By Michael Branson, Founder/COO, i3solutions

Quick answer. If you run Domino v9, v10 or v11, Extended Support “will now end June 30, 2030”, according to HCL’s support articles as of September 2026. Retire unused databases first; send documents to SharePoint, forms and records to Power Apps, heavy logic to custom .NET; keep stable applications on Domino.

When the Domino renewal or a server refresh reaches the budget and no one can say which applications still matter, the estate needs sorting before it needs a platform. Many teams still call them Lotus Notes applications; HCL’s own pages call the platform HCL Domino. This guide sorts a Domino estate into five destinations (SharePoint, Power Apps on Dataverse, custom .NET, retirement, or staying on Domino) and sets the order to move them in, using HCL’s and Microsoft’s own pages.

What HCL Offers for the Domino Applications You Already Run

If your team has not yet settled whether to leave Domino at all, start from what HCL offers. According to HCL’s Domino product page, “HCL Domino 2026 delivers all of it as an upgrade to what you already run”, and the page adds: “Plus, with HCL Nomad, your existing applications are instantly modernized for browsers and mobile, requiring no rewrites.”

For the versions HCL has moved to Extended Support, the dates are in HCL’s support articles. According to HCL’s Extended Support article for Domino and Notes v9.0.x and v10.0.x, “Announced EOS Effective Date: 2024-JUN-01.” According to HCL’s article for v11.0.x, “Announced EOS Effective Date: 2025-JUN-26.” As published by HCL, both articles state “New ultimate end date for Extended Support: 2030-JUN-30.” and “Extended Support is offered as a services Statement of Work at an additional charge and is an extension to an established standard support.” They add: “However, no new defect fixes will be provided.” According to HCL, the recommended upgrade versions are “HCL Domino v12.0.2, v14.0, v14.5”; neither article gives a support date for those versions, so this guide states none.

Sort the Estate Before Choosing a Platform

When an estate has grown for years, the platform question stalls until each application has a class. Microsoft’s Select your cloud migration strategies page names two strategies that settle an application without a rebuild: “Retire decommissions workloads that no longer provide business value.” and “A retain strategy keeps workloads in their current environment when they’re stable, compliant, and meet all current and future business needs with no near-term driver to move.”

Put each Domino application into one of five classes: document libraries and discussion databases; forms with approval routing; relational line-of-business applications; applications with heavy business logic, external users or feeds to other systems; and databases no one opens. What discovery has to produce before any of them is scoped is covered in Enterprise Application Discovery Before a Rebuild.

Which Domino Applications Go to SharePoint

If an application is mostly documents and discussion threads, test SharePoint first. Document libraries, discussion databases and simple request forms map to SharePoint libraries and lists, within the limits Microsoft publishes on its SharePoint limits page: “A list can have up to 30 million items and a library can have up to 30 million files and folders.” The same page states: “The supported limit of unique permissions for items in a list or library is 50,000.” and “However, the recommended general limit is 5,000.”

An application whose access is set item by item is the one that meets that permission limit, so count its unique permissions before choosing SharePoint. When an application has outgrown lists and libraries, When SharePoint Is Not the Right Platform: Enterprise Signs covers how to tell.

Which Go to Power Apps and Dataverse

When a Domino application is a form with an approval route, or a set of related records with roles attached, test Power Apps on Dataverse next. Microsoft’s What is Power Apps? states: “Power Apps is a suite of apps, services, and connectors, as well as a data platform, that provides a rapid development environment to build custom apps for your business needs.” Its What is Microsoft Dataverse? page states: “You can combine business units, role-based security, row-based security, and column-based security to define the overall access to information that users have in a Power Platform environment.” Map each application’s current access rules onto that model before the rebuild starts.

Forms with approval steps can also land on SharePoint lists with Power Automate.

If users already export a Domino application’s data to spreadsheets and do the real work there, settle the spreadsheet question alongside it. i3solutions converts macro-heavy Excel workbooks either to Power Apps canvas or model-driven applications on Dataverse, or to a custom web application on Azure App Service backed by Azure SQL. How to choose between those is covered in Excel-to-Web Rebuild vs Power Platform Modernization: How to Choose for Regulated Enterprises.

