05.10.08
Do-No-Evil Saturday – Part II: Novell’s Business Activities, Bar SUSE and GNU/Linux
Security and Identity Management
Novell’s PR department boasts another award.
I’m pleased to say we did not leave the awards event empty-handed. Novell customer BASF received an award for “Best internal Identity Management project” for implementing identity management within a complex corporate structure and excelling in consistent approaches to centralized auditing.
Jeff Jaffe has a go at an outline of Identity Management plans.
Novell has long been a leader in technology for Identity Management – founding the entire discipline in the 1990s. That puts us in a position where we are the first to recognize new trends in this area.
Novell makes a short appearance in this article about building an identity bus.
One of the most interesting “panel discussions” I had at the European Identity Conference didn’t have anyone in the audience. Kuppinger & Cole senior analyst Felix Gaehtgens gathered Microsoft’s Kim Cameron, Quest’s Jackson Shaw (former colleagues at Zoomit) and Novell’s Dale Olds for a video interview (which may or may not show up at the KCP Web site) about the “Identity Bus” .
Inc.com has this new article about Security Management from Novell
The new solution addresses governance, risk and compliance, human resources and enterprise resource planning, providing customers with access to policy management and enforcement capabilities that help reduce redundant administrative costs, automate manual processes, simplify password management, and adapt to changing employee structures.
More on security with a different slant you’ll find right here:
Hackers are improving and evolving viruses by the day, making it even tougher to prevent infection, but being vigilant can pay off, writes Bryan Collins.
[...]
However, Brian Green, technical director of Novell UK and Ireland, warned against taking security measures too far.
“That would have a real impact on me personally because I tend to use USB memory keys to transfer data,” he said about having his USB stick blocked. “How [Novell] have addressed that . . . is to allow me to use the USB memory but actually only to use USB memory sticks that are formatted by Novell.”
Strategy and Skills
Novell keeps harping about relying on its channel partners.
Speroni believes Novell had slightly neglected its channel partners, but since the second half of fiscal year 2007, ended October 31, 2007, the firm has been rebuilding its partner strategy by offering a stronger focus on specialization per business unit.
Be aware of this repeated warning from a reader (‘Open Honesty’) about Novell back-stabbing its channel partners.
Here is a migration from Novell to Microsoft.
This is deep in computer-nerdland, but there’s also a sure-to-be-spendy and hair-raising transition from Novell Groupwise e-mail to Microsoft Exchange, a Novell-to-Microsoft inventory/distribution/configuration system switch, and upgrades from Office 2000 to Office 2007. (Close-circuit to Stribites: Get to know “ribbons”!)
Some short bits about Novell technologies skills you’ll find in this article from the press in New Zealand.
Swann won’t say where he has found such carnage, but admits it ranges from SMEs to well-known organisations.
Computer Concepts also claims skills in clustering, not just SANs, with skills in Microsoft, Novell and Citrix. It is an authorised repairer for HP and IBM and a Cisco premier partner.
Ex-Novellers
Consider these some minor items for the curious. Robert Frankenberg, a former Novell head, is involved in this $40.6 million sale of iProvo.
iProvo, the city’s troubled fiber-optic network, is being sold to Broadweave Networks.
[...]
The company is headed by Fraser Bullock, former chief operating officer of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and former Novell head Robert Frankenberg.
Novell’s former CEO receives some credit for being among the spoilers of a Yahoo/Microsoft deal.
Steve Ballmer and Eric Schmidt have tangled before. Microsoft certainly got the best of Novell way back when. Now Schmidt may have had his revenge.
There were apparently some moves (departures) at the top of Novell Canada because Ross Chevalier has just been promoted to fill a gap.
Ross Chevalier has been promoted to president of Novell Canada Ltd. He was previously Novell Canada’s chief technology officer. Katie McAuliff has been promoted to VP of channels at Novell Americas. Novell Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL) provides a Linux platform and a portfolio of integrated IT management software. Novell Canada has its headquarters in Markham.
That’s about all for now. For the SUSE post we will need to transcode and produce some Ogg Theora files, so please bear with us. It’ll come later today. █
Doug said,
May 10, 2008 at 9:44 am
re: Security and Identity Management ..
I wouldn’t mind if these efforts were designed with keeping my records safe from ‘management’, instead of which I suspect, it’s designed so as ‘management’ can more easlier keep tabs on what I’m up to. And of course, as a single point of failure, it makes it easier for nefarious types to hack in and totally compromise a system.
Like, I don’t understand what my medical records are doing on a server in America, never been there and most probably never going there ..
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 10, 2008 at 10:37 am
Security nowadays means all sorts of different things. Like Homeland ‘Security’, which is spying on people (‘national’ security), patents for ’securing’ so-called ‘innovations’ and DRM for ’securing’ content. It has become somewhat of a spin/propaganda word (turning negatives to positives).