Guest post by my good friend, Chilap Tran, Business Development Manager at IBM and a HUGE Star Trek Fan.
I watched the new film, Star Trek by JJ Abrams the other day with my wife. The film was amazing, I couldn’t believe it was possible to reimagine and reboot Star Trek with a ALTERNATIVE reality to the established series/movies. I looked over and realize, my wife (who hates Star Trek) is actually watching this movie with me. She didn’t hate it and actually enjoyed the film. The film was near perfect, which had epic music, special effects, acting, directing and it was very entertaining and moving. I actually went back and saw it 3 times in total, each time nearly crying in the first 10 mins.
However it started to make me think about all the DIE HARD trekkies who may hate this because it’s based on a ALTERNATIVE reality and not true to the original series. This is like drinking a new version of your favourite cola, seeing that new video game console for the first time (back in the 80′s when we fell in love with the italian plumber, trying to save the princess), or using LOTUS FOUNDATIONS a true ALTERNATIVE to Microsoft’s SBS.
When I first joined IBM in 2006, I was introduced to Lotus Notes, like many of you, I grew up in a Microsoft world. I used DOS, Windows 95/98/ME/XP etc., and Outlook for my mail and if I was to open a business the natural choice would have been to buy and install Microsoft SBS (few years ago). However, within 1 week of using Lotus Notes 8, I fell in love with it. The layout looked great, it was easy to use and was stable. When I would go home, I would cringe at the sight of my desktop which had Outlook. If you have not heard about Lotus Foundations, let me quickly fill you in.
Lotus Foundations is positioned as a true ALTERNATIVE to Microsofts SBS, it’s a All In One, Linux based server solution appliance designed for small business. No need to know Linux (simple Graphic User Interface, point and click). The target market is 1-500 with the sweet spot being 1-75. The solution provides, file and print, email and collaboration, office productivity tools, remote access via VPN, can be used as a email/web server, there is even a built in disaster recovery feature. I can hear Spock say, “fascinating.” The front panel of the hardware appliance is a LCD screen so even Scotty can set this up without a keyboard or monitor, if all fails, there is a one button restore at the front as well. The OS resides on a flash chip so in the unlikely event of a warp core breach/hard drive failure, Captain Kirk can still boot.
So the question is, are you one of those DIE HARD folks who can’t stand change? Or are you one of those people that are open to ALTERNATIVE ideas and solutions? I know when I finished watching Star Trek 2009, I knew it was going to break 300 million and when I joined this team, I also knew Foundations will be that new game system that came out in the 80′s that took the world by storm.
Where do you get Lotus Foundations? Lotus Foundations is available at your local IT consultant and if they say they don’t have it, ask them why not?
For you potential partners lurking behind your Microsoft blinds, take a look and see what you are missing and how your clients can benefit from a real solution.
Live Long and Prosper,
Chi Tran
Channel Account Manager | Lotus Foundations
IBM Corporation | Lotus Software Group
1.905.413.4982 | Toll Free: 1.866.384.8324 x 1291
Fax No: 1-905-413-4837
chilaptran@ca.ibm.com
www.lotusfoundations.com
