1) Exchange offers a Superior User Experience!
Exchange 2010 delivers more for the user experience than ever before with an enhanced conversation view for mail triage, speech-to-text transcription for voice mail and MailTips to improve messaging efficiency and avoid accidental or unintended e-mails. Although recent versions of Notes updated the user interface, it lags behind in key user’s features and the addition of Eclipse as an underlying structure has increased both the memory and disk footprint that has required, in some cases, new hardware to take advantage of the new release.

2) Exchange offers better Enterprise Services!
Microsoft is delivering multi-tenant scalable solutions that deliver advantages in TCO, flexibility and IT control. Services isn’t just about taking an on-premises server and putting it in a datacenter, it’s about architecting from the beginning for scalability and Exchange Server 2010 delivers that architecture natively.

IBM does not offer this full range of deployment choices, providing only limited outsourced solutions. In addition, their LotusLive iNotes offering is based on their acquisition of Outblaze, a consumer grade e-mail offering that will create a separate messaging experience for those users. This once again and has to call into question IBM’s ability to scale Lotus Domino to millions of users while maintaining low costs.

3) Exchange offers a Unified Communications Platform!
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 continues to address users’ needs by providing new capabilities across unified messaging, integrated e-mail, voice mail, IM, SMS, etc., and mobility management. All of this is provided within the single Exchange product vs. multiple, disparate products as IBM requires.

4) Exchange offers Built-in Enterprise Mobility!
In Exchange Server 2010, mobile users can access their messages from a truly universal inbox with Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, e-mail, voice mail, and saved instant message (IM) conversations. IT administrators can control the devices that connect to their network though a block/allow list. This list ensures that only approved devices are connecting to the Exchange Server messaging data.

The best part of mobile access in Exchange Server 2010 is that it is all built into Exchange Server. There is no need to buy extra servers and client access licenses (CALs) from third party providers or manage another, separate system for mobile access.

In contrast, Lotus Notes Traveler, Lotus’ mobile experience for Domino, which was recently rewritten to provide support for our own Exchange ActiveSync, provides only a basic mobile experience that analysts have said should not be deployed without “a third-party security and management offering”. Exchange has 47 mobile policies to manage and protect information and security of the devices that connect to your network.

5) Exchange offers Single, Industry Leading Directory Interoperability!
The Exchange team built the first native active directory application, Exchange 2000, almost nine years ago. IBM announced this feature for Domino 8.5.x releases, and by the time it ships, Exchange will have a ten-year head start on interoperability with the leading directory service in enterprises today, providing rich, powerful experiences to end users and IT Pros alike.

6) Exchange offers better Archiving, and Retention!
Microsoft Exchange 2010 addresses the needs of what data gets stored and for how long with native e-mail archiving and robust retention policies that provide the tools you need to meet increasing compliance requirements. In addition, Exchange 2010 also enables powerful cross-mailbox searching capabilities that can be delegated through our role-based access control, ensuring that the right people have the right tools to protect your organization. Domino provides only limited archiving and in most cases requires 3rd party products, at additional cost and complexity, to achieve the compliance capabilities delivered by Exchange 2010 natively.

7) Exchange offers better Storage options!
Microsoft Exchange 2010 furthers customers’ ability to choose cheaper, lower cost storage types including DAS, SATA and JBOD without sacrificing reliability or performance. IBM provides Domino attachment object store (DAOS), but are apparently unable to provide customers a true range of storage options to reduce costs for all users across their entire mailbox.