10.25.08
Do-No-Evil Saturday – Part III: Novell Products with Focus on Governance
Chase the Sun
Finance
It has not been a brilliant week for Novell's shareholders. But some of the press at least alluded to Novell’s performance. Here is Novell being labeled “cash-rich,” which Novell itself claims to be despite the buybacks [1, 2] that may change this.
Among the big companies we liked, the winners included Loews (ticker: L), up 20%; Motorola (MOT), up 20%; Microsoft (MSFT), up 11%, and ExxonMobil (XOM), up 9%. As for companies in the group we dubbed “cash-rich,” Nam Tai Electric (NTE) rose 27%; Nvidia (NVDA), 12%; Novell (NOVL), 13%, and RealNetworks (RNWK), 8%. The best performers among the beaten-up industrial names we listed were United Technologies (UTX) and Terex (TEX), which each jumped 7%.
A week before the stock fell, NOVL was issued a trade alert.
Today’s Trade Alerts include: US Concrete Inc. (Nasdaq: RMIX),CompuCredit Corp. (Nasdaq: CCRT), JetBlue Airways Corp. (Nasdaq: JBLU), FuelCell Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: FCEL), Cirrus Logic Inc. (Nasdaq: CRUS) and Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL).
Mail (GroupWise)
Novell GroupWise was only mentioned in the context of mobile phones, notably the Apple iPhone and Blackberry. Examples include:
1. Will the Summer Time impact IT systems?
At first thought, it seems only calendars will be affected using client server messaging products such as: Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise, and the Outlook and Blackberry clients. The change in Summer Time may also affect schedules of air flights, broadcasted TV/satellite programs from overseas channels as examples. Everything from the individual computer, operating systems, email systems, applications, java applications, network devices – switches/routers/firewalls, mobile devices, PBX phone, security systems, and even Fax machines may need a patch or a manual time change. This is not just a time change problem but a far ranging problem that could affect any application where time is critical, for instance, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise.
2. BlackBerry Bold Set for Election Day Launch
The BlackBerry Bold supports Microsoft files and RIM’s lineup of software, as well as e-mail for Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise.
3. New apps make iPhone a business accessory
Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) is putting its efforts into improving the mobility of enterprise; adding iPhone and iPod Touch with 2.0 firmware functionality with Notify Link Enterprise Edition to Novell Groupwise. Employees will now be able to access their Novell Groupwise email, contact book and calendar from any location.
Messaging
A press release was put up to brag about Microsoft joining an existing working group, for a change (rather than ignore it or form its own). Novell is there also.
Members of the AMQP Working Group are Cisco, Credit Suisse, DeutscheBoerse Systems, Envoy Technologies Inc., The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., iMatixCorporation, IONA Technologies, J.P. Morgan, Novell, Rabbit Technologies Ltd.,Red Hat Inc., TWIST Process Innovations Ltd., WSO2 and 29West Inc.
The Australian press already has some coverage of this. [thanks to a reader, ZiggyFish, for the pointer]
Microsoft has signed on to an effort to establish an open standard for messaging.
The company said that it would work with the likes of Cisco, Red Hat and Novell on the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) working group. The project looks to establish an open industry standard for future enterprise messaging platforms.
Identity Management
Zivios is taking on one of Novell’s key products and part of an important area. There is some coverage of this in CNET and in ZDNet.
Novell has dabbled in open sourcing some elements of identity management in the past, but has mainly sought to hold onto its identity management revenue stream. If Zivios has its way, that’s about to change. Even so, it has a long way to go. Novell isn’t losing sleep about Zivios…yet.
Zivios dubbs itself as an enterprise management company but is not taking on the likes of Zenoss and Hyperic — at least for now. Network monitoring and workflow features are planned but they are not in the first release.
Zivios, unlike Novell, claims to be open source.
eWeek introduces Sun and Oracle in a similar context.
Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Novell all have something to say about identity and access management. Each vendor is releasing a new security product to answer needs in the market. While Oracle focuses on thwarting online and insider fraud, Sun and Novell take different security approaches rooted in compliance.
IDG covered this too.
Novell, Sun and Oracle Monday have announced updates to their identity-management platforms that focus on monitoring access controls and strengthening authentication.
This article was spread to some other IDG Web sites such as InfoWorld and ITWorld.
Governance
There was only one major announcement from Novell and this was it. The press release summary states:
[New Access Governance Suite] Expands Novell solutions for compliance management by delivering industry’s first comprehensive product suite that aligns IT and business to achieve compliance
This was covered in many places and articles include:
1. Novell unveils New Access Governance Suite – Quick Facts
Novell Inc. (NOVL: News ) unveiled set of IT software products designed to manage and enforce policies governing the way users access corporate data. The company specified that NovellAccess Governance Suite delivers visibility, simplicity and accuracy to complex process of defining and managing user access.
2. Novell tightens enterprise data access
Novell has launched a set of tools designed to help firms manage the way users access corporate data in a more simple and efficient way.
The Novell Access Governance Suite will help security professionals manage user access from policy creation to enforcement using Novell Roles Lifecycle Manager and Novell Compliance Certification Manager, according to the firm.
This article appears also here and here.
This one goes a little further: Novell, Aveksa unveil Novell Access Governance Suite; Quest details NetPro roadmap
There have been quite a few product announcements recently which I haven’t gotten to as yet but I wouldn’t want you to think they aren’t important, or at least useful. So today I’ll give a quick rundown of them with pointers to where you can find out more. The announcements involve Novell Access Governance Suite, Sun’s Identity Compliance Manager, Courion’s PasswordCourier Jump Start, and a roadmap for NetPro.
Security
Novell’s Sentinel is mentioned in this press release about an upcoming event.
He noted a good example of this recent maturity is indicative in the Novell Sentinel SIEM solution, acquired from e-Security in 2005. With Novell’s enhanced development and support services the product has evolved significantly since the acquisition.
There were not hardly any reported vulnerabilities, but here is the exception.
To avoid flooding mailing lists with SUSE Security Announcements for minor
issues, SUSE Security releases weekly summary reports for the low profile
vulnerability fixes. The SUSE Security Summary Reports do not list or
download URLs like the SUSE Security Announcements that are released for
more severe vulnerabilities.
People
According to this uninteresting press release, a Novell vice president will judge alongside others from Microsoft Google, American Express, and H-P.
In the first such competition of its kind, MBA students from business schools across the nation and globe will gather at the MIT Sloan School of Management tomorrow month where they will compete for cash prizes, recognition and on-the-spot recruiting opportunities.
[...]
MBAs from Across Nation and UK to Compete for Money Prizes and Recognition at First Ever International MBA Sales Competition Saturday
Speaking of awards, Ray Noorda’s wife became “Citizen of the Year.”
Throughout her life, Noorda’s travels have taken her from a small-town upbringing to New York City, California and several places in between. When Tye decided to settle down, she married a man named Ray Noorda, who eventually became president of Novell.
[...]
The two had five children, lived in seven areas of the United States, and eventually came back to Utah when Ray took on the job to run Novell. At that time, Novell had only17 employees, but by the time he retired, that number had grown to 12,000.
Partners
A variety of companies have connections with Novell, so we must study which ones. Here is an
example in Callidus.
CTC concluded with the fifth meeting of the Customer Advisory Board (CAB), representing nine Callidus customers, including Embarq and Novell, as well as Callidus executives and decision-makers. The CAB members gathered to discuss and give feedback on products and services so Callidus Software can continue to enhance its offerings based on concrete customer feedback.
Moonwalk, one of Novell’s partner, delivered this press release.
Moonwalk Inc., the Australian developer of all-inclusive data management and protection software, today announced that an increasing number of leading technology vendors have discovered the power and ease in delivering end to end storage solutions to customers by coupling the Moonwalk software with their own product offerings, effectively creating complete file archive and backup systems that serve as an alternative to costly Tier 1 storage solutions.
[...]
Moonwalk operates across and between all major file systems, including Windows, NFS, Linux and Novell environments, and all primary and secondary storage environments
Novell’s Netware gets support from Captaris FaxPress.
Captaris FaxPress server supports users in various networking environments including Microsoft Windows, Novell Netware, and any Linux or Apple environment with a web browser.
Videos
A new video has arrived at YouTube from a user with just one video. It happens to be a Novell commercial… or case study (same thing in essence).
Ross is back to posting Novell ads in YouTube. It has been a while. █
Zac said,
October 25, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Novell is a US public company being partly ‘funded’ by another US public company, Microsoft, which has, to all practical purposes, a monopoly on the PC market.
Roy Schestowitz said,
October 25, 2008 at 8:55 pm
That ‘another’ US public company wants a Linux monopoly too — one it can technically tame (e.g. formats, API) and tax based on its own tolls (patent tariff).