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

An Illusion and Cult Worship of Magnitude (Ubiquity as "Victory")
GNU has been around for over 40 years and it'll likely continue to exist for another 40 (in some form)
Wall Street Does Not Care About Microsoft's Impending (August) Layoffs, It Believes Lies From Microsoft, Whose Debt Grows Rapidly
If Microsoft is doing so well and swimming in money, why so many cuts (about 29,000 layoffs so far this year)?
Riot for peace & Love: Catholic Influencers and Digital Missionaries welcome Jubilee of Youth
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Slopwatch: Google News Has Lost the Plot
Almost the majority of articles returned for "Linux" are fakes
Links 31/07/2025: Australia Restricts YouTube Access, Personal Privacy at Risk
Links for the day
Links 31/07/2025: Spotify Collapses and Spotify Now Forcing Some Users to Undergo Face-Scanning
Links for the day
A Lot of Supposedly "Successful" Businesses Are Just Debt-Racking Vessels Without Any Prospects of Financial Sustainability
The probability of bankruptcy of any business is more than 0%
theregister.com: The Voice of Microsoft US?
It basically sold out
Yes, You Can Love and Adore Things Whilst Also Criticising Them
Is society being divided and groomed/primed to be resistant to constructive criticism?
Links 31/07/2025: War in Ukraine, Security News, and Cyberattacks Against Journalists on the Rise
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/07/2025: Fake Money and Gemini Diaries
Links for the day
Google: From Pointing to Relevant Sites to Pointing to Social Control Media to Actually Parroting Social Control Media as "Facts"
Google has become a misinformation company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 30, 2025
How to Report Apple Layoffs Without Saying the "L" Word
don't look for the "L" word
Wayland Considered Harmful (to GNU/Linux Adoption)
it's not limited to games
My Experience With Judges Has been Positive, But We Must Still Pursue SLAPP Reform in the United Kingdom
We believe it'll be a "feather in the cap" if we can help change laws in the UK to better protect investigative reporters
Slopwatch Makes the Web Better
Remember what happened to BetaNews?
Slopwatch: Google News is Pumping in Lots of Web Traffic Into Fake Sites That Say "Linux"
somewhere between 30% and 40% of today's "news" about "Linux", as seen by Google News, is LLM slop
Links 30/07/2025: Climate Calamities Highlighted, Kyrgyzstan Crackdown on Expression/Freedoms
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2025: Watson’s List of Limits, Lysenko 2000
Links for the day
Some People See What Others See... But Only 40 Years Later
When people deviate from "the norm" they typically get ridiculed and dismissed as "crazy"
Links 30/07/2025: Tea Class Action and Google Killing the Web With Slop
Links for the day
Last Month Our IRC Community Turned 17
Funnily enough we never missed a single day when it comes to logging
"The Unix Kernel"
Linux was inspired by MINIX
The Register Relays Microsoft Marketing, Dubs That Marketing "Research"
Hours ago they did a "Microsoft sez" piece
Dealing With Sociopaths, Liars, and Cranks
A dysfunctional society such as this would never develop
Not Owning Mobile Phones
It's not about resistance; it's common sense
Google 'Search' is Fast Becoming No Better Than Social Control Media Infested With Bots
Google emerged almost 30 years ago as a company looking to organise the Web and direct people towards informative pages. That Google is dead.
PCLinuxOS Had Functional Backups Before the House Fire, the Site Will be Restored in New Webhost
This is the direction we want for GNU/Linux, not some IBM sales strategy
Gemini Links 30/07/2025: Two Sides of Me and "Hooked on Cosmic Voyage"
Links for the day
Microsoft Will Continue Resorting to Crimes in Order to Keep GNU/Linux Usage Down
It is a real problem and we'll revisit it later this week
GAFAM 'Revolving Doors' at The Register and a "Bribe Price List"
"an analyst at Microsoft"
Microsoft Rapidly Shrinking (No, It's Not About Efficiency, It's About Unbearable Debt)
We'll soon see how much debt grew in the past quarter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 29, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Corruption is the Standard Operating Procedure at the European Patent Office (EPO)
The EPO is a dictatorship that stains Europe
Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) at the European Patent Office (EPO) Requests an Urgent Meeting to Avoid Abolishing the Office
This is dictatorship led by the most corrupt
Slopwatch: Fake 'Linux' 'Articles' and Spamfarms/Slopfarms
at least 5 fake articles in one day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Wayland Unfit for Use and LLM Slop Faking One's Language Skills With Robot Communications
Links for the day
Before the OSI Was Bribed and Hijacked by Microsoft via GitHub and Compromised Management...
The OSI isn't even remotely "woke"
Nailing the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype Bubble
So-called "hey hi" as they define it now is all about large companies or regimes remotely controlling the processes running on your machine and even your very own behaviour on your machine, which is in effect no longer your machine but some remotely controlled apparatus
The OSI Has Been Silent for Over 3 Weeks, It Has a Severe Trust Issue After Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary GitHub
OSI took a lot of money from Microsoft to become a Microsoft lobbyist
"Four decades; Four freedoms; For all users" Now as a T-shirt
That's shown along the sidebar
Bribery is OK If You Work for Microsoft (No Punishment Expected)
It's very troubling and a symptom of a broken society/system when particular laws or rules are applied and enforced against some people but not against others
Links 29/07/2025: Bad Climate and "Fair Software Licensing" Blasts Microsoft
Links for the day
Links 29/07/2025: Data Brokers Gone Wrong/Rogue and "Copyright Thicket"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linuxconfig.org, Linuxsecurity.com, Fagioli, The Register
Today's "Slopwatch" isn't the first article about LLM slop
Someone Should Remind Microsoft Lunduke That Microsoft Hires Many Sexual Criminals and Pedophiles as Well
Microsoft Lunduke on an "expedition" to find one or more perverts, then generalise to everyone in the "community"
Cash Machines (ATMs) Make Mistakes and They're Proprietary Software
Correcting mistakes is a colossal challenge
We Cover Topics Other Sites Are Too Afraid to Cover (Even When They Know the Facts)
It's not that they doubt the truth, they just realise there may be consequences for talking about it
They Try to Tell Us the Free Software Foundation Inc is Dying, But Its Revenue Doubled Since the Dot-Com Bubble Burst
Being in "Activism" is never easy; but it does positive things for society
Yes, Microsoft is the Problem
"I am no MS shill."
It's About the Cost of Workers, Not the Fictional Skills Shortage (That Does Not Exist, the Media Spreads False and Sometimes Self-Fulfilling Narratives)
This issue isn't limited to computing, some dub it "globalism"
Another Failed Use Case for Chatbots (LLM): Legal Advice and Analysis
They're just some self-discrediting toy that costs way too much to operate
Links 29/07/2025: More Pushbacks Against Slop and More Praises of Tom Lehrer
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Purple Yarrow and Understanding Op Amps
Links for the day
This Monday WebProNews Absolutely Flooded the Web With Fake (LLM Slop) 'Articles' About "Linux", Google News Promoted Them as Legitimate
All of the following are fake articles attributed to pseudonyms or authors that don't exist; the images are also slop. Why does Google promote these?
Linuxiac is Not a Slopfarm, But at Least Some of Its Articles Are Machine-Generated Fakes
what we said about it was correct
Expect More Microsoft Layoffs
"Are more job cuts coming?"
Microsoft Behaving Like It's Running Out of Money to Pay Salaries
Does that seem like the behaviour expected from a company which claims it is "worth" trillions?
LWN Downtime Due to Linode, Not LLM Bots
"I’ve received an email letting me know that there is a potential for data loss."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 28, 2025