Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part II: SCO, GroupWise Migrations, Lots of Sentinel, and McAfee Partnership

Delicate arch



Summary: The remainder of Novell's news from this week

THIS IS the weekly post which deals with news about Novell's proprietary software. We shall begin with SCO.



SCO/UNIX



The only Web site to have covered the developments in SCO vs Novell is Groklaw. It published the following 3 posts:

i. SCO's mobile hopes

Does that sound like they know what the different mobile products are? Maybe they know, but it's not so clear to me. Is Me Inc now FCmobilelife? Or is Me Inc Mobile something entirely different? I thought SCO said Me Inc was a victim of the economy, but I don't know what that means for FCmobilelife. Is it flourishing? How would we know? Can anyone find a clue in the latest 10K, linked to above?


ii. SCO Motion for More Exclusivity Denied, the March MORs, and A Proposed Amicus in the Novell Appeal

In the appeal of SCO v. Novell, there are some events to note as well. There is a request to file an amicus brief by Wayne Gray. Yes, that Wayne Gray. The iNUX trademark guy. To help you contextualize, the Middle District of Florida's Tampa Division recently granted motions on summary judgment brought by X/Open and Novell in the Gray v. Novell et al iNUX/UNIX trademark litigation, tossing out all 11 claims in Gray's complaint.


iii. Clerk Signs Off on Novell's Costs In the Amount of $99,639.09

The Chief Deputy Clerk has signed off on Novell's bill of costs, payable by SCO, in the amount of $99,639.09:


Will Novell ever see a nickel? Novell owns UNIX and memories of Lotus return in this writing about Sun getting acquired (along with its UNIX assets that may be sensitive to Novell's wrath).

It's probably a little early to be looking for implications of Oracle buying Sun (no, it's official, here's the press release). They've only just confirmed it's happening, and as one of the journalists who covered Novell buying Lotus many years ago I can confirm things aren't done until they're done, frankly.


Going back to legacy, Novell is also mentioned as a (distant) past guest in "Let's Talk Computers." This time it's about Microsoft.

Virtualisation



The 'Microsoft press' has published an article where it mentions Novell. Repeating what we saw last week (mentioned previously in a similar context), Forrester Research, Novell and BlueLock are appearing together in a webinar about virtualisation.

From the Microsoft news platform, which treats everything but the Microsoft-controlled offers as secondary:

Balkansky skillfully danced around the question, saying that customers will want VMware's overall features and the maturity of its products more than they want XenServer or Hyper-V. He may be right -- VMware has the name and reputation, both well-deserved. But Citrix and Microsoft (along with Virtual Iron, Red Hat, Novell, IBM and so on) are building reputations in the business, too. And they're attacking VMware hard on price. Will the attacks take their toll? That's a great unknown now. In general, I like the fact that VMware is more seriously recognizing the lower end of the market, and targeting it with affordable options.


About the upcoming webinar:

Also, on Thursday, April 30th, rPath is hosting “Tackling the Last Mile of IT Process Automation,” a webinar presented with Forrester Research, Novell and BlueLock. Attendees will hear from industry experts on emerging approaches to automating "the last mile" of IT processes.


Also:

The webinar, sponsored by rPath, will focus on strategies for automating application deployment and maintenance across traditional, virtual and cloud environments. Experts from rPath, Forrester Research, Novell and BlueLock will provide a framework for understanding how the cloud works as the host for application deployment.


Mail



Novell is trying to gain GroupWise users at Microsoft's expense. There is a new migration route.

Novell yesterday announced a new promotion designed to help organizations move to Novell GroupWise 8 at a significantly reduced cost. Organizations currently using a competitor’s messaging platform can now exchange each existing competitor license for a free GroupWise 8 license. Customer who take advantage of this offer for their integrated collaboration environment will only be required to commit to one year of maintenance support for each user seat.


Here is the press release.

GWAVA, Novell's largest collaboration partner, in conjunction with other software vendors, announced today a worldwide event series that addresses the high cost of deploying complex collaboration solutions like Microsoft Exchange with Sharepoint or IBM Lotus Notes. This seminar series, developed for CTOs and Information Technology managers, also applies to organizations dependent on legacy software such as Tobit David, Sun One (formerly iPlanet) and other aging collaboration solutions. It focuses on the total cost of ownership on these platforms vs. migrating to GroupWise on Linux.


In a separate press release from Mirapoint, Novell's GroupWise was mentioned along many other possibilities for mail/groupware.

With the newly updated RazorSafe appliances, Mirapoint's customers may now choose from even more powerful solutions for meeting compliance regulations affecting businesses of all sizes. Its expanded RazorSafe 200, 400, and 6000 product line adds seamless integration with email clients including Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise on top of existing web access, and supports all major email servers, including Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Domino, and Mirapoint Message Server.


Identity/Management



Sentinel was in the headlines this week. It started with this press release about SAP certification.

Novell today announced that its Novell€® Sentinel™ 6.1 security information event management (SIEM) product has achieved SAP-certified integration with the SAP NetWeaver€® technology platform. For customers, the integration significantly reduces risk and cuts the costs of managing security because IT administrators can respond to critical situations as they occur.


