Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part III: Virtualisation, GroupWise, People, and Videos

Summary: Novell's news for this week, with the exception of SUSE

NOVELL IS SAID to be running to partners again, but it's worth remembering that Novell's channel is broken by its very own admission.



“They may be very strategic in terms of capabilities or coverage they have in a particular market and we want to grow with them into a particular level of the program.” The Novell program is made up of Silver, Gold and Platinum partner tiers. The vendor has also released a deal registration system to help partners grow their business.


What's left for Novell is mostly old technology, but that too is receiving very meager attention in the press, for example this new bit.

The 6 TB product includes 10 agents that are placed on the devices to be protected. The agents support a number of OSes, including Novell NetWare, Solaris and IBM i. The standard 12 TB model includes 20 agents, and the high-capacity 12 TB model comes with 35 agents.


Storage



Novell is claimed to be abandoning some once-promising areas where it simply gave up. Someone from IDG has just taken a thorough look at Novell's Storage Manager and finally wrote about it:

Novell introduced Novell Storage Manager some years back. Formerly called File System Factory, the software allows IT managers to monitor and manage the unstructured data - Word, Excel, PDFs - residing on the file servers in their environments.

We at SSG-NOW had a demo of Novell Storage Manager last week. The product, which manages not only Novell NetWare and Open Enterprise Server file servers, also manages Windows NTFS servers. It is able to discover information, retrieve it and store it on disk, tape or archive – all locations where it can be managed during its lifecycle.


'Cloud'/Virtualisation



Last week there was a lot of chatter about a group which is centered around 'clouds' (DMTF) and this week we find more such examples in the press where Novell gets mentioned:



Novell was put in the following list about virtualisation management. In the "Microsoft press" we find a mention of Novell's PlateSpin.

New appliances often raise questions about supportability, but not in this case. PlateSpin Forge is built on the Dell PowerEdge 2950 III server for the PlateSpin Forge 510 and 525 models. For protected workloads, the PlateSpin Forge 310 and 325 models are built on the PowerEdge 1950 III. PlateSpin Forge is supported by Novell, with any equipment exchanges being handled by Dell.


Here is a man who wants to marry Microsoft's virtualisation and GNU/Linux, notably SUSE which is the only one he mentions.

Microsoft has recently launched an initiative through it’s interoperability division to prove Hyper-V can compete in the Linux realm. Microsoft has partnered with Novell to provide Hyper-V support for SUSE Linux (SLES 10). Expanding on this support Novell has built a Systems Center Configuration manager Management Pack for SLES 10. This management pack is compatible with the SCOM 2007 R2 Release Candidate with hopes to be GA by the end of this year.


The following two articles about Citrix gave Novell's SUSE a mention along with Red Hat:

i. Data storage vendors work on integration with Citrix Systems' XenServer

In an email to SearchStorage.com to answer a question about its StorageLink involvement, an EMC spokesperson wrote "we … support Xen from RedHat and Novell. If we see demand for the Citrix derivative, we'll support it in the future."


ii. Citrix XenServer 5.5 cleared for June landing

Citrix also said that Novell's recently announced SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, Red Hat's Enterprise Linux 5.3, and Debian 5.0 are now supported as guest operating systems in the XenServer 5.5 beta. (The CentOS and Oracle clones of RHEL 5.3 will also run as guests).


Mail and Collaboration



Novell's role in this area was mentioned in GCN regarding unified messaging systems. An article claiming that that the "[r]ecession [is] pushing sales of collaboration tools" has also just been published and Novell was one among the "powerhouses" listed.

While traditional powerhouses such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Novell are expected to take the lead in collaboration sales, smaller vendors could do well in the coming years by focusing on niche markets and seeking acquisition deals with some of the larger players.


GroupWise now receives support from Neverfail. The press release can be found in:



Neverfail(R), a leading global software company providing affordable continuous availability and disaster recovery solutions, today announced at WES 2009 that Neverfail for BlackBerry(R) Enterprise Server can now protect implementations that include the Novell GroupWise(R) messaging system.


The following articles too mentioned Groupwise and Novell in the context of BlackBerry (although it's pretty minor for Novell):



People



Movement of former Novell employees sure matters, so here is the observation that Steve Harmon, once a director at Novell, will be speaking for Cisco.

