03.28.09
Novell News Summary – Part III: Novell Products, People, and Toxic Waste
THE Novell-funded IDC ’study’ which we last mentioned and summarised a week ago is still being kicked around despite the obvious bias and the source which is a mouth to rent (or rant).
So it’s not surprising that 65 percent of IT professionals recently polled by IDC said they plan to increase Linux server workloads by 10 percent or more this year. IDC carried out the poll for Novell, and the draft results were reported in InformationWeek.
Had it come from a reputable source working independently, then — maybe then — conclusions will be easier to reach. But the whole thing is just marketing.
Over at Novell’s CTO blog, we find the “agility” buzzword from Jeff Jaffe repeated endlessly. It’s almost as though they encourage the staff to recite this word. Is it a motto now?
Novell’s strategic direction is being alluded to in a new CBR article.
Sean Larner, Managed Objects’ international president at the time of its acquisition by Novell (and now CEO at file-sharing start-up Broolz) explained why he believed business service management is so different from the systems management that came before it, telling CBR: “Managed Objects is not a management company. What we do is take information from any source, whether or not it is a CMDB [configuration management database] and visualise it.”
There are two new articles in the ‘Microsoft press’ which mentions Novell rather briefly. Novell is being used as Microsoft’s ‘model’ for cooperation with Microsoft (payment for undisclosed software patents), so it’s not particularly surprising. The first article is titled “Novell Wants a Partner on Every Deal” and the second is about IE8.
But there’s more to Novell’s new partner plan than just a few tweaks. There is, to hear the company’s channel executives talk about it, a renewed and very genuine commitment to partners, led in part by former Microsoft channel executive Steve Hale, now Novell’s vice president for the global datacenter channel, and by 15-year Novell veteran Scott Lewis. