Summary: An accumulation of very little news that was significant to Novell; Brainshare Europe to take place in Amsterdam

NOVELL news is very different this week. There is almost nothing on the technical side and no announcements either.

SCO

As the SCO trial carries on (yes, it's not totally over yet), Novell adds four more lawyers. Groklaw has more information:

The Supreme Court's docket shows that Novell requested an extension of time to file its petition for a writ of certiorari in the SCO v. Novell case, and Judge Sonia Sotomayor has just granted that request. They now have until February 18th to file their petition. As you recall, the earlier deadline was this month. At this level, the case is titled "Novell, Inc., Applicant v. The SCO Group, Inc."

Finance

Some more analyses of Novell (NOVL as a stock) continue to come [1, 2, 3] and here is another case of detailed reporting (technical, not financial):

*The report covers the following IT systems management vendors: BMC, CA, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Novell and Symantec.

Virtualisation

Memories of Netware come back not because of the new Novell Client but because the Burton-esque comparison rears its ugly head again. Comparisons between VMware and Netware [1, 2] were last mentioned and shown one week ago and here is another example:

VMware is not Novell "What makes VMware different than, say, Novell, is that Novell kept competing in Microsoft's space rather than innovating. It kept fighting in the same boundaries and markets, on Microsoft's terms," said Scott Lowe, a virtualization expert formerly at a large VMware partner. [Editor's note: As a matter of full disclosure: He recently took a position at VMware parent company EMC Corp.]

A little more about PlateSpin, which has gone nowhere since Novell acquired it:

VMware had a product in the space (and still does) and there was also some popular products provided by 3rd parties like Platespin (who had a nice exit to Novell for ~$200MM).

Security

SJVN mentioned SLES as a candidate for a weakness that wasn't. java-1_5_0-ibm has just proven to be a bit of a pain (also here) and ZENWorks, a proprietary software product from Novell, suffers from an SQL injection vulnerability. In the coming month, eDirectory will be at the firing line because of Intevydis. See the following coverage:

● Frustrated bug hunters to expose a flaw a day for a month

Intevydis intends to publish advisories on zero-day vulnerabilities in products such as Zeus Web Server, MySQL, Lotus Domino and Informix and Novell eDirectory between 11 January and 1 February, security blogger Brian Krebs reports.

● Security Firm Plans Release of Many Bugs and Exploits

● Russian security firm rails against responsible disclosure

Security expert Brian Krebs revealed that Intevydis will post advisories on products from big name vendors such as IBM, Novell and Sun Microsystems, in protest at a 'responsible disclosure' policy which it regards as a waste of time.

● Russian IT security veteran plans to publish undisclosed security flaws live on a zero-day basis

● Software testing firm says no to responsible disclosure

From a new article in Processor.com:

Utilizing change and configuration management tools can boost the ability to back up data automatically, notes Grant Ho, senior solutions marketing manager for endpoint management at Novell (www.novell.com).

People

Novell's former CEO Eric Schmidt was mentioned here and so was Ray Noorda:

This mystery speaker has had the honor to be consulted by such leaders as Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; Robert Allen, NY Times best-selling author; Bob Frankerberg (in the past: Chairman at Kinzan, Chairman, CEO at Encanto Networks, Chairman/CEO at Novell, Vice President at Hewlett-Packard, Vice President at HP ); Ray Noorda (former CEO of Novell).

Greg Butterfield, formerly a Novell executive, is joining the board of ContentWatch. From the press release:

He has also held executive positions at Legato, Novell and WordPerfect Corporation. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, finance from Brigham Young University.

Lisbeth Carter, also from Novell, is "Honored for Accomplishments in Consulting & Executive Recruitment":

Prior to entering the search industry, Ms. Carter occupied executive-level marketing and business management positions in such technology and finance companies as Novell, State Street Corporation, Sitara Networks and CheckFree Corporation.

More Novell connections to be noticed: (this one is minor but new)

Sydney-based integrator, Accucom, has snapped up several ex-Synergy employees to build out its managed services capabilities.

[...]

It also owns an ISP business and partners with HP, Cisco, Microsoft and Novell.

The movement of Jim Tanner was mentioned here last week, but here it is again at TMCNet (which mostly modifies press releases and posts them under a week later):

Jim Tanner Joins Hosted Call Center Solutions Provider inContact as SVP of Product and Strategy

According to a press release, Tanner has a wealth of IT and telecommunications experience in both domestic and international markets, having previously worked in product and market strategy forUnisys ( News - Alert), Novell, Realm Business Solutions, and others.

It's not really news by now. Here is another site (PR-Canada and PR-USA) which always does something similar (a press release from weeks ago simply repeated):

The awards recognize Utah companies and leaders for innovation, business growth and contributions to the entrepreneurial community. Award recipients were honored at ceremonies held today at the Provo Novell Campus.

Novell's Ken Muir gets to speak to this one Web site, but it's not particularly fascinating. He talks about Pulse [1, 2], which is proprietary for all it seems so far.

Ken Muir is the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer of Novell’s WorkGroup Business Unit. He is responsibile for the overall technical vision and strategy for Novell's collaboration products. We asked Muir about his group's work with Novell Pulse and how it integrates with Google Wave.

Connections/Partners

Novell's connections with other companies can be seen in the following very recent articles:

● Gideon's children

These are Zelig-ian perspectives. I’ve sat down face to face with the heads of Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Novell - sometimes cordially, sometimes in negotiation. I’ve been in arms length contact with just about everyone who’s who in the tech industry.

● Trustmarque celebrates revenue spike

The York-based reseller set up a professional services division in September to drive the transformation, which Haddow said was necessary to satisfy the big software vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle and Novell.

[...]

Haddow said Trustmarque is also throwing more weight behind six "elite" vendor partners: Microsoft, Novell, Adobe, VMware, McAfee and Symantec.

● Linoma Software Releases GoAnywhere Director Version 3.0 (Managed File Transfers)

GoAnywhere Director installs on a variety of platforms, including IBM System i, IBM System p (AIX), IBM System z (Mainframe), Windows, Novell SUSE, Linux, UNIX, HP-UX, Mac OS and Solaris platforms. Pricing starts at $3,995.

● Express Data on a hiring spree

Express Data is looking to recruit seven staff across its business development and account manager teams.

The jobs on offer include three business development manager positions for its Novell, Cisco SMB and Cisco practices, along with a Symantec partner enablement specialist and two account manager roles. It is also on the hunt for an account co-ordinator.

● Latest Release of Messaging Architects’ M+Archive Helps Organizations Rein in Electronic Discovery Costs and Simplify Email Audi (eDiscovery)

Messaging Architects, the global experts in email risk management, today announced the release of M+Archive 2009.2, its policy-based enterprise-class email retention and eDiscovery solution. This major release extends M+Archive’s search capabilities with a robust new web-based tool for eDiscovery designed for maximum efficiency, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness and minimum risk during an electronic discovery process. Additionally, the new version of M+Archive simplifies email management operations with improved reporting and offers an enhanced migration toolkit to facilitate migration between email platforms.

Novell's relationships with other companies were also mentioned in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].

Marketing

Jo De Baer writes about BrainShare going through Amsterdam. According to more formal coverage:

Novell Brainshare is set to return to Europe. The event, which last ran five years ago, is taking place in Amsterdam from 18-21 May 2010.

[...]

Javier Colado, president EMEA, Novell, said: "The return of Novell BrainShare EMEA in 2010 is a reflection of our focus on helping customers, prospects and partners. As we embark on our strategy of intelligent workload management, it was important we provided a forum for customers, partners and prospects to come together to listen, see and discuss how it could be applied to their organisations."

Groupwise gets promoted in the following new video that someone has put in YouTube.



Here is another new video which is probably not related to this company.



Another new one:



Here is some Novell-sponsored waffle (video ad) from 'analysts' at IDC. Novell's payments to IDC are still serving them well. From a new press release about Red Hat:

According to a survey sponsored by Novell, IDC states that more than half of their respondents are planning to increase adoption of Linux on the server.

This video titled "Cloud Computing: Beyond the Hype" was uploaded by Novell some days ago and it spreads Novell's marketing messages, right from the mouths of the company's management (including Ron Hovsepian). Novell is still unable to make a business case, so customers walk away. ⬆