Sitting through the blogger IBM debriefing for LotusLive Notes, I couldn't help but listening to the call with my developer ears on.

IBM creating a SaaS messaging solution based on IBM Lotus Notes Domino certainly addresses an SMB market requirements, and the hybrid approach that allows growing organizations to evolve their business based on it's needs.

Need to quickly ramp-up a new Domino server in the cloud that's a part of your existing infrastructure? LotusLive Notes (or LLN) is a great solution, especially for the price.

LotusLive Notes is an offering that's meant to -- from what I gathered -- compliment your existing Lotus Notes Domino solution, or allow a 25+ new Lotus Notes Domino customer to quickly ramp-up a no-fuss Domino solution, and get your teams using the messaging, calendaring, and task management capabilities of the standard Domino mail template.

...but again, I couldn't help but listen with my developer ears, and specifically my platform developer ears.

As a result, there was a big take-away for me...

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I was contacted today by the team at Silanis who gave me a heads-up on their most recent product offering: e-SignDoc and e-SignRoom for IBM LotusLive.

Sean Poulley mentioned during an interview a while back that (I'm not quoting, since I lost my notes...) the strength of the LotusLive platform was both it's ability for the IBM Business Partner network to create awesome 3rd-party add-ons to the service and also to allow LotusLive to go behind the firewall and integrate with the in-house technology. He put it much more poetically than I just did, but that was the basic idea.

After just completing a project which required that I print a web-based form to sneakernet-style signatures... I can not stress the importance of e-signatures in web-based workflow applications! e-SignDoc and e-SignRoom services look like a decent solution to handle e-signatures in the LotusLive cloud!

For more information, check out eSignLive.Silanis.com.

Big news coming from IBM regarding Lotus Live:

IBM LotusLive Expands with Business Tools and Services from UPS, Skype, Salesforce.com and Silanis to Serve Growing Demand for Cloud Computing

April 14, 2010 -- ARMONK, NY -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced it is addressing the growing demand for business-focused collaboration by adding new tools and services, language support and pricing to its LotusLive cloud services, including integrated business products and services from UPS, SkypeTM, salesforce.com and Silanis. IBM will also offer the first cloud service package combining social networking and email for business for $7.

Click thru for the complete press release and my thoughts on LotusLive!

A while back (July 23, 2009), I posted a public response to David Hoff of Cloud Sherpas, who spoke of all of the joys and happiness afforded someone who migrates from IBM Lotus products to Google Apps. Of course, this was a competitive marketing piece in editorial's clothing... I mean, I'd rather hear from all of the amazing benefits resulting from a migration from Lotus Notes Domino to Google Apps from an actual customer...

Lucky me, this weekend I received the following email:

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While I plan on making this website - which has admittedly turned into more of a weblog than an actual website - a better resource for developers and geeks alike, I've come to a conclusion recently:

Lotus deep-dive articles will be posted in the respective Lotus product wiki.

But what about editorials? Something that goes far beyond a simple weblog post; something that does not talk to a particular technology but more of a principal or overall understanding that a professional developer needs to grasp if not master to be successful in the enterprise.

And I think I found such a place with the help of PlanetLotus.org founder Yancy Lent: Lotus Journal.

This editorial talks to the basics of - in my experience - what a developer needs to know about the whole SaaS vs. On-Premises debate that goes on in most companies.

Check out SaaS vs. On-Premises Solutions Considerations @ Lotus Journal and let me know what you think!