This was also published lazily in CIOL under a different headline :

Novell has announced that its Novell Sentinel 6.1 security information event management (SIEM) product has achieved SAP-certified integration with the SAP NetWeaver technology platform.


See how the words change very subtly (compare with the original press release). It's junk. It's not journalism.

The bigger news for Sentinel was this about the Navy choosing it.

Novell announced that the U.S. Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command (NCDOC) has selected Novell(R) Sentinel(TM) to automate and centralize security monitoring across hundreds of diverse locations worldwide. With more than 700,000 users worldwide, NCDOC is one of several military cyber defense teams in the Department of Defense (DOD) and is responsible for around-the-clock protection of the Navy's computer networks.


A lot of coverage soon appeared, including:

i. Can you cut information security in hard times and survive

Based on Novell's Sentinel event management software, Prometheus keeps watch on the Navy's global network, used by more than 700,000 sailors and support staff. On a typical day, it handles anywhere between a few hundred thousand to several million alerts, leaving the 180 staff members charged with monitoring the network to deal with the real problems.


ii. Novell Sentinel To Interoperate With SAP NetWeaver

Novell Sentinel ties identities, systems and data together to deliver a centralised view of business operations through an automated process that can stop violations before they happen.


iii. Navy awards deal for cybersecurity support

The U.S. Navy has contracted Novell to support cybersecurity initiatives to help counter threats to naval computer networks.

Massachusetts-based Novell was awarded the contract from the Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command. According to a news release, Novell will supply its Sentinel technologies to "automate and centralize security monitoring across hundreds of diverse locations worldwide."


iv. Novell to secure US Navy networks

The platform integrates identity data with security event management, which facilitates the efficient monitoring of resources across geographically dispersed networks.


Here is some more coverage about ID management. It mentions Novell.

The two are listed among the Top 5 identity management vendors as judged by consulting firm Burton Group. IBM, CA and Novell are the other three.


There is a similar story about Oracle's impact on identity management now that it inherits Sun's portfolio.

Jonathan Penn, vice president with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc., said that excluding strong authentication, which neither company has, the combined organization will have as much as 25% of the identity management software market, giving it No. 1 status, outpacing competitors such as IBM, CA Inc., Novell Inc. and Microsoft.

[...]

To that end, Penn said IBM, CA, Novell and Microsoft to a lesser extent will undoubtedly be poised to exploit opportunities among Sun's identity management customer base, sowing fear and uncertainty to try to poach customers.


On Information Card Foundation (ICF) from RSA:

Information Cards bring a familiar offline paradigm—the cards you carry in your wallet—to the online world. They work with a new software tool called a selector that operates as an extension to your Web browser. Selectors are available today from ICF members Azigo, Microsoft, and Novell, as well as from several open source projects.


ICF and Novell were mentioned in finextra.com as well, just a few days ago.

The Equifax I-Card is among the first commercial I-card-based products to launch from members of ICF, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing a simpler and more secure digital identity on the Internet. Led by Deutsche Telecom, Equifax, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle PayPal and Parity, the ICF promotes the rapid build-out and adoption of Internet-enabled digital identities using information cards.


Storage



There is almost nothing here except for this:

Two days before, on April 14, Sun Microsystems rolled out its Open Network Systems plan, which also incorporates Intel’s Xeon 5500 chips—also known as Nehalem EP—as well as Sun’s own Solaris operating system, networking and storage technologies and integrated Flash memory capabilities.

Other vendors—from heavyweights such as IBM and Dell to Novell to newcomers such as Schooner Information Technology—also are moving in that direction.


Security



Speculations that Novell would buy McAfee may be far behind us, but those two companies have just announced a partnership:

Novell and McAfee, Inc. Announce Partnership to Deliver Stronger Security Policy Enforcement, Deeper Visibility into End-User Activity and Compliance Assurance for Enterprise Customer



[...]

At the RSA Conference 2009, Novell and McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE) today announced a partnership that will enhance McAfee€® ePolicy Orchestrator€® (ePO™) with a holistic view of both network events and users. This combined approach will accelerate and pinpoint response to potential threats and provide administrators the much-needed ability to automatically enforce security and identity access-related policies, making it easy to prove compliance and ensure trusted access.


There is plenty of coverage, e.g.:

i. McAfee, Inc. Expands Security Innovation Alliance, Adds Systems Integrator Partner Category

There are eight new members that have joined the program as Associate Partners, including Authenex, Cryptotech, eIQnetworks, Novell, S21sec, Solidcore, Triumfant and Telos. Across North America and Europe, McAfee now has more than 55 SIA partners committed to helping customers drive operational savings with McAfee Compatible products.


ii. Novell and McAfee Tie Up to Enhance Interoperability

Novell and McAfee announced a strategic partnership that gives McAfee's ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) solution users a holistic view of both network events and users. This combined approach reportedly allows real-time response to potential threats and provides administrators the much-needed ability to automatically enforce security and identity access-related policies, making it easy to prove compliance and ensure trusted access.


iii. Novell and McAfee Form Enterprise Security Alliance

Novell and McAfee have formed an alliance that will enable McAfee's ePolicy Orchestrator, ePO, enterprise security product customers to use Novell's Sentinel software to monitor and remediate network activity in real time to manage and mitigate business risk.


iv. McAfee, Novell Get Into Strategic Partnership

McAfee and Novell recently announced a strategic partnership, which would give McAfee’s ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) solution users a holistic view of both network events and users.


v. Novell Partners With McAfee

McAfee ePO customers can use Novell Sentinel to create an 'identity aware' environment to better manage and mitigate business risk.


vi. EMC, Symantec kick-off security barrage at RSA (also in here and here)

While McAfee isn’t trotting out new products at the conference, the security firm did have news related to its Security Innovation Alliance program, in which third-party vendors participate to integrate McAfee technologies, particularly the APIs for its ePolicy Orchestrator management console. The SIA program, now at 55 partners, this week officially added Authenex, Cryptotech, eIQnetworks, Novell, S21sec, Solidcore, Trimfant, and Telos, the firm said today.


People



Eric Schmidt, who used to run Novell, will be coming to Utah later this year.

The Utah Technology Council (UTC) is thrilled to announce Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Google Inc., as the keynote speaker for its 11th annual Hall of Fame black-tie gala this year. The 2009 Hall of Fame will be held on Friday, October 23, 2009, at the Grand Ballroom of the Grand America Hotel, Salt Lake City.


Move Networks has just bought Inuk Networks and there is an element of Novell in there.

Move Networks says, he led the company to eight consecutive years of revenue growth and profitability, growing annual revenues from $3 million to $229 million. His resume also includes executive positions at Vinca, Novell and WordPerfect.


Messaging Architects gains some Novell DNA as well.

Previously, Mr. Riediger was a Technology Sales Specialist and a Product Sales Specialist at Novell, with a focus on Collaboration. Additionally, he worked in Business Development for the Novell Teaming+Conferencing solution in the German-speaking area. Prior to joining Messaging Architects, Mr. Riediger worked for i365, a Seagate company specializing in data backup, electronic discovery, disaster recovery, and regulatory compliance, with responsibility for direct sales.


Partners



Novell is mentioned very briefly as a partner in the following new press releases:



Here is a company that is teaching Novell skills, not just Microsoft which seems to be its focus. It's about Firebrand Training.

Autonomy keeps putting Novell in its background information which it appends to press releases, the latest examples being:



Marketing



Little was added to YouTube in the past week, but here is Novell's stand at Linux Expo 2009.



There's also this about site design.



That's about it for now.

Recent Techrights' Posts

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
 
Links 27/03/2026: Studying Whale Births, Apple is Cancelling Products, Cambodia Arrests Journalists Over Photographs
Links for the day
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
Links 25/03/2026: Nations Return to Russian Oil and Burning Wood
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/03/2026: Resisting Authoritarianism and Why Slop Needs to Go Away
Links for the day
Fedora Maintainer-ship Using Slop (Mistakes) Would Make Fedora Less Reliable
It won't produce reliable code or stable systems one can rely upon
IBM's "Legacy Employees" (Experienced Workers, IBM Management Dubs Them 'Dinobabies')
This notion of "legacy employees" seems like something overlapping with "expensive" (well paid) staff, even if not entirely equivalent
EPO's "Current Industrial Actions Are Likely to Intensify Further."
There is another strike in 5 days
This Morning The Register MS Published Slop Promotion With the Term "AI" 15 Times In It. The Register MS Was (As Usual) Paid to Do This
This is not a serious publisher
SLAPP Censorship - Part 23 Out of 200: We Were Right All Along (for 2 Years) About Third Party Funding and Willingness to 'Break the Bank' in Pursuit of "Revenge"
How much damage can a person do to oneself in pursuit of cover-up of legitimate technical concerns?
Gnome Foundation Inc is in Trouble
the agenda is set GAFAM and IBM rather than donors
Links 25/03/2026: Airports Further Militarised, "Slopification and Its Discontents", Microsoft 'Open' 'Hey Hi' Shutting Things Down
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/03/2026: Blogging Fright and Absolutely Useless 'Apps' Made by Slop Machines
Links for the day
Rise in Energy Prices Will Significantly Accelerate the Death of So-called "AI Companies"
It should be noted that fake news about Microsoft OpenAI doubling workforce (mere words, not actions) can serve as a nice distraction from the death of Sora due to divestment
It's Always a Question of Trust
There's a widespread stigma of lawyers being manipulative and chronically dishonest
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Must More Carefully Investigate or Assess the Financial State of Law Firms in the UK
We'll cover this in depth in the future
GAFAM Mozilla Removes Theora Support, Now GNU Needs to Re-encode Videos
Mozilla used to mean something to Free software advocates
An Open Admission Profits Depend on Addiction
Proprietary software tends to be like this
IBM Americas President Ayman Antoun Comes to OpenText, Weeks Ahead the Mass Layoffs Begin
Is that what IBM will be good at?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 24, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 24, 2026