Bill's Blog

On a very infrequent basis, I look at my "Jobserve.com" sniffer, and figure out graphically how many contract positions are advertised, by day, for both "lotus Domino" and "Websphere Portal" positions.

With all the doom+gloom that the Microsofties are putting about recently, I started to feel that this exercise might just prove that "Domino was dead". Of course, I'm wrong.

There is the usual "start of year" peak as all those companies kick off new projects, and a trace of the usual mid-summer trough as everyone heads off on holiday. But the median mark for Domino seems to be holding steady.

Now, before the flames start, please dont for a second think that this is a scientific representative mark of the market - its just a bit of fun, tracking specific jobs on a single (albeit the largest) jobboard in Europe.

Websphere Portal - nearly two years on since version 5.0 was released, is still plugging away. Now the low number of jobs in this area makes me conclude that this is indeed a growing market, but the various companies and business partners involved are still able to organically expand and cover their respective markets. Jobserve, after all, is an overflow - for folks that cannot cover their requirements in the short term.

So. Is Domino Dead? Not as far as the customers - the folks dipping their hands in their wallets - think.

One could even (as one is tempted to do) spin out the recent "Microsoft Exchange Ranger" job offers as a final desperate attempt by Microsoft to get the adoption rate for Exchange 2003 above 50% of their own market.