Summary: Coverage of key items from the past week's Novell event in Salt Lake City



BrainShare has just ended and it was a lot quieter than we had expected. It was nothing like BrainShare 2008 as there were not as many announcements, but here we go:

After a one-year absence caused by the recession, Novell Inc. has brought back its BrainShare conference in Salt Lake City.

More here:

"We have an economic impact we're projecting at eight to nine million dollars for the tournament, so, this weekend, downtown will be abuzz," said Shawn Stinson of the Salt Lake City Visitors and Convention Bureau. "We've got ... the [NCAA games] as well as the Novell conference going on right now."

Here is what Novell's CMO John Dragoon had to say about BrainShare when it started (he also wrote about the ending).

Today is a great day! One of the highlights of the year for Novell’s 3,600 employees starts today and goes through this Thursday – Novell’s BrainShare Conference.

Novell's marketing people wrote about day 1 and there were also many marketing videos, such as:

Keynote Opening Video Day 1



Keynote Opening Video Day 2



Additionally we found:

Storyboard Demo Intros Day 1



Storyboard Demo Intros Day 2



Here is the ASG Brainshare introduction.



On around the very same day Novell jumped because of expectations that it will be sold.



Ron Hovsepian got interviewed and he didn't say anything out of line.



From the same series we have this video.



For entertainment purposes, Novell also invited some rock musicians whose performance was captured in video [1, 2, 3, 4].

Textual coverage from this event mostly came from the VAR Guy, who prior to the event wrote down "5 Questions for Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian".

1. Other Deals Coming?: Novell’s board rejected Elliott Associates’ unsolicited $2 billion bid for the company on March 20. Novell’s board said it would seek to increase shareholder value in other ways — potentially through share buybacks, strategic relationships or perhaps even the sale of the company. So, um: Does Novell expect Elliott Associates to raise its bid for the company? Or might somebody else step forward in a potential deal?

[...]

3. SUSE Linux Appliances: Nearly a dozen ISVs — from Ingres to Groundwork Open Source — are touting Novell’s SUSE Linux Appliance and SUSE Studio strategy at BrainShare. That’s a promising start. But are channel partners really deploying the appliances from customers, and profiting from them?

On a somewhat related note, Novell in recent years has used third-party research to suggest SUSE Linux is maintaining or taking market share from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Novell’s claims adjust from quarter to quarter. But The VAR Guy would like to know: Does Novell still think it’s taking Linux market share from key rivals?

More from the VAR Guy about SUSE appliances:

As The VAR Guy suspected: Nearly a dozen software partners are set to rally around Novell’s SUSE Linux Appliance strategy at BrainShare, a customer and partner conference held this week in Utah. Here’s a look at the SUSE Linux partners — from Black Diamond to Zmanda — and the implications for Novell’s channel partners. Plus, a look at potential software appliance partners Novell still needs to recruit.

Regarding Novell's proprietary side, the VAR Guy wrote a series of posts in another site of his [1, 2, 3].

More than 2,500 customers and partners are attending this week’s Novell BrainShare conference, but most of the attending partners are VARs rather than MSPs.

 

I suspect a good portion of MSPmentor’s readers built and supported Novell NetWare networks back in the 1990s. Fast forward to the present, and Novell BrainShare starts today in Salt Lake City, Utah. Bloggers from our sister site, The VAR Guy, are at the conference, covering Novell’s channel strategy for integrators and VARs. But back here on MSPmentor I have to wonder: How many MSPs really care about Novell these days?

At the event, Novell made an announcement about ZENworks [1, 2] and another press release talks about mail archiving, even Web conferencing with Dimdim [1, 2]. It's not clear why Dimdim needs a relationship with Novell.

So in summary, not much has happened in BrainShare 2010. Novell just spent a lot of money gathering people. It's probably the last BrainShare ever because Novell is up for sale. ⬆