Summary: BrainShare 2010 hype, some news about GroupWise, Novell Teaming 2, and little more of the rest

SO, the biggest item this week comes from John Dragoon, who exclaims that "BrainShare Returns!"

Last December we took the difficult but correct decision to cancel Novell’s premier user and technical training conference – BrainShare. While most of our customers, partners and employees understood and supported the decision, there was a clear demand and passion for the event to return in 2010.

BrainShare 2009 was cancelled after Novell had planned it and began accepting registrations, only later to cancel it due to poor demand/expected attendance. Will it be any different this year? And if so, why? Novell's revenue only declined further since last year. Novell's industry clout is fading and impact rapidly declining.

In spirit of his personal relationship with John Dragoon, the Var Guy gives it some more coverage and Lisa Hoover then repeats him.

It is possible that BrainShare 2010 too will be cancelled if not radically downsized. It is too early to tell, but Dragoon must show enthusiasm to instill confidence and then market it to people. He is, after all, in marketing.

SCO

Almost nothing has happened in the past week, but as Groklaw puts it, "SCO [is] Ordered to Reply to Novell's Petition for Rehearing."

So Novell's chances were never statistically determined. It is on the merits that such matters are decided, and at a minimum, it's now clear that the appeals court believes Novell's points require SCO to answer.

Finance

Apart from some noise, there is some little signal out there as well. Novell gets listed as a Check Point rival.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. has an average analyst recommendation score of 2.0 and competes for investment dollars with Novell Inc. (NOVL) [Chart - News - Analysis] and McAfee, Inc. (MFE) [Chart - News - Analysis]---two other stocks in the Security Software & Services industry that have average analyst recommendation scores of 2.3 and 1.9 respectively.

Virtualisation

Dell's role in selling PlateSpin is again being mentioned, this week in:

i. Novell: PlateSpin Virtualization and Workload Management Solutions from Novell Selected by Dell to Manage Customer Workloads and Data Centers

Novell today announced Dell ProConsult Services are managing workloads in customer*s data centers with PlateSpin Virtualization and Workload Management solutions. Dell ProConsult Services help companies quickly and cost-effectively adopt and utilize virtualization technologies to optimize data center operations.

ii. Dell ProConsult using Novell PlateSpin Virtualisation and Workload management solutions

Novell (Nasdaq:NOVL) yesterday announced that Dell ProConsult Services are using Novell's PlateSpin Virtualisation and Workload Management solutions to manage customers' data centres.

iii. PlateSpin Virtualization and Workload Management Solutions from Novell Selected by Dell to Manage Customer Workloads and Data Centers

Novell today announced Dell ProConsult Services are managing workloads in customer’s data centers with PlateSpin Virtualization and Workload Management solutions. Dell ProConsult Services help companies quickly and cost-effectively adopt and utilize virtualization technologies to optimize data center operations.

This is not exactly news.

Mail and Collaboration

While Dayton University goes with Sentinel, Los Angeles is about to go ahead and dump GroupWise, as planned.

In wake of the US $7.25 million plan by the City of Los Angeles to replace scrap its current Novell and Microsoft-based productivity tools in exchange for Google Apps, a new survey lists security as the biggest concern for other government bodies to make a similar switch to the cloud.

A product that's integrated into GroupWise gets mentioned by SKyPRO

SKyPRO USA has teamed with Gracon Services Inc, a leading technology solutions provider based in Michigan, servicing the Midwest to support the demand for the SKyPRO FaxGwise and SKyCOM 4GW, the FAX SW and VoIP softphone client, integrated into Novell GroupWise.

SKyPRO was previously mentioned in [1, 2]. GroupWise support is also mentioned in relation to BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

It will offer BlackBerry Enterprise Server to corporate customers that manage their own email servers. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server software integrates with popular email clients like IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise and provides advanced security and IT policy controls to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.

The press release about Novell Teaming 2 (also here and here) got covered in a couple of articles, namely:

i. Novell Raises Curtain on Novel Teaming 2

Novell has announced the availability of Novell Teaming 2, the capstone to the company's suite of collaboration software aimed at increasing productivity. Utilizing the Novell Teaming search engine and Web 2.0-based communication tools, such as wikis and blogs, Novell Teaming allows users to tap into an organization's expertise and knowledge resources in real time. Users can co-author documents, build workflows to streamline group input, and organize their individual work and team activity in a personal workspace that provides a consolidated dashboard to track and manage all projects and enables them to quickly launch into any of those spaces with a single click.

ii. Novell launches Novell Teaming 2 collaboration platform

Novell announced a new release of their Teaming collaboration platform this week called Teaming 2. The latest version focuses on customization, information access and workflow.

People

Ross Chevalier from Novell is to speak at an event organised by SCO ally and serial abuser/spammer Sys-Con (now suffering a ban). Also from his home country of Canada comes this reference to a different Novell employee:

This 31-year-old software engineer has been working with and coaching remote teams at companies like JP Morgan, 3M, Nortel and Hewlett-Packard since 2001. He's currently a consulting engineer working for Novell (remotely from Cambridge, Mass.) and looking for a publisher for his book, The One Minute Commute. (Learn more at www.zackgrossbart.com.)

Symphony appoints as its Marketing Vice President an ex-Noveller, but it goes a long way back:

Hitchcock brings over 20 years of experience in marketing, sales, and business development for software and technology services companies to Symphony Services. Prior to this, he held marketing leadership roles at GlobalLogic and ClearCube Technology. Hitchcock has also held senior roles at Novell and General Electric.

Novell UK's new channel player, Avnet, elevates a person internally.

Gratton’s role will encompass fixed and mobile telephony, video conferencing, email, IM and voice messaging. Barat will now oversee Avnet’s partnerships with the likes of Oracle, Novell, Plate Spin, Virtual Iron and Lanamark across the continent.

Novell and "Plate Spin" are now the same.

Partners

Eloqua is shown to be connected to Novell, but there is almost nothing else to see here. An article from the local press at Utah uses WordPerfect as a reference in some banal comparison. It's nothing substantial, but then again, nothing truly substantial has happened over the past week.

Adobe Systems Inc.'s planned $1.8 billion acquisition of Utah's home-grown Omniture Inc. would be the largest high-tech deal in the state's history, eclipsing the $1.4 billion acquisition of WordPerfect by Novell Inc. in 1994.

Yet just as important as the money is what such a deal, if completed, says about the state of Utah's high-tech industry and what could happen afterward.

If Novell fails to deliver exciting new products, what might it have to show at BrainShare 2010? ⬆