Which Warrant Custom .NET

If a Domino application carries heavy business logic in LotusScript, serves users outside the organization, or feeds other systems at volume, test it against Power Apps’ query limits before committing. Microsoft’s Query limitations: Delegation and query limits page states: “When a query is nondelegable, Power Apps gets the first 500 records from the data source and then runs the actions in the query.” and “You can increase this limit to 2,000 records.”

An application whose core queries cannot stay inside that limit is a custom .NET candidate, and moving it that way is what Microsoft’s migration strategies page calls a rebuild: “A rebuild strategy is a full redevelopment of a workload using cloud-native solutions.” The platform comparison for a single workload is covered in Power Apps vs. Custom .NET: Decision Guide.

In What Order to Move Them

Once the estate is sorted, the order comes from three facts about your Domino estate. First, retire the databases no one opens, because a retired database needs no platform decision. Second, move the applications on servers past their announced end-of-support date; according to HCL’s articles for Domino and Notes v9.0.x and v10.0.x and v11.0.x, those dates have passed for all three versions, and Extended Support is “offered as a services Statement of Work at an additional charge”. Third, move databases that share data as one group, so a form never points at a database that has already moved.

Where the version date and a shared-data group disagree, the group takes precedence: keep it together and move it on the earliest date any member faces. Inheriting a Domino estate is a takeover of applications someone else built. i3solutions runs this kind of takeover as a structured stabilization sequence in its legacy system integration consulting, where dependency mapping and a tested change path come before any migration or rewrite commitment. The general method for ranking an application portfolio is set out in Application Modernization Decision Framework: Six Paths, and it is not repeated here.

Sorting the Estate in One Table

When the estate list reaches a steering meeting, set the classes side by side. The statements in the table are quoted from Microsoft’s migration strategies, SharePoint limits, Power Apps and Dataverse pages and from HCL’s Domino product page.

Application class Destination The statement that decides it What you must prove again Order
Databases no one opens Retire Microsoft: “Retire decommissions workloads that no longer provide business value.” That no one needs the data, or where an archive of it lives First
Document libraries and discussion databases SharePoint Microsoft publishes list, library and unique-permission limits on its SharePoint limits page Who can see each item By version date, with its shared-data group
Forms with approval routing SharePoint lists with Power Automate, or Power Apps Microsoft: “a rapid development environment to build custom apps for your business needs” The approval route and who can see each request By version date, with its shared-data group
Relational line-of-business applications Power Apps on Dataverse Microsoft: “role-based security, row-based security, and column-based security” The access model and the data relationships By version date, with its shared-data group
Heavy business logic, external users or feeds to other systems Custom .NET Microsoft: “A rebuild strategy is a full redevelopment of a workload using cloud-native solutions.” The business logic, rule by rule By version date, with its shared-data group
Stable applications with no driver to move Stay on Domino HCL: “an upgrade to what you already run” That the server runs a version HCL supports Revisited at each renewal

Where an application fits two rows, the stricter requirement decides: an application with item-level access or heavy logic goes to the row further down the table.

When Rebuilding Is the Wrong Call

If no business driver sits behind the move, a rebuild spends budget on applications that already work. In four situations, change the question.

  • Keep a small, stable estate on a supported version. HCL’s Domino product page offers Domino 2026 as “an upgrade to what you already run”, and Microsoft’s retain strategy covers workloads that are stable and compliant with “no near-term driver to move”.
  • Weigh HCL Nomad when browser and mobile access is the only complaint. HCL’s Domino product page states that with Nomad, existing applications “are instantly modernized for browsers and mobile, requiring no rewrites.”
  • Let the transaction set the platform when the applications leave with a divested business unit. The buyer’s platform decision comes first.
  • Treat a connection need as integration work. If the real need is Domino data reaching the Microsoft estate, that is the offer described on the SharePoint to IBM integration page linked in the next section.

