Novell News Summary - Part II: Heaps of Novell News

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2009-02-02 21:31:12 UTC
Modified: 2009-02-02 21:31:57 UTC

Provo
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ALTHOUGH there were no particularly interesting or important items in the news, quite a few articles mentioned a Novell role, so here is a quick summary of occurrences.

A few days ago, The Var Guy compared Sun's situation to Novell's, arguing that there are parallels as follows:

Consider the parallels between the companies:

* Novell: The company had dominant position in server operating systems (NetWare) before customers went running to Linux or Windows on Intel. Jump to the present, and Novell has gained new life from fast-growing sales of its own open source platform (SUSE Linux). But a problem remains: More than 80 percent of Novell’s revenue has nothing to do with SUSE Linux.

* Sun Microsystems: Sun had a dominate position in server platforms (Solaris on SPARC) until customers went running to Linux or Windows on Intel. Jump to the present, and Sun is seeking new life from fast-growing sales of an open source platform (MySQL). But a huge problem remains: Sun’s legacy, proprietary, expensive technology that customers are abandoning. (Yes, The VAR Guy knows about OpenSolaris… but he isn’t sold on

There is a similar discussion about the situation Sun and Novell are in, mostly from a financial perspective.

As for open-source companies, Red Hat holds roughly $677 million in cash, and another $450 million in short-term investments and receivables, which compares favorably to its proprietary peers, when considering the small size of its employee base and funding requirements. Novell is much the same, while Sun Microsystems has more cash on hand but also bigger outlays it must service.

The Paragon acquisition that we wrote about over a week ago is still in the news.

Oconomowoc-based Paragon Development Systems Inc. announced that it has acquired Sheboygan-based Provident Technologies Inc. Terms were not disclosed.

SCO

Groklaw keeps low profile these days and in a members-only post some of the latest filings are dissected and discussed. The Linux-hostile Maureen O'Gara [1, 2] writes about her beloved SCO doubling the prices for quicker death and she's also spreading some massive disinformation about the SCO-Novell case where ownership of UNIX is being discussed.

Older Technology

Novell was mentioned very much along the way for its products right here.

Credant encrypts files individually using keys unique to the user and his or her device. Authentication to a CMG-protected device is policy-based, and the policy can be linked back to your organization's central LDAP directory (Active Directory, Novell, or Open LDAP).

Its old networking technology was also mentioned briefly in this piece about Doom.

Although Id expects less than 10 percent of players of Doom to make use of the ability, up to four players can join the same game over a Novell IPX network. Id designers felt it was important to start working on multiplayer games now, so they would have the experience when it was more crucial to their development.

Collaboration

Here is a Messaging Architects press release about Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition.

Responding to the challenging economic times and the understanding that a top concern in 2009 is to do more with less, Messaging Architects today announced the Risk Free Messaging upgrade for Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition. The upgrade will be provided to Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition users at no cost.

As usual, articles about the Blackberry paid attention to Novell's GroupWise compatibility.

The Internet portion of the phones is different. The BlackBerry Storm includes additional mobile applications such as Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise. Each phone runs on a different mobile operating system.

Novell was also mentioned in Silicon.com where migrations away from it were pondered. It's a GroupWise versus Microsoft Exchange debate (Lotus is not mentioned and other options are conspicuously missing).

The V&A is a Novell house - an allegiance that's not likely to be dissolved any time soon.

"[The question of moving away from Novell] does bubble up from time to time -clearly other organisations are moving away from it. What we like about it is, it's rock solid - it does the job, it doesn't need masses of other products to deal with all the problems it brings for you. If you search on Exchange, there are many, many companies offering products to solve problems and you don't see the same with GroupWise. It just does the job for us."

Then there was this press release about SKyPRO and GroupWise.

SKyPRO™ AG announces the SKyCOM™ Unified Communications application that integrates with Novell GroupWise to provide Voice over IP services for voice and messaging communications. SKyCOM delivers improved user productivity and convenience, while lowering communications costs for companies.

This was also covered in:

A new page has appeared to cover/promote a Windows-only program called PortaMail, which works with GroupWise too.

PortaMail 2005 is the complete solution for syncing your Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0 (PDA, MDA, SmartPhone) devices with Novell Groupwise 7.x. Data is synchronized in both directions, PortaMail synchronizes the Email, Calendar + Reminder Notes, Contacts and Tasks.

GroupWise was later compared to Google's offerings again (also here).

Google Unveils Improved Beta Of Offline Gmail Option

[...]

Such offline features for e-mail clients have been available for years from major corporate messaging vendors such as IBM/Lotus, Microsoft and Novell. Offline capabilities are a must-have feature if Google hopes to make significant inroads with corporate customers on the back of its Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE), which includes Gmail.

Identity/Access/Storage Management

The main news here was about Storage Manager 2.5, which had been extensively covered in many places. Among them:

1. Novell Announces Storage Manager 2.5

New version of Novell’s identity-driven solution for storage cuts costs, saves time and helps ensure regulatory compliance

2. Novell Announces Storage Manager 2.5

3. Novell Announces Storage Manager 2.5

Novell today announced a new version of its storage solution. Novell Storage Manager 2.5 automates a comprehensive set of storage management tasks based on events, identities and policies that reside in the directory.

Access management was covered as well, namely in:

1. Novell adds WS-Federation to Access Manager

Novell has released version 3.1 of its Access Manager with support for the WS-Federation specification, providing single sign-on to Web applications for users outside a specific server’s identity store. With this release, Novell has focused on interoperability with Microsoft’s infrastructure, particularly SharePoint.

