Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part III: From SCO to Utah

Novell had no major products to unveil, so it just issued a vague press release about a vision it has.



Novell today announced an integrated vision for the future of the data center and a portfolio of integrated products designed to help customers increase agility while reducing cost, complexity and risk. The Service-Driven Data Center provides solutions to build, manage and measure the next generation data center so IT executives can deliver the business services that end users need through a flexible, automated and cost-effective infrastructure. Only Novell has the unique combination of technology-agnostic, interoperable and easy-to-use solutions that let customers maximize the utilization of their IT assets within a secure and compliant framework whether customers are running a server farm, building an internal cloud, or using an external cloud.


There was no coverage about this in the media, just copies of the press release, e.g. here and here.

Looking elsewhere, we found that the SCO trial moves forward (or almost nowhere).

SCO



SCO does not want to pay Novell and Novell formally replies to this objection.

Novell has responded [PDF] to SCO's Objections to Novell's Bill of Costs, submitted as the prevailing party in SCO v. Novell.

[...]

SCO *didn't* contest, Novell points out, most of the bill of costs, and it didn't contest that each of the depositions for which Novell seeks to recover costs were "reasonably necessary to the litigation of the case", which is the standard.


Here is another subsequent motion from Novell:

Novell has filed its brief in the appeal of SCO v. Novell. It's 87 pages, so I haven't read it yet myself. I'll swing back by after I read it. But the quick look at the index and the closing words indicates Novell is asking the court to affirm the lower court: "For all the above reasons, the district court judgment should be affirmed." That's on page 67 of the filing, which is page 81 of the PDF. Keep that disparity in mind when you look up page numbers in the opening index. For example, the Summary of Argument is page 21 of the filing, but you'll find it on page 35 of the PDF.


Pamela Jones meanwhile unearths some old information about SCO/Caldera.

The 2.4 kernel is exactly what the SCO litigation was supposedly about. We're talking the GPL here, though, so I can't help but ask another natural question. Did SCO carefully provide the source for all the Linux code it distributed, including with Open UNIX 8 (and later Unixware with the LKP)?


There is another article of this type.

ZENWorks/Past Technologies



Novell is still making some changes to ZENworks Configuration Management.

Novell on April 6 announced several enhancements to its solution suite for endpoint management designed to help customers maximize their investments in the ZENworks product line.


Virtualisation



The Var Guy, blinded by his support of Novell, fails to see that Novell's investment in PlateSpin turned out rather badly.

As The VAR Guy watched the PlateSpin demonstrations, Novell’s strategy finally became clear. First, get customers addicted to PlateSpin as a key tool for server consolidation and virtualization efforts that cut data center costs. Second, make sure SUSE Linux is a potential destination platform for the consolidation projects.

Novell’s Business Service Management strategy, in stark contrast, seems to be a work in progress. Yes, BSM helps Novell customers to further improve system up-time. But Novell’s efforts to cross-train SUSE Linux partners on Business Service Management are just starting.


See the comments.

Mail/GroupWise



Another week, another mention of BlackBerry support for GroupWise:

BlackBerry Enterprise Server is designed for organisations that manage their own email servers. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with IBM€® Lotus€® Domino€®, Microsoft€® Exchange and Novell€® GroupWise€® and offers advanced security features and IT policy controls to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.


Novell's GroupWise might play nice with the Palm Pre thanks to this product.

"We look forward to Palm announcing a Synergy SDK to allow CompanionLink to synchronize Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT! by Sage, Outlook Business Contact Manager, and Novell GroupWise data directly to the Palm Pre. Until that time, our currently available products will support the early adopters of the Palm Pre..."


There are many people in government who still rely on GroupWise.

One of Google's biggest global GMail deals was a $10million project with Telstra and SMS Technology to supply the NSW Education Department with 1.5 million accounts.

[...]

Late last year staff continued to use the Novell GroupWise platform for email.


Here is another big client of GroupWise.

