TrendMicro Claims Full Coverage of 64-Bit Domino with ScanMail

February 15, 2011 Alex Woodie

With the new support for Linux on z/OS with ScanMail for Lotus Domino version 5.0, antivirus software developer TrendMicro claims it is the only security software vendor to support all 64-bit Domino platforms. And while version 5.0 doesn’t yet run on IBM i, the once-popular Domino environment is still supported with an older release of ScanMail.

ScanMail for Domino version 5, which was launched a year-and-a-half ago, protects Lotus Domino users against viruses, spyware, spam, and other Internet-borne security problems that would otherwise flourish in a rich collaboration environment. In addition to scanning all incoming e-mail, the software detects phishing attempts and so-called “blended” threats that combine attack mechanisms to attain nefarious goals. There’s also a version for Microsoft Exchange.

TrendMicro has historically supported the most popular Domino platforms, which included Windows and i5/OS. The release of Linux on z/OS support at last month’s Lotusphere event, combined with existing support for 64-bit Windows and AIX operating systems, led TrendMicro to claim that it’s “the only vendor to support all current 64-bit Domino platforms.” IBM upgraded Domino to a 64-bit application on many operating systems following the release of Domino 8.01 a couple of years ago.

This is an interesting claim. As we all know, 64-bit applications are better than 32-bit applications because they can utilize more memory. Windows-based applications, in particular, are no longer constrained to the 2 GB memory limit when compiled as 64-bit applications running on a 64-bit platform. Because Windows is the most popular platform for running Domino applications, this impacts a lot of people.

However, let’s look at the claim from an IBM i point of view. For some time, Domino running on IBM i was implemented as a 64-bit application that utilized 128-bit pointers. (IBM i was developed with 128-bit applications in mind, although the hardware is limited to 64-bits.) Because of this, Domino has been called a 128-bit application when it runs on the IBM i platform; it was the only so-called 128-bit version of Domino.

This started to change with the launch of Domino 8.01 a couple of year ago. With that release, IBM standardized the IBM i implementation of Domino on 64-bit pointer technology, instead of 128-bit technology. Today, Domino runs on IBM i as a 64-bit application just as it runs on 64-bit AIX, Windows, and Linux.

So TrendMicro’s claim that it supports “all current 64-bit Domino platforms” is true. But there is a caveat: its IBM i customers won’t be running ScanMail version 5 on IBM i implementations of Domino. And many of its ScanMail version 3 customers will be running on version 7.x implementations of IBM i-based Domino that use 128-bit pointers instead of 64-bit pointers.