2. Network Storage Product Roundup

Network Access Control

Ensuring security in heterogeneous network environments, ZENworks Network Access Control uses policies to grant or deny access to the network based on tests that determine if a device meets defined security criteria from patches to host-based firewalls. The solution performs preconnect testing for Windows and Macintosh devices; post -- connect revalidation repeated on defined time intervals; identity -- based management; and quarantine and remediation when non-compliant devices attempt to access the network.-Novell

The following corporate Novell blog brought attention to some of these efforts last week.

In our Identity and Security Solution Focus Area, we bring to market four pillars if you will. Identity Management, Access Management, Access Governance and Compliance Management. Which ones do you think will see strong growth and implementation this year?

Security

Symantec's role were mentioned last week and two weeks ago [1, 2]. The Novell-sympathetic press is still writing about it (belated mention).

In addition, Symantec Endpoint Encryption 7.0 offers full management capabilities for non-domain clients and includes Novell eDirectory client support where, when logging on with their password during the pre-boot authentication phase, users are able to automatically login to the Novell eDirectory and have a single sign-on experience similar to Windows users, said Langston.

The Financial Times has just covered this as well.

Symantec has announced Endpoint Encryption 7.0, which is designed to prevent unauthorised access to desktops, laptops and removable storage devices.

Apart from a couple of security flaws in SUSE (JRE and OpenSSL), there's continued discussion about the infamous DeepFreeze hack over at YouTube.

Earlier in the past week we wrote about a GroupWise flaw that is quite severe. Here are the details and another article about it.

Two cross-site vulnerabilities exist in Novell's GroupWise WebAccess webmail application, a London-based penetration-testing company has claimed.

People

Ben Hendrick was once made employee of the year in relation to Novell and he's sharing his memories with this video that he has just uploaded.

Novell's Matthew Lee is mentioned in this article about Novell in South Africa. It does not cover one particular area of business.

Following its business unit restructure last year, Novell has undergone further changes in a bid to link the technology it produces to the end-users it targets.

Matthew Lee, data centre channel manager at Novell SA, says that traditionally Novell has not been good at linking its technology offerings to the CIO agenda. This last structural change aims to remedy that.

[...]

Novell has also launched an incentive scheme aimed at increasing partner profitability and driving new business its way. “We have created a deal registration system,” says Lee. “Partners registering new deals with existing customers will get a 10% incentive on the value of the deal from Novell. Partners registering deals with new customers will see even greater profitability increase on the deals concerned.”

Eric Schmidt's history at Novell is covered here.

Eric Schmidt, Google Chief executive of Google Eric Emerson Schmidt ranks at no. 5 with a net worth of $6.6 billion. Schmidt joined Google from Novell, where he led the company’s strategic planning, management and technology development as chairman and CEO. Prior to his appointment at Novell, Schmidt was chief technology officer and corporate executive officer at Sun Microsystems Inc, where he led the development of Java, Sun’s platform-independent programming technology, and defined Sun’s Internet software strategy.

Here is another man who used to work at both Microsoft and Novell. He's moving on to a new position now.

Barton brings more than a decade of technology industry experience to the position. Previously, Barton held senior roles at several industry-leading software and Web companies, including Microsoft and Novell.

Here is a minor Novell role in another person's career.

He graduated from ECPI College of Technology in 1980, and has been a Certified Novell Administrator since 1996. He holds certifications in most major computer manufacturers, such as Hewlett Packard, IBM, Toshiba, Okidata, and Compaq.

Partners

Novell is going after more partners, despite turbulence in its channel.

Software vendor Novell is on the hunt for mid-sized resellers to complete its UK partner jigsaw.

Recruiting in all three areas of specialisation € identity and security, Linux, and resource management€ Novell plans to sign 20 partners by October.

Jill Henry, senior director for channels and alliances, vowed to transform the company into a partner-focused vendor when she took up the post in September 2007.

According to today's IDG report from India, Novell might also buy some more companies.

Novell continues to look at acquisitions to fill its product line, Ron Hovsepian, the company's president and CEO, told reporters in Bangalore Monday.

The company will look at acquisitions in the areas of open-source software as well as software for data centers and identity management, Hovsepian said.

The company's cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were US$1.1 billion as of Oct. 31, and Novell plans to deploy some of that capital to acquire companies, Hovsepian said.

There are many articles where Novell is mentioned within a list of companies either for its partnership of product line. Here is one such example.

After an extensive evaluation of offerings from BMC, IBM, CA and Novell, Yphise analysts concluded that BMC Remedy Asset Management -- a key part of the BMC Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) suite -- surpassed the competition's solutions.

Here is another.

Likewise boasts of revenue growth of 500 percent, year-over-year, and new customers that include HP, IBM, Oracle, and Sun. It has ongoing relationships with Apple, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, and Ubuntu, it says.

It's worth stressing that Likewise is located rather close to Microsoft (Bellevue), maybe even stemming it in. Also hard to ignore is this article from the Microsoft press because regarding OpenOffice.org it states, "Versions are now available from Sun, Novell and IBM Corp."

But they are not "versions".

Other Mentions

Novell was merely mentioned along the way in the following articles as well:

There is also this one about Aperi.

In June 2006 Sun abruptly left Aperi and offered its support to the primacy of the SNIA and its SMI-S project. IBM offloaded Aperi onto the Eclipse Foundation and said Aperi would have a formal relationship with the SNIA. Novell also joined the Aperi 'community' then.