His business development experience includes work as a former member of Cisco's Strategic Alliances organization where he led the global alliance team responsible for Cisco's relationship with Hewlett Packard. Prior to joining Cisco, Harmon was director, strategic alliances for Novell and a member of Novell's Strategic Investments team. He holds a B.S. degree in Business Management (Information Systems emphasis) and a J.D. degree, both from Brigham Young University.


Here is another old departure: Russ Warner

Warner has also served as Director of Field Sales, Operations, & Education for Novell Latin America and as Director of U.S. Sales at Novell Inc. and at WordPerfect Corporation.


It also appeared here.

Warner is also a former executive at Altiris, where he served at Director-Latin America Sales, and served in stints at both Novell and WordPerfect.


A Novell marketing manager was mentioned here in a British Web site.

Sophie Lawson, marketing manager at Novell, stated she was impressed with the new conference venue, while others commended the popular keynote speech from former home secretary David Blunkett.


It turns out that SugarCRM too has some Novell DNA in it.

Sales and marketing people are considered expendable, but the loss of a co-founder is seen as a sign of something more troubling. And so it was Taylor left in June 2008, with senior vice president of business development Lars Nordwall going after three years at SugarCRM - one year short of Taylor. Nordwall is a veteran of Cambridge Technology partners and Novell.


Marketing



A Novell employee, NovellVideo (Ross) uploaded this Mono-filled video trailer which promotes Novell.



From some old competition comes another video and we found yet another competition entry that was uploaded days ago:



More such advertisements continue to be dumped onto YouTube:



