Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part III: File Management Suite

Summary: Two weeks of proprietary software news from Novell

ANOTHER IDLE fortnight passes by and Novell is said to be facing more threats from Google's expansion.

To be fair, Wave is still at an unstable, preview stage, but Google has seemed satisfied thus far just hoping the platform will evolve naturally as a tool for enterprises once companies like Novell and Salesforce.com have a chance to game around with it.




Well, Novell is already creating Pulse, which it announced just over two months ago [1, 2]. It will apparently be proprietary, unlike Wave. Novell has almost nothing with which to stop Google from eating Groupwise share. Novell's PR Director was caught spreading unnecessary fear about SaaS (anti-Google) last week and Novell uses some analysts to do so too (along with the CEO).

Aging products like ZENworks withstanding, some things just have their shelf life expire, a bit like Windows (Vista 7 is just more of the same). Some products beg Novell to just let go.

Netware



Moving on (or back in time) to Netware, here is an unusual new deployment:

Upstate New York School District Replaces Unreliable DLT Tape-Based Solution with Disk-to-Disk Backup Appliance for Novell NetWare, GroupWise and Microsoft Windows Environment

[...]

SCS investigated multiple options but was discouraged by the high pricing for some and the lack of protection for their Novell NetWare platform from others. Maintaining Novell security attributes was an important selection criterion for SCS’ data protection solution so when Holmes found Unitrends he was pleased to learn that it would backup NetWare including trustee assignments, access control lists and other advanced options. Unitrends’ BareMetal backup and recovery features was also a significant advantage for SCS, as was Unitrends’ advanced protection for Novell eDiscovery and GroupWise.


"Tech Dinosaurs of Years Past" is the headline of this article which mentions Novell's Netware:

I cut my IT teeth in the ‘90s on Novell NetWare 3.12, the bindery, and IPX. While Novell may have moved more quickly to LDAP than some others with successive versions, it was Microsoft that quickly supplanted NetWare with Active Directory and built-in IP support.


Finance



Nothing too interesting has happened with Novell's shares. Isolated coverage includes:

SmarTrend Detects Continued Buying Pressure in Shares of Novell (NOVL

SmarTrend identified an Uptrend for Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) on January 06, 2010 at $4.53. In approximately 2 weeks, Novell has returned 5.3% as of today's recent price of $4.77.


Options Alert for Novell

Smartrend Detects Continued Buying Pressure In Shares Of Novell (Novl

Novell Inc. (NOVL) Corporate Event Announcement Notice

Owners Research Group Announces Initiation of Investor Consensus Study for Novell, Inc. (NOVL)

Owners Research Group (ORG) today initiated research coverage of Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL). ORG has invited the shareholders of Novell to voice their opinions and priorities on strategic issues impacting the company.


Options Alert for Novell (NYSE:NOVL)

Virtualisation



ZDNet has published the article "Novell: Virtualization not for all servers"

Here are some of the things Novell is saying:

Not all servers can--or should--be virtualized, says Novell cloud computing CTO, Moiz Kohari, who urges cloud service providers to focus on making their heterogenous setups work as one.

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Kohari said virtualization has yet to overcome I/O (input/output) latency issues at the hypervisor level, as compared to provisioned servers. As a result, virtualization is not the choice in cases where service providers and businesses need to ensure as little latency as possible, for example, in a stock exchange environment, he explained.


Novell was also mentioned (but hardly) in this virtualisation survey (ZDNet).

Mail



An announcement that was already mentioned in the last Novell News Summary appears in some more Web sites right now. Among them:

Transend Integrates With IBM to Launch Email Migration Solution

Transend Corp., a provider of email migration and conversion solutions, announced Transend Migrator for IBM Lotus Foundations, a special edition of Transend's email conversion utility.


Transend Delivers E-Mail Migration for Lotus Foundation

Transend Migrator for IBM Lotus Foundations allows users to move their e-mail messages, address books, calendars, tasks, and archives from any e-mail system to Lotus Foundation. Users can move the data mailbox-by-mailbox or migrate mailboxes in bulk from a command line batch processor. The software also includes a GUI, and batch templates for competing products, like Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise.


Someone has uploaded this video which shows how to ditch Groupwise for Microsoft (wrong route).



More Groupwise coverage can be found in a variety of news pages [1, 2, 3] and this press release from GWAVA, which boasts 1 million page views in the knowledgebase last year. Boycott Novell serves a similar number of pages but per month, nor year.

Identity Management



Novell is mentioned in this IDG report about authentication:

This newsletter was still the "Directory Services" newsletter, and the immanent release of Windows Server 2000, with Active Directory, took up much of the discussion, especially issues around migrating from Windows NT. But Novell's directory also made some news with a new release of eDirectory (Version 5.1, called "NDS eDirectory"), which featured the new "NetWare Management Portal", supposedly more secure for remote management of servers. January 2000 also saw the release of Novell Modular Authentication Services (NMAS), the first release of a major authentication product that allowed plug-in modules and featured multiple authentication methods (passwords, biometrics, tokens and so on).


The biggest news this week came after a press release covering a file management "suite" (marketing terms alert!). Ross from Novell wrote about it and the official announcement says:

Novell today announced the release of Novell€® File Management Suite, an integrated file storage solution that provisions, moves, optimizes and reports on file storage based on user roles and customized business policies. For the first time, organizations, regardless of operating system or existing storage management solution, can intelligently manage file storage at its source, tying the file to the user for the entire data lifecycle. Providing organizations with a clearer picture of its data, Novell File Management Suite enables an organization to plan for and deploy an efficient and cost-effective storage infrastructure as well as execute on compliance and governance requirements.


This press release was rewritten by CBR, which adds nothing new (just parroting of the marketing/PR stuff).

Novell has rolled out a new File Management Suite that provisions, moves, optimises and reports on file storage based on user roles and customised business policies.

The company said that the new suite enables organisations to manage file storage at its source, tying the file to the user for the entire data lifecycle. It helps them to plan for and deploy a storage infrastructure and execute on compliance and governance requirements.


Security



Processor.com seeks a lot of comments from Novell staff and this new article is no exception:

The first step to preventing data leaks is to simplify and centralize the control and management of your data end points, says David Ferre, senior product manager of endpoint security at Novell (www.novell.com). Ferre suggests a policy-based approach to systematically prevent data leaks before they can take place, stressing three key areas: removable storage devices, wireless security, and data encryption.


Novell fixed some flaws in SUSE Linux and also on the proprietary side [1, 2]. The following new video shows how Novell may be affected by a serious hack.



There seems to be something in the stack which can take the blame for giving improper permissions. There are some more innocent videos that were uploaded last week.

People



Schmidt's roots/past in Novell (as CEO) still make the competition between Google and Novell rather odd. But here is another angle:

- Its relationship with Microsoft is very bad, because Google actively opposed its acquisition of Yahoo and other deals. Mr Schmidt is behind that opposition, he spent many years fighting with Microsoft when he was head of Novell. That strategy didn’t work then and it isn’t working now.


Other cases of (former) Novell staff on the move:

Polycom Revamps Partner Program To Challenge Cisco-Tandberg

Polycom has been busy building out its internal channel ranks, and Capuzzo -- who held sales and channel roles at IPC, Avaya, Symbol,Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM), HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Novell (NSDQ:NOVL) in the past -- is among several channel veterans to have joined Polycom in the past eight months.


Virtual Bridges Solidifies Role as Major VDI Vendor

Tom is the former EVP at Novell and Vice President Software Group Sales Europe at IBM; Srini Gurrapu, VP of Product Management, formerly of RingCube Technologies, Moka5, Juniper and Microsoft; Dr. James Clark, VP, Business Development, Asia Pacific; Dr. Clark was formerly chairman of DASCOM and President of ATT Unix Systems Labs, Asia Pacific, and Brad Fidler, VP of Sales, former Director of Sales at BuildForge.


Express Digital Branding” for Small and Medium Sized Businesses

Jocelyne Attal, Founder of JAGENCY, has more than 20 years of marketing experience and a record of growing revenues at IBM, Novell, and Gateway.


Republican announces bid for Johnson's U.S. House seat

An Atlanta businesswoman is the latest to join the race to represent Georgia’s fourth congressional district.

Liz Carter is the only Republican running against U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson.

[...]

This is Carter’s first time running for office.

Carter, 40, has run her own consulting and recruiting company for the past four years. She previously worked for Novell and State Street Corp.


SCTE Adds to Advanced Network Development Team

From 1995-98, Harris was a Novell network administrator with Rowan University.


Former Novell employee Matt Asay mentions Novell in CNET:

Convenience still pays. It's why people pay for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) subscription when they can get the same bits from CentOS--or effectively the same bits from Canonical (Ubuntu) or Novell (Suse). It's why I buy "Jane Eyre" on my Kindle instead of just downloading a free version.


Partners



Novell examinations can be seen in this article from the East:

Today’s employees must be able to work in different global environments which is why TAR College is giving its students an avenue to soak up the experiences of the world.

[...]

“For example, our information technology students will sit for Microsoft, Novell, Cisco and various other professional examinations during their course of study.”


More on certification where Novell is mentioned:

Koenig Announces InstallShield Training

Koenig now offers training on InstallShield

Koenig now offers training on InstallShield

Baron - CED Solutions student - January 2010

DemandGen has Novell as a client, it argues:

Some of DemandGen's clients are Adobe, Conject, Microsoft, Messe Munich, FARO, NetApp, NXP Semiconductors and Novell.


A company called Xepa is also involved with Novell:

Xepa is an ICT Solutions Provider focusing on Infrastructure Solutions based on the Novell, Linux and Microsoft platforms. In addition to Novell and Microsoft partnerships, Xepa is a VMWare Enterprise Partner, GlobalSign Authorised Partner and GWAVA Authorised Partner. Xepa also has partnerships with other hardware and software vendors, including HP, EMC, Juniper, Cyberoam, TrendMicro and Symantec.


Novell was mentioned in many other press releases and a few articles, usually at the bottom [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12].

Other/Videos



Novell plans to have a BrainShare conference in Europe. Novell also sponsors the nasty SYS-CON, arousing some suspicion that it is sponsoring in order to attend and present in its private events.

Here is an old video that has just been filed under YouTube. It's from Banyan, which the video claims "got killed by Novell and Microsoft."

Another new addition to YouTube is this talk from Novell, but it's not in English and it goes a few months back (only uploaded days ago, though).



In summary, nothing too special has happened, but there was one press release of significance (about File Management Suite).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 27/03/2026: Studying Whale Births, Apple is Cancelling Products, Cambodia Arrests Journalists Over Photographs
Links for the day
Perpetual Strikes to Begin at European Patent Office (EPO), Large Majority Votes for Strikes Any Day of the Week
Approved industrial actions [...] Notice how none of the media or even so-called 'IP' blogs write about it
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 26 Out of 200: Asking for Documents and Information You Already Have, Even Letters and E-mails That You Yourself Sent!
barristers are expensive
Gemini Links 28/03/2026: Echo Delay and 0x0.st
Links for the day
Rumours of More IBM Mass Layoffs at Beginning of April
IBM is not doing well
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 27, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 27, 2026
"Headcount" as Distraction From Mass Layoffs and Salary Reductions
Things aren't looking well when one considers revenue is acquired, not earned
"Linux" Slop Turning Rarer, New York Times Nowadays Contaminated With LLM Slop
Another day has passed without much slop about "linux"
Gemini Links 27/03/2026: GTD, Gopher Catchup, Gemini Crawlers, and "Slop Everywhere"
Links for the day
Mozilla Was Ruined Like Sirius Open Source Was Ruined - From the Top Down
Mozilla will never return to its Free software roots
Nokia Could Never Recover From Microsoft
It's very important to remember what really happened
Why Techrights and Many Other Sites Stopped Doing April Fools’ Day Articles
Well before slop (made by LLMs) it was "bad optics" to have satire or humour in a site, irrespective of the day of the year
President Not-Cocaine Campinos Notified of Historic EPO Strikes (Thousands of Workers Not Coming Back to the Office)
Please do pay attention to how the media treats these strikes in Europe's second-largest institution
Slides From the Presentation Discussing EPO Strikes Until End of June or Until End of 2026 (Maybe Next Year Too)
More to come soon (later today)
IBM Cuts Are Everywhere (Global), the Aim is to Lower the Pay
Because the revenues keep falling (IBM buys other companies' revenues using borrowed money)
Mozilla is Not a Privacy Company, Mozilla is Run by GAFAM Executives and Managers Who Came From American Surveillance Companies
Would you trust a VPN they claim to be "free"?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 25 Out of 200: That Time Matthew J. Garrett Got Temporarily Banned/Suspended From Twitter
That he gets banned from large social control media platform is hardly surprising given his combative communications
Ubuntu Started as Free With ShipIt, Now It Becomes Payware That Exploits Debian Volunteers (Slaves)
"Ubuntu" the distro now replaces the GNU components inherited from Debian with a bunch of Microsoft GitHub (proprietary) things that reject reciprocal licences
Last Night The Register MS Published a Fake Article. It Mentioned "AI" 27 Times.
Paid-for nonsense! [...] What's left of once-respectable news sites actively harms society
Links 27/03/2026: Google Executive (GAFAM, US, Surveillance) "Named the New BBC Head", Prominent Climate Scientist Resigns From NASA
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/03/2026: "Being Busy" and "Posting Again"
Links for the day
GNOME Has No "Real" Executive Director, Only an IBM (Perma)'Interim' One With No Openings in Sight
GNOME is having financial problems
Microsoft Experiencing "Leadership Exodus"
Microsoft's current position is no better than Meta's (Facebook)
GNU/Linux Distros Should Reject "Age Verification" and Uphold Software Freedom for Users
It's not about protecting children
Slop Plunge
we can already "smell the blood" of the so-called 'AI industry'
IBM Media Puff Pieces While Layoffs Go On and On
Has the PR industry absorbed the press?
Media Says Microsoft Hiring Freezes, But There Are Already Microsoft Layoffs
They want the public to talk about Microsoft as if it's just not hiring when it is actually firing
Richard Stallman lynchings: Sruthi Chandran splitting Debian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 26, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 26, 2026
Links 26/03/2026: Tor Relay at National Taiwan Normal University, Copyright Hammers Fall
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2026: "The War of the Worlds" and "sometimes science is just the dumbest thing"
Links for the day
The World Wide Bots
The shape of the Web is so bad that bots exceed humans in some places
Links 26/03/2026: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Closes 101 Law Firms in 2 Years, "Please Compensate the Work You Appreciate"
Links for the day
Regaining Software Freedom Means Regaining Control Over Programs That Run on Our Devices
Richard Stallman will speak in Italy
Microsoft Secure Boot Removes Users' Choice
Has Greenland banned Microsoft and 'secure' boot yet?
IBM Pushes Workers Out, It Does Not Count Them as "Layoffs"
The number of IBM layoffs can be as large as tens of thousands per year
Hard to Find a Job After Working for Microsoft (Back Doors Giant, Bribery Hub)
It generally looks like people who chose to serve Microsoft's agenda don't end up too well
Microsoft Lost 31% Of Its Alleged "Value" in Five Months, Then It Got Downgraded
In 2026 Microsoft focuses on keeping the layoffs silent
Altering Perceived Reality to Make It Seem Like Microsoft is Thriving, Not Failing
pretend XBox did not die
SLAPP Censorship - Part 24 Out of 200: The Failed Effort by Brett Wilson LLP to Strike Out My Lawsuit and My Wife's Lawsuit Against Garrett (the Master Allowed Our Lawsuits to Proceed)
This is lawfare
Official New Figures Show That Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Sees Rise in Dishonesty Among Law Firms Forcibly Shut Down ('Euthanised' Due to Misconduct)
It's rather if in our little country as many as 16 law firms were found to be so dishonest that they needed to be shut down
Back to Normalcy
In our datacentre at least
IBM is "Increasing Its Temporary and Part-time Headcount" While Net Headcount Falls (Despite Buying Many Companies and Their Workforce)
Headcount is a rather superficial yardstick.
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Off Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
EPO Union Decides to Continue Industrial Actions, Next Strike in Four Days
The latest strike had the highest participation rate
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 25, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Microsoft's "Silent Layoffs" in Slop Clothing
"AI-powered transformation" is just a euphemism for mass layoffs
Where and How to Spot LLM Slop
Many people correctly perceive LLMs as a site's downfall, a step towards the abyss
Public Talk by Richard Stallman in Half a Day "at the Engineering and Architecture Campus of Cesena of the University of Bologna"
He'll probably attract a fairly large crowd
Gemini Links 26/03/2026: Buying a House, Stargazing, OFFLFIRSOCH 2026
Links for the day