Companies with Lotus Notes users and laptop security concerns will be interested to see that the 7.0.2 version of Notes and Domino that IBM announced yesterday lets users carry their Lotus Notes software -- including customized databases, applications, and files -- around with them on USB devices such as memory sticks and iPods. The USB device will carry the same encryption and access control Notes provides. They can plug the devices into any PC or Mac (no need to have Notes installed) and use the applications, e-mail messages and data as they would on their regular PC. Employees who rely heavily on Notes apps could leave their laptop at the office (locked in a safe place of course) when they travel or work from home. The encapsulated Notes could also act as a backup in case of a laptop malfunction. Notes does not install itself on the host machine, it runs noninvasively off the USB device, contacting the Domino server for updates. VPN software needs to be downloaded on the USB device as well (there's room) or needs to be available on the host computer. The same security controls in place for the existing Notes installation apply to the USB instance (though you need to use Notes version 6.0 or higher.)

Notes 7.0.2 comes with blogging software that works seamlessly with other Domino applications. For companies that run their Web sites with Domino, this is a simple and free way to let employees blog without requiring training or additional software. The Domino content could also be surfaced by other Web content management software by pointing a URL to the Domino server. Another handy feature of 7.0.2 is iCal support, which enables events marked on calendar Web sites to be shared in the Notes calendar. It also provides RSS support for any Notes database, so that, for instance, a salesperson might get an alert every time a prospect in his territory is entered into the CRM database. SAP integration and support for Mac clients and Novell SUSE 10 Linux and Windows 2003 Server R2 X64 servers has been added.