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

THE similarities between SUN and Novell are shown in light of the identical dilemmas that they face (as does Microsoft). Certain products either become a commodity or a monopoly.

Novell, for its part, has the same problem. Even while its Linux business continues to grow, Novell's traditional businesses continue to decline.

So, what should Sun (or Novell, for that matter) do? Given that there is no short-term panacea for long-term decline, I'm not sure that it can do other than what it already is doing. Well, except to divest itself of languishing business units that may perform better elsewhere, like carving out its hardware business to focus on software.

Some of Novell's legacy also appears very briefly in this article from IDG.

"How could parents know what the industry involves? We went from Novell and mainframes to AS400s and Microsoft to Microsoft and monster ERP systems in less than two decades. Now they want us to be 'business analysts' who understand business processes and use them as a basis for our development," one reader wrote online. "If I started college now, the industry would be completely different by the time I got done, right?"

Virtualisation

After a busy week of VMware announcements comes this announcement from AMD, which lists Novell among the many companies that are partners.

To celebrate its established leadership in hardware-assisted virtualization technology and the innovation of its virtualization partners, AMD declares March “Virtualization Ecosystem Month.” Throughout March, AMD and valued virtualization software partners including Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, Novell, Parallels, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Virtual Iron and VMware will participate in awareness activities about each company's important role in the widening adoption of virtualization technology.

In reference to this, says the following article:

Just days after that, Red Hat released its virtualization roadmap for the coming years, where it said the future development of its virtualization product portfolio will be based on KVM. VMware, the biggest player in the virtualization space, announced during VMworld a virtualization partnership with Novell.

Novell had a press release about ZENworks Application Virtualization 7.

Novell today announced the availability of Novell(R) ZENworks(R) Application Virtualization 7, which for the first time can be integrated with Novell ZENworks Configuration Management, to help customers and managed service provides reduce the cost of testing, packaging and configuring virtual applications. ZENworks Application Virtualization eliminates application compatibility problems with Windows* desktops for greater security and management. This easy-to-use solution simplifies management and ensures secure, successful application deployment and operating system upgrades.

PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 was covered in the following bunch of articles:

i. Novell delivers PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0 and lives up to promises

Novell has always offered excellent technology focused on resolving real business challenges. Since the company wanted to be the “glue” that tied Windows, UNIX and Linux workloads together to create a managable, secure environment, they’ve often been “the wiring in the wall” that many didn’t recognize. A while ago, Novell’s Richard Whitehead and I spoke about the upcoming release and rebranding of Novell’s Orchestrator, now Novell PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0. (see Novell updates PlateSpin and rebrands Orchestrator to refresh your memory). This time the good Mr. Whitehead’s “people” contacted me again to discuss the actual product release.

ii. Novell Unveils Virtual Environments Manager

PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0, formerly called Novell ZENworks Orchestrator, allows for control of multiple virtual environments from a single interface. The new release reportedly cuts down on time and costs associated with data center admins having to learn several management tools.

iii. Novell Rolls Out Manager For Virtual Environments

Novell has rolled out a lower-end management system to help IT shops manage both multiple virtual machines and physical resources including Microsoft's Hyper-V, VMware ESX, and Xen integrated into SUSE Linux Enterprise.

PlateSpin Orchestrate 2.0, formerly called Novell ZENworks Orchestrator, allows for control of multiple virtual environments from a single interface. The new release reportedly cuts down on time and costs associated with data center admins having to learn several management tools.

In that last one above, the headline "Novell Rolls Out Open Source Manager For Virtual Environments" was a mistake. It was silently corrected to: "Novell Rolls Out Manager For Virtual Environments"

Mail

BlackBerry's support for Groupwise was mentioned briefly.

RIM’s BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Enterprise Server has traditionally run on Novell Groupwise and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Exchange servers, which covers the vast majority of companies out there, but there’s still a segment running Linux that hasn’t gotten any love whatsoever.

Mirapoint too has a new product that supports Groupwise (this wire even reached MSNBC)

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.

Groupwise support also comes from Atempo.

The new software features an enhanced ADAM Policy Manager module that satisfies mailbox management requirements regardless of an organization's mail server or architecture. The software's open architecture enables ADAM to archive emails from a wide range of e-mail servers. This gives Atempo the flexibility to support a wide range of messaging architectures in addition to Microsoft Exchange, including Lotus Notes, Novell Groupwise and most other commercial IMAP based e-mail servers. The Policy Manager module also gives authorized users enhanced functionality, with the ability to delete stubbed e-mails and implement automatic deletion or archival policies to any message based on the user's specified criteria.

People

A former Novell employee has just become the CEO of Fusion-io.

HP has decided to use the technology as an accelerator for its BladeSystem. Fusion-io had just signed the OEM deal with HP and then found HP wanted a quote in the release from David Bradford, the new CEO. He has been quietly promoted from Fusion-io's General Counsel to CEO within the last four weeks. Bradford had previously worked at Novell, reporting to Eric Schmidt when he was Novell's CEO, and was ironically brought into Fusion-io in 2008 by the then-CEO Don Basile, the man he has now replaced.

More Novell DNA enters UVEF:

The firm said that Roger Andrus, Executive Director of the Business Development Corporation (BDC) of Provo, is the group's 2009 board chair, and that it has tapped Brock Blake of FundingUniverse, Matt Bowman of Novell, and Cary Snowden of Square Compass as new members of the group's board.

BrandWeek has published an interview with Novell's marketing chief. Nothing there is exceptionally interesting, but here is the story behind Novell's current identity:

Based on the analysis we selected a new positioning, "Novell: Making IT Work as One," that we believe fits the criteria for good positioning which is that it be credible, relevant, unique, durable, aligned, and actionable. With an effective positioning in place we then created a solutions framework that allows us to address market segments with common wants and needs and to talk in terms customers understand and care about.

What's covered in this interview has nothing to do with Linux, SUSE, or open source (let alone FS or GNU). Novell's corporate identity is still somewhat separate from it all.

Shane had covered explanations of the Novell/Microsoft deal as given by Stafford Masie [1, 2, 3] until he left Novell in order to join Google. Well, he has just left Google too.

Stafford Masie, Chief Executive of Google South Africa has resigned from his position at the company. Masie, who joined Google in 2007 after a stint as South African country manager of Novell, cited personal reasons for the split from the global tech giant.

This is also covered here.

ITWeb today reported that Google South Africa country manager Stafford Masie has resigned. Masie took office in mid-2007 after heading up Linux vendor Novell in South Africa.

There is no word on what he might do next, but given the turbulence in Novell South Africa, it is unlikely he'll ever return. ⬆