Splitting The Difference

LotusLive Connections lies somewhere between Lotus Connections and the cloud predecessor of LotusLive Engage.

The new package doesn't quite have the full functionality of the original Lotus Connections, and apparently will not have blogs and the Dogear bookmarking feature. What it will include is file sharing, instant messaging, and the Activities application that allows for group creation.

As compared to the rest of the LotusLive panorama, Connections lacks the focus on Web conferencing that Engage has, making it akin to more social networking and document-centered software.

A New Collaborative Powerhouse?

Though it may suffer from having no free version other than a 30-day free trial, LotusLive Connections looks to be an excellent new addition to the spectrum of cloud-based collaboration suites. By removing the rather unusual attention on conferencing and keeping a core group of social tools, it may just grow to overshadow its sister offerings in LotusLive.