05.24.09
Novell News Summary – Part III: SCO, Finance, Older Technology and a Little More
Summary: Pretty boring week for Novell, but for those looking for events, here is an overview
SCO
LIKE MANY recent weeks, the past week has been exceptionally quiet, but we managed to find minor news involving Novell. Groklaw was apparently the only site that has kept track of the SCO case over the past week. There are two short articles about it:
i. Request for transcript of oral argument in SCO v Novell appeal denied
Wayne Gray filed a motion requesting either a transcript or an audio recording of the oral argument from last week in the appeal of SCO v. Novell.
ii. Hearing set for June 15 on US Trustee’s Motion to Convert SCO to Ch. 7 (or Dismiss)
The hearing on the U.S. Trustee’s motion to convert SCO’s bankruptcy from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, or to dismiss, has been set for June 15, 2009 at 02:00 PM at US Bankruptcy Court, 824 Market St., 6th Fl., Courtroom #3, Wilmington, Delaware.
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There are some other filings too, with a few mistakes being corrected in the record. I expect further entries, reflecting that both IBM and Novell have also filed motions to convert or dismiss. So, likely their motions will be added to the list of matters to be heard that day.
A little more here:
It looks like the end of SCO is finally upon us. Years ago I wrote that SCO had a limited lifetime because they kept pushing their brand of UNIX at the expense of Linux, even to the point of legal action. Then came Chapter 11 and now after a long time fighting they have gone into Chapter 7. The Bankruptcy Court has finally declared that SCO have not rehabilitated nor could they sell off their assets. Losing to Novell did not help either. SCO will continue to fight, they have no other choice, but it looks bleak for the former UNIX giant.
Finance
Novell’s financial results are near and they will not be nice. Here is a new report from a company which is trying to sell it.
This Novell Inc – SWOT Analysis company profile is the essential source for top-level company data and information. The report examines the companys key business structure and operations, history and products, and provides summary analysis of its key revenue lines and strategy.
The story of one investor is being told:
New Purchase: Novell Inc. (NOVL)
Arnold Van Den Berg initiated holdings in Novell Inc.. His purchase prices were between $3.16 and $4.4, with an estimated average price of $3.7. The impact to his portfolio due to this purchase was less than 0.01%. His holdings were 14,600 shares as of 03/31/2009.
Novell Inc. delivers infrastructure software for the Open Enterprise. Novell is a leader in enterprise-wide operating systems based on Linux and open source and provides the enterprise management services required to operate mixed IT environments. Novell helps customers minimize cost complexity and risk allowing them to focus on innovation and growth. Novell Inc. has a market cap of $1.36 billion; its shares were traded at around $3.95 with a P/E ratio of 18.8 and P/S ratio of 1.4.
Netware
There is nothing significant here, just a few stories about Novell’s ever-weakening business such as Netware:
i. Washington County Public Schools Delivers High Performance Wi-Fi
“Besides providing ample bandwidth and user capacity, we have a unique Novell implementation that no Wi-Fi vendor could get working wirelessly – we tested quite a few Wi-Fi access points, but the only one that worked seamlessly with Novell was Xirrus. Because each Array is able to do authentication, this allows a Novell user to login directly from the client, which means end users do not know they are on a wireless network as it acts just like a wired network.”
ii. California District Moves to 802.11n WiFi
“Our school district has 2,500 employees servicing over 20,000 K-12 students across 46 campuses–selecting the right WiFi solution was critical to our future online learning, not to mention the ability to better utilize our existing facilities and resources,” said Dave Mundey, manager of technology and telecommunication services at Washington County Public Schools, in a statement released this week. “Besides providing ample bandwidth and user capacity, we have a unique Novell implementation that no WiFi vendor could get working wirelessly–we tested quite a few WiFi access points, but the only one that worked seamlessly with Novell was Xirrus. Because each Array is able to do authentication, this allows a Novell user to login directly from the client, which means end users do not know they are on a wireless network as it acts just like a wired network.”
So far, so good. Hartung’s analysis is acute. He gets better, recommending that since lock-ins make companies predictable, you should exploit those of your competitors. It’s great advice, and a perfect account of, for example, how Microsoft rolled right over Novell with its introduction of Windows NT Server.
Virtualisation
CIOL has a real article for a change and major parts of it promote Novell virtualisation (although not exclusively).
John Stetic, director, product management, systems and resource management, Novell, and Sandeep Menon, country head, Novell, talk to Deepa Damodaran of CIOL, on Novell’s virtualization plans with Platespin.
A speculation regarding Oracle’s acquisition of Virtual Iron is being contradicted by InfoWorld’s virtualisation expert:
Mann said that every justification that he has seen or heard is just not reasonable. As examples, he stated the following:
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It will prevent Novell from buying Virtual Iron’s technology. Again, this is simply wrong. Novell is already beating Virtual Iron (and Oracle VM, for that matter) in all markets with PlateSpin, ZENworks, and Suse Xen, not to mention its partnership with Microsoft and Hyper-V. Again, there is no incentive at all for Novell to buy Virtual Iron.
In this new article, see a correction in the comments:
“…Sun Microsystems was recently acquired by Novell…”
Oracle rather than Novell…
What an embarrassing mistake to slip past the editor’s attention.
Collaboration and Mail
Novell Teaming is said to have this deployment in Ohio.
In Dublin, Ohio, the city operates a Novell Teaming portal where government officials can run blogs, chat over instant messaging and share documents. In the next few months, the city plans to make the private network available to all citizens. In a future city scenario, a social network like this could allow residents to submit ideas for city improvements, chat with politicians and blog about their neighborhood over a secure and city-centric portal that caters to their local needs.
There was very little that could be found about Groupwise this week, but here it is listed in a couple of new pages (among a list of supported products):
i. IM tools for the chattering class
Formerly Gaim, now Pidgin, this multiprotocol client offers a bit more out of the box than Miranda does–but it’s still light on its feet and offers useful features like chat history and emoticons without tinkering. It, too, has a portable version. Out of the box, it supports Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Lotus Sametime, MySpaceIM, MSN, Novell GroupWise, AIM, ICQ, QQ, SIMPLE, SILC, XMPP clients like Jabber and Google, Yahoo, and Zephyr. Some of these, like Yahoo, are limited to the basics of chatting and file-transferring.
ii. Can Apple Woo the IT Department?
Blackberry maker RIM has enterprise-focused software that can help the devices tie in with corporate networks and that works with Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise. This is an absolute bottom-line requirement. If a device cannot get executives into their email, it simply cannot get broad IT support. Furthermore, a device will need to provide access to necessary corporate applications.
There is also this promotional GroupWise video that someone put on YouTube a few days ago.
Will Groupwise reach Ubuntu? Some people think so.
I stumbled onto this blog post earlier today — from dkpw’s Wikedfire — explaining how you can potentially install Novell’s GroupWise on Ubuntu. Novell doesn’t support GroupWise on Ubuntu. So, do dkpw’s step-by-step directions work? I must concede: I haven’t tried the install. But the mere mention of Novell GroupWise and Canonical’s Ubuntu in the same sentence raises some interesting considerations.
Identity and Management
On the identity side, Novell is mentioned again as a supporter of OpenID, but it is part of a sparse list.
Facebook joins AOL, Google, Microsoft, MySpace, Novell, Sun, Telecom and Yahoo as a company on board with OpenID. The foundation estimates that there are more than 1 billion OpenID-enabled user accounts with more than 40,000 Web sites supporting OpenID logins.
Novell keeps getting mentioned in articles such as this about Microsoft’s ambitions in the same space
Sun OpenSSO is not the exclusive focus of the software giant however, as an interoperability bridge is also built between Geneva and Novell Access Manager 3.1.
“Interoperability testing of code name “Geneva” and Novel Access Manager is well underway. Microsoft and Novell have verified that Novell Access Manager can be used as an Identity Provider (IdP) with a code name “Geneva” Server Service Provider (SP) over WS-Federation or SAML 2.0 protocols. It has also been confirmed that a code name “Geneva” Server IdP can be used with a Novell Access Manager SP over WS-Federation or SAML 2.0 protocols,” Microsoft informed.
Security
Novell’s Sentinel was mentioned in IDG in relation to cyberwar. We too are under regular DDoS attacks these days.
Distributed intrusion-prevention and firewall sensors send real-time data to be analyzed by what the Navy calls its Prometheus system, which includes the Novell Sentinel security event management system and SAS data management tools.
Regarding loss of national archives, a Novell vice president had this to say:
“There are several ways this incident could be avoided and the case of the missing hard drive would be irrelevant,” Nick Nikols, vice president of security at Novell told SCMagazieUS.com in an email Wednesday. “Obviously, you could put it in a drawer, lock it in a cabinet, or hire honest people that don’t have shifty eyes, etc. However, the key to this incident is mainly negligence and a false sense of security, a scenario many companies and government organizations experience.”
People
Novell’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, was mentioned in the following article.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a businessman who has earned both honor and money with the dawn of the digital era. He has a Ph.D. in computer engineering and has worked as chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems and CEO at Linux-maker Novell. Schmidt took over Google in 2001. He is also politically powerful enough to advise U.S. President Barack Obama.
Christopher Stone, a former vice chairman of Novell, appeared in Reuters to make this remark:
“We’re the only computer company here. We’re the only one left,” says Christopher Stone, president and CEO. Stone is also a refugee from Data General and was vice chairman of Novell Inc., the information technology management software company based in nearby Waltham. Stone weighs the advantages of where he is now and what he’s doing. “It’s a great place to be. All the talent’s here,” he says. Of course, “this was designed to make wool sweaters, not computers. You can still smell the lanolin on a hot day.”
Another former Novell senior makes his move.
MindGenius Appoints New Commercial Director, Dustin Newport
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Other positions held included Sales Director at Novium Plc; EMEA Vice President of Sales for AppsMall LLC and held senior sales roles at Novell, Remedy Corporation and Informix.
Partners
Novell is listed as a notable partner of Cisco.
Partner parade
Cisco hauled out the big guns in support of the launch. In addition to the aforementioned EMC and VMware, BMC Software, Emulex, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, Novell, Oracle, QLogic and Red Hat all pledged support for the UCS.
Novell is also included in the following short list.
Noel Vallejo: We develop computer based training, which helps individuals to be certified in the IT space, like Microsoft’s MCSE, Cisco, Novell, and CompTIA.
Video
Some new videos showed up throughout the week, some of which were mostly about SUSE and another about SEP.
There is also an interview with Novell’s Marina Walser, but that’s about all for now. █