How i3solutions Answers

When a Domino estate reaches i3solutions, the work starts from the applications that are actually there: what each one holds, who opens it, which version its server runs and which databases share data. i3solutions implements the Microsoft technology a customer needs, SharePoint, Power Apps and custom .NET work included. i3solutions’ own SharePoint to IBM Integration: Modernize Your Infrastructure page cites “direct experience with IBM systems such as DB2, IBM MQ, FileNet and Domino”, and states: “whether you have a static Intranet site or are looking to convert Domino applications, we can help you migrate safely from your IBM environment to Microsoft SharePoint Online.”

These are further statements we can document, quoted at the size we can document them:

  • i3solutions is a Microsoft-focused application development and integration firm that helps enterprises modernize operations, connect platforms, and build tailored solutions.
  • At i3solutions, we help organizations assess, modernize, and unify their Microsoft systems.
  • i3solutions implements Power Platform licensing across Power Apps per-app and per-user plans, Power Automate per-flow and per-user plans, and the Microsoft 365 default entitlements where app complexity is low.
  • i3solutions is a Microsoft Solutions Partner.
  • Delivery is senior and US-based.

Where this work sits in the wider practice is covered in Enterprise Digital Transformation Solutions for Governed, Scalable Modernization.

Key Takeaways

  • If a server is past its announced end-of-support date, Extended Support is “now ultimately offered through June 30, 2030” and “offered as a services Statement of Work at an additional charge”, according to HCL’s v9.0.x and v10.0.x and v11.0.x articles.
  • Sort every application into a class before choosing a platform; retirement and staying on Domino are classes too.
  • Microsoft’s SharePoint limits page sets a limit on unique permissions per list or library, so check item-level access before choosing SharePoint.
  • Microsoft’s delegation limits set the query limit to check before an application with heavy logic or volume stays in Power Apps.
  • Move retirements first, then servers past their announced end-of-support date, keeping databases that share data together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Lotus Notes applications move to SharePoint Online?

When a Notes application mainly holds documents and discussion threads, yes: according to Microsoft Learn’s SharePoint limits page, “A list can have up to 30 million items and a library can have up to 30 million files and folders.” Count each application’s item-level permissions first, because the same page sets a limit on unique permissions per list or library.

Which Domino applications need Power Apps instead of SharePoint?

When a Domino application holds related records with roles attached, Power Apps on Dataverse is the stronger fit, because Microsoft’s What is Microsoft Dataverse? page describes combining “role-based security, row-based security, and column-based security” to define what users can reach. Simple document and discussion applications stay the SharePoint candidates.

When is custom .NET the right target for a Domino application?

When an application runs heavy business logic, serves external users or feeds other systems at volume, check it against the Power Apps query limit: according to Microsoft Learn’s delegation page, “When a query is nondelegable, Power Apps gets the first 500 records from the data source and then runs the actions in the query.” Core queries that cannot stay inside that limit point to a custom .NET rebuild.

How long does HCL extend support for Domino and Notes?

If your servers run Domino and Notes v9.0.x, v10.0.x or v11.0.x, Extended Support is “now ultimately offered through June 30, 2030”, according to HCL’s support articles (v9.0.x and v10.0.x, v11.0.x) read in September 2026, and “Extended Support is offered as a services Statement of Work at an additional charge and is an extension to an established standard support.” Re-read both articles before you commit budget; HCL titles each one as an update.

Should we upgrade Domino instead of migrating?

If the applications are stable and no business driver sits behind a move, upgrading is a real option: according to HCL’s Domino product page, “HCL Domino 2026 delivers all of it as an upgrade to what you already run”. Rebuild the applications whose class calls for SharePoint, Power Apps or custom .NET, and keep the rest on a version HCL supports.

Sort the Estate Before the Renewal Date

If the renewal date is close and no one can say which Domino applications still matter, bring the application list, the server versions and the renewal date. The conversation sorts them into retire, SharePoint, Power Apps, custom .NET or stay, and staying on Domino remains one of the answers it can reach. Talk to a senior architect

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