11.07.11
Attachmate/Novell: Videos, GroupWise, and Abandonment
Summary: An accumulation of news about Novell, focusing on particular themes
New Novell Videos
GroupWise still has some new videos posted about it, e.g. [1, 2, 3] to name the latest. While it is true that a new version is coming, not many changes will be introduced. GroupWise is a dying product with a shrinking userbase.
“Novell Productions” might be a trademark violation in another, separate new video on YouTube, but the Novell brand is a dying brand anyway. It’s coming to be known as Attachmate — whatever does not get liquidated or shut down. There are other new Novell videos, but some are in Polish or are short clips from/about India. It has been a long time since we last saw Teaming mentioned, but here it is again (“Netflex Success Story for Novell Teaming + Conferencing”).
Goodbye Groupwise?
There was a heap of material in the news again about LA’s planned move to Google (from Novell) To quote one example:
The amended contract requires Google to pay for the police and related agencies to stay on Novell GroupWise till November 2012. Google was already footing the Groupwise bill through June 20, 2011. The cost to Google could be several million dollars. But the blow to Google’s reputation as a provider of safe and secure email and collaboration could be far higher.
Over a year ago we showed how both Novell and Microsoft spread FUD to derail this move. It was all over the news in the middle/end of last month:
The letter, dated Aug. 17, 2011, but confidential until now, essentially says Google is responsible for paying for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)’s Novell GroupWise deployment through November 2012.
More information can be found in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
Goodbye Novell
In the new we still find former Novell staff that finds a new home by moving to other companies. We also find former Novell staff in Allegiance now. To quote:
The company has named Jason Taylor, formerly with Omniture and Novell, as executive vice president of engineering.
Here is another news story about Novell getting the boot:
The project started four years ago when the University realised it was going to have to replace its aging mish-mash of legacy systems based around conventional PCs and obsolete technology such as Novell’s Netware.
Guess who is moving to Microsoft? Former customers of Novell:
“In moving from Novell to Microsoft for our back end, we had a blank slate,” says Johnson. The organization decided to move from systems-based downloads for applications to user-based downloads. In other words, end users can choose from a library of pre-approved software that they download themselves.
With Attachmate in charge, it is almost guaranteed that Novell’s old business will evaporate one client at a time. █
Content is available under CC-BY-SA
Needs Sunlight said,
November 7, 2011 at 8:03 am
It almost seems that Novell’s core activity is to move customers of off Novell products and away from Samba onto M$. It’s a mystery how they can expect to get any money that way, but maybe making money is not the primary goal.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 7th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
When you are a de facto Microsoft department, then Microsoft profits matter too.
jmmarton said,
November 7, 2011 at 9:44 am
First and foremost, anyone saying not many changes are being introduced in GroupWise 2012 truly knows nothing at all about the product. I would recommend reading some of Novell’s documentation about it.
http://www.novell.com/documentation/beta/groupwise2012/gw2012_guide_install/data/aady5l3.html
With regards to the LA deal, what FUD did Novell spread? I don’t recall seeing them saying much at all about it, though now there’s some commentary about it after all the public info about the botched migration. It’s a fact that Google just can’t promise security in the cloud the way that an on-premise solution can. Plus, from people “in the know,” the reason LA had problems with GW in the first place is because they were running an old version on hardware not configured properly. If that makes GroupWise “outdated” then I guess Exchange is “outdated” as well as anyone still running Exchange 2000 on old hardware is probably going to complain about it.
Lastly, to the person who commented above, what makes you say Novell is trying to move customers away from Novell products? This couldn’t be further from the truth. Novell keeps coming up with more and more ways that their products have a great value proposition. They announced Novell FILR at Brainshare 2011, a product that brings social networking and file storage together. This product is free to OES customers current on maintenance. They also announced an iPrint appliance at BS2011 which brings the ability for universal print from mobile device (e.g. iPads) to OES. Again, this product is free to OES customers current on maintenance. Even their new collaboration product Vibe (think Novell’s answer to SharePoint) is free for up to 10 users so that customers can try it out.
Novell is increasing their value proposition, while at the same time working on improving interoperability with Microsoft products by using DSfW which puts AD on top of eDirectory, allowing ZENworks to work in AD environments, even they’re even working towards allowing GroupWise to work in AD-only environments in the Winderemere release due sometime in 2012/13. They are also working on allowing Mac products to interoperate, such as the ability for ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2 to completely manage MacOS (deliver apps, patch, etc) or by adding iOS templates to GroupWise WebAccess.
Anyone who says Novell is on the way out or is trying to move their own customers on to competitor’s products truly has not been following Novell this year.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 7th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
I suggest you read http://techrights.org/2009/11/02/novell-negative-publicity/
Novell did get criticised for it at the time.
jmmarton Reply:
November 7th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Ok, are you talking about this comment from Novell?
“Novell, however, attacks Los Angeles’ decision, arguing “The City of Los Angeles should have opted for this proven product [GroupWise] to ensure the security of its data and to save taxpayer money. They have taken a risk with no reward.”
And here we are two years later and what’s the status? Security is still in question, this time by the federal government as I recall, AND a lot of taxpayer money has been wasted. So far no reward, either. And if you mean Matt Asay’s article criticized those comments, that hardly qualifies for Novell’s comments being criticized “big time.” Not in the least.