These videos are part of a trend.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 26/10/2025: Microsoft Spies on Gamers, Open Transport Community Conference
Links for the day
Links 26/10/2025: LLM Slop / Plagiarism Programs Continue to Disappoint, CISA Layoffs Threaten Systems
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/10/2025: Gemsync and Joining the Small Web
Links for the day
India.com a Click-baiting, SEO-Spamming, Slopfarming Heap
They do this almost every day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 25, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 25, 2025
Without XBox Consoles, XBox is No More, It's Just a Brand (More Rumours of Microsoft Ending XBox, Then Laying Off Lots of Staff)
All signs indicate that Microsoft wants to "exit" the XBox business (not brand), but it does not want to publicly admit this as it would alarm staff and shareholders
Gemini Links 25/10/2025: Portugal, Midnightpub, and "Tech Right Admins"
Links for the day
Almost 2026 Already (When We Turn Twenty)
In just over a year the site will turn 20
When "Sponsored Feature" in The Register MS Means Ponzi Scheme Promotion From the Communist Party of China (CPC)
the promotion of a financial scam
Week of EPO Leaks: Workers of the EPO Are Getting a Pay Cut While Prices Rise Fast
More to come in the next few days
Microsoft is Finally Giving Up on XBox, The Chief Says the Grapes Are Sour Anyway
Microsoft loses hundreds of dollars on each XBox that it sells
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Various Slopfarms Propped up by Google News
Why can't Google News do better than this?
Links 25/10/2025: Two New Smokescreens for Scam Altman and ‘TikTok USA’ Remains in Limbo
Links for the day
Bad faith: can't change Debian Social Contract (DSC) without unanimous consent of every joint author
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Confirmed: Very Close Friend of Bill Gates and Microsoft's Biggest Patent Troll Nathan Myhrvold Flew the Lolita Express (a Gateway to Pedophilia), According to Bill Gates-Sponsored Seattle Times
There is no speculation or any "conspiracy theories" here;' those are verified facts
Gemini Links 25/10/2025: "The Highest Leader of The Global Civil Society Community", SSL Certificates Causing Bitrot
Links for the day
Links 25/10/2025: Target Layoffs and "Shutdown Sparks 85% Increase in US Government Cyberattacks"
Links for the day
"Big Data" Was a Big Lie
Remember "Big Data"? Remember "Data Scientists"...?
statCounter Has Been Broken for a Long Time
Considering the huge proportion of Web requests that come from LLM bots (more so this past year or two), statCounter may struggle to justify the operating costs
Techrights Anniversary Party on November 7th
Let us know if you need any accommodation-related arrangements
Trends That Must Alarm Microsoft and Mozilla
Expect Firefox to no longer be supported by various sites in the US
Why Microsoft Became the Layoffs Leader
The corporate media is projecting or signalling its own dishonesty when it tells us that Microsoft is a very "valuable" company while the data shows Microsoft is also a "market leader" in layoffs
Speaking for Ourselves and Letting the Facts Speak for Themselves
we've already published over 50,000 pages
For Second Time in a Day The Register MS Takes Money From Private Companies to Sell a Ponzi Scheme
Do not have empathy for those who have zero empathy towards you
IBM is Misleading IBM Shareholders
IBM is still all about vapourware and buzzwords
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 24, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 24, 2025
The Serial Slopper Starts Up - or Restarts - His Plagiarism Machine (LLMs)
Serial Sloppers like these don't belong in news sites. That's why he got sacked by BetaNews.
Links 24/10/2025: Esperanto Music History, Anxiety, and New Portals
Links for the day
[Video] Richard Stallman's Talk in Sweden, Attended by Nearly 700 People, is Now Online
The Web page is in Swedish, but the talk is in English
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity.com, Linux Journal, and Pet Slopfarms of Google News
Why does Google News still advance these fake sites to the top of search results?
Links 24/10/2025: Inequality Grows, Billion-Dollar Scam Center Industry
Links for the day
Links 24/10/2025: "Independent Media in Cambodia is Collapsing" and Serious F5 Breach
Links for the day
Coping With the Site Going More Mainstream
Fame is no laughing matter
They Never 'Put Down' Corporations
There are "pests" that are traded in Wall Street
21 Pages in Less Than 7 Hours is No Joking Matter
We've become a lot more effective and efficient
Correct Information is a Valued Asset in the Age of Slopfarms and Public Relations (PR) or Spin
Publishing suppressed facts is never easy
The Register MS Continues to Bag Money to Promote a Ponzi Scheme, Even Money From China
Today in the front page
analytics.usa.gov: The Only Supported Version of Windows (This Past Week) is Only Used by About 13.9% of People in the US, the Home Base of Windows
Even Vista 7 is still used more
Rust is Very Secure
If only Rust itself is secure
Who Will be Held Accountable for Breaking Ubuntu by Imposing Rust on Otherwise-Functional Programs, in Effect Replacing GNU With Proprietary Microsoft (GitHub)?
they're practical people who merely point out that a bunch of buffoons not only ruin Ubuntu but also every future distro based on Ubuntu
Generation Chaff - Phase VIII: In Summary
Like "Science" with a capital "S", what we see here commercial interests usurping everything
Generation Chaff - Phase VII: Curtailing Alternative Media
There was always an obligation - a collective duty of sorts - to uphold independent journalism
Generation Chaff - Phase VI: Centralisation of Information (X, Cheetok/Fentanylware)
Would you trust information when controlled by such people?
Generation Chaff - Phase V: Censorship of Dissent (Painted as Harassment or Terrorism)
Censorship is all around us now
Generation Chaff - Phase IV: Apps Only Few Companies Decide On
Tools are being collectively confiscated, under the premise or false prospect of "security"
Generation Chaff - Phase III: Slop and Plagiarism
A lot of the current so-called 'economy' is built upon false valuations
Generation Chaff - Phase II: "Cloud", Blockchains and Other Hype
For those of us who turned down those propositions there was a struggle; we needed to justify not having skinnerboxes or "social" accounts in some site run by a private company
Generation Chaff - Phase I: Social Control Media
IRC predates the Web
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 23, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 23, 2025
More Clues Shed on Collapse of Microsoft XBox
XBox is basically circling down the drain as Microsoft implements 2-3 waves of layoffs each month
'Vibe Coding' Doesn't Work
In a lot of ways, so-called 'Vibe Coding' is already considered vapourware or a passing fad promoted in the media by managers who try to justify mass layoffs, especially ridding companies of "very expensive" software engineers
Links 24/10/2025: Microsoft's Killing of XBox Connected to Revenue/Profit Problems, "How Elon Musk Ruined Twitter"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/10/2025: 86,400 Seconds and "Society's Task"
Links for the day