivering a set of business solutions, referred to as "Net.Apps", that work with Domino to enable a company to build and maintain an interactive enterprise intranet site quickly and easily. The Net.Apps currently planned by Lotus are: Net.Presence will deliver a dynamic function-rich Web site. This web site can be installed and configured within an hour, and will streamline the creation, design, and content management of "Net" sites. Net.Marketing is designed to promote and sell products and services, and will include a product/service catalog. Net.Service is designed to enable companies to support their customers directly from the "Net". IBM's electronic commerce offering, Net.Commerce, complements the Net.Apps from Lotus to provide a full suite of network application solutions. Enterprise Integration Intranets are being used in a range of applications areas to leverage access to existing information and extend a company's reach to employees, partners and customers. Whether communicating company policies, benefit plans, sharing engineering diagrams, supporting a mobile sales force, or integrating corporate purchasing systems with outside suppliers, IBM and Lotus have key enabling technologies available and in development to help customers leverage the investment in their existing IT infrastructure. The following products make it easier for organizations to effectively access and integrate information from their transaction-based and relational database systems into collaborative and workflow applications through Notes. The combination of these products extends Notes' position as the most complete rapid application development and deployment platform for interactive intranet applications: MQSeries link for Lotus Notes, a LotusScript Extension (LSX), provides a tight link through IBM MQSeries to transaction-based systems, allowing seamless integration of business processes across Notes and transaction systems. LotusScript: Data Object, a LotusScript Extension (LSX), permits Notes clients and servers to access and update any ODBC-compatible RDBMS, making RDBMS information available to connected and mobile users. Oracle LSX allows Notes clients and servers to read and write Oracle databases and systems using Oracle's native SQL and Net protocol. Lotus Script Extension (LSX) Toolkit enable corporate developers and Lotus Business Partners to extend Notes by creating new custom objects that can be accessed from LotusScript by adding their own custom functionality to the Notes client and server platforms. Lotus Notes Pump Release 2 provides scheduled, high-volume, server-based interchange allowing developers and database administrators to keep relational databases and Notes databases synchronized. ODBC Driver for Notes allows users to easily query and update Notes data from any ODBC-compliant database using familiar SQL commands. Broad range of services IBM provides the broadest array of service to address customer intranet needs, many of which are provided as part of custom projects. IBM's offerings address all phases of intranet adoption: 1) Collaboration: Develop interactive Notes/Domino intranet applications. Training. 2) Learn, Plan, and Get Started: Seminars and Workshops, from basic Internet information to situation assessment. Consulting services to formulate intranet strategy and assess the best way to leverage and deploy Internet technology to support business goals. Turnkey packages for planning, installation, and migration for all IBM Internet servers. Intranet page design and hosting. Services to design and construct Web applications using Notes, Java, VRML. 3) Protect company information from unauthorized use and corruption: Security assessment of security exposures and risks. Infiltration testing for vulnerability to electronic break-in. Internet emergency response service. Anti-virus detection and elimination, continuous monitoring for over 6,000 viruses. Firewall installation. 4) Expand information and users on the intranet: Host Web sites and intranet content in a production environment with secure, high bandwidth. Enable information in DB2 and CICS so it can be viewed with any WWW browser. Provide external information via the intranet for business research and analysis via IBM infoSage and IBM infoMarket. 5) Manage intranet Resources: Integrate intranet databases with existing databases, transaction systems and applications. Host intranet content in a production environment with a secure, high-bandwidth IP link. Outsourced intranet operations, custom-designed, includes managing operations, system maintenance and upgrade, help desk, user and server configuration, emergency response. Summary Lotus has been for years the undisputed leader in the key intranet applications: information sharing and collaboration. Domino provides the most flexible, easy-to-use, interactive intranet applications server, combining the power of the Web with the power of Notes. The Domino server open Notes to the open standards of the Internet and the Worldwide Web. IBM is the market leader in information management and processing and helps customers integrate products in open heterogeneous environments, including the ability to leverage your existing data. Choose IBM for the depth of security experience, breadth of offerings, and global reach to protect and scale your intranet as you grow. We are delivering next generation intranets --- TODAY! Note: "Domino" feature comparison not available in this text document. See paper on the Web at: http://w3.nc.ibm.com. It can be found underInternet Current Presentations