The company has an extensive communications network connecting thousands of professionals with clients and partners. It uses Novell's Groupwise collaboration suite, and has extremely high mail volumes: in the construction side of the business alone over 50 000 e-mails are exchanged every day.

[...]

The Aveng implementation involved integrating Mimecast with the Novell NetWare environment. Mimecast's core infrastructure is based on its own carrier-class technology platform, which in turn is based on open industry standards and with powerful Web-based interfaces. Users see no change to how they access e-mail as messages are passed from the Mimecast servers (which do scanning and archival) to Aveng's GroupWise servers and then on to the clients. Users access the mail archives through the Web console, which provides virtually instant response times on searches.


Will Novell lose even more GroupWise users because of Microsoft?

Fitzpatrick said Microsoft has pushed DAS as his company looks to migrate to Exchange from Novell GroupWise email, but he's holding back. "I don't want to have the hassle with it," he said. "I'm also investigating hosted Exchange for that reason."


This report also shows up right here under a different headline.

Management



IDG mentioned Novell's Managed Objects in this article about BSM.

While the company is credited for coining the term BSM, BMC is not alone in the market. Companies such as Novell (which acquired Managed Objects), ManageEngine and Zyrion also develop BSM software applications.


Joe Panettieri ("Var Guy") mentioned Novell in a similar context.

Generall speaking, I don’t hear much about Novell in the MSP market. But I think BSM software could emerge as a niche solution for larger MSPs that need to manage SLAs.


The following article which covers identity management sought a comment from Novell.

Jay Roxe, director of product marketing at Novell (www.novell.com), agrees that tough times are increasing the likelihood of internal and external threats and suggests using identity management as a possible solution with ROI potential.

“Identity management is an area where IT security pros can demonstrate return on investment while also addressing major security concerns,” says Roxe, who adds that layoffs can be especially problematic. “Having automatic systems in place that can immediately deactivate an employee’s access to valuable information on a company’s systems is important.”

Roxe also recommends consolidating duplicate, often obsolete systems to save operational costs and streamline management processes. He also advises assessing employee role profiles and ensuring that no one individual has too much access. He cites an example of a single employee who can issue purchase orders and approve payments as a potential fraud risk. In these cases, compliance management systems can automatically enforce IT policies that manual processes would have difficulty tracking.


Support



A YouTube account called NovellServices has just uploaded this technical video.



People



David Bradford was mentioned in a lot of places because his company received funding, which is becoming a rare occasion in this economy. As the press release states (also here), Bradford has roots in Novell:

In preparation for Series B funding, industry veteran and respected executive David Bradford has taken the helm. Mr. Bradford brings 30 years of experience to Fusion-io, including 15 years at the networking software giant Novell, Inc. As a senior Novell executive, he helped lead the company from startup status through a series of acquisitions, public offerings and global business development activities to its position as a multi-billion dollar corporation. During his last three years at Novell, he reported directly to the CEO, Eric Schmidt.

"I am delighted to hear that David Bradford has been appointed CEO of Fusion-io," said Dr. Schmidt, now the CEO of Google. "I have great confidence in his ability to lead this innovative company."


This was covered in:

i. Wozniak's Utah startup lands $47.5M, CEO

The three-year-old Salt Lake City company said Tuesday that it has raised $47.5 million in funding and named former Novell executive David Bradford as CEO.


ii. Fusion-io closes $47.5 Mln Series B Funding round; names David Bradford CEO - Update

Regarding Bradford, the company said he brings 30 years of experience to Fusion-io, including 15 years at the networking software giant Novell, Inc.


iii. Fusion-io lands more funding; Names CEO

Enterprise storage company Fusion-io said Tuesday that it has raised $47.5 million in venture capital and named David Bradford, a former Novell executive, as CEO.

[...]

As for the new CEO, Fusion-io moved to add a CEO as it prepped for its latest round of financing. For the last decade, Bradford served on the board of directors of Pervasive Software. Prior to that, Bradford worked as senior vice president and general counsel at Novell for 15 years.


iv. Fusion-io Gets $47.5 Million In Venture Capital

New CEO Bradford is a 30-year veteran of the tech industry, including 15 years at networking company Novell, Fusion-io said. As a senior executive, he led Novell from startup status through a series of acquisitions, public offerings, and global business development. During his last three years at Novell, Bradford reported directly to chief executive Eric Schmidt, who is now CEO of Google.


v. Fusion-io gets funding infusion

In a tribute to Bradford's networking skills and contact book he's tapped Google CEO Eric Schmidt, a previous boss at Novell, where he worked for 15 years, to provide a supportive quote: "I am delighted to hear that David Bradford has been appointed CEO of Fusion-io. I have great confidence in his ability to lead this innovative company."


vi. Fusion-io plans SSD-based ioSAN network drive

The expansion into network storage takes place just as Fusion-io has signed on former Novell executive David Bradford as its CEO. Besides his experience in networking software, Bradford was also instrumental in bringing Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak into the company as a chief scientist to help guide the storage producer's research.


vii. Fusion-io Raises Huge, $47.5M Round

The firm said that it has named a new CEO, David Bradford, as part of the funding. Bradford joins from Novell, where he has spend the last 15 years.


viii. Fusion-io Lands A Big Round Of VC Funding

I just received a press release saying that Fusion-io has just landed a big Series B round of funding: $47.5 million from LightSpeed Venture Partners, and that it named David Bradford, a former senior VP and general counsel at Novell as its new CEO. Dell, New Enterprise Ventures and Sumitomo Ventures also participated in the investment.


ix. Fusion-io lands $47 million to develop flash storage

Fusion-io's new CEO, Bradford, was the senior vice president and general counsel at Novell from 1985 to 2000, and has held a number of posts over the past decade in the legal world and at several Web 2.0 and social networking companies. Bradford currently serves on the board of directors for Pervasive Software, a database management vendor.


x. Wozniak’s storage startup Fusion-io raises $47.5M more

The company’s announcement notes that in Bradford’s last three years at Novell, he reported directly to then-chief executive Eric Schmidt (now CEO of Google). Not that Salt Lake City-based Fusion-io really needs to play a “six degrees of separation” game to find connections to tech superstardom — Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently joined as chief scientist.


Joe Weisenthal wrote this article about Eric Schmidt (also in Fortune) and he mentions briefly the Novell era.

This growth has propelled Eric from his prior status as a little-known CEO of a technology also-ran (Novell) to one of the world's most powerful and richest men. He is also now widely regarded as one of the world's most talented chief executives.


Novell lost a couple of vice presidents to Xiocom and this is still mentioned occasionally in the press.

Wireless broadband solution company Xiocom Wireless has appointed Dell executive Steve Erdman as president. Erdman, who has 22 years of experience in technology sales, marketing and global business management, will oversee day-to-day operations and business and market development. He was most recently vice president of channels and alliances at infrastructure software provider Novell.


Utah



It turns out that Novell has invested in a Utah-based company called TriSano. We saw the announcement from the project back in August.

TriSano was developed by the Collaborative Software Initiative, a Portland-based company, with financial backing from Novell. It is open-source software, meaning it was free for the state to acquire and available for anyone to download and change as they see fit.


At Novell's campus there will soon be a workshop for people who game search engines.

The workshop will be held in the Mountainview Conference Room at the Novell Campus, in Provo, Utah, on April 29, 2009, from 8:00-11:00 a.m. Attendees that register by April 17th will receive a free website analysis upon registration. For more information, including registration, please visit http://www.seo.com/registration.


Novell's Utah campus was also mentioned in this article about local public transportation.

UTA discusses new Provo-Orem bus line



[...]

As currently planned, Utah Valley University will serve as the northernmost terminal and the Novell Campus as the southernmost, with Brigham Young University as a major stop in the middle.


That's about all for this week.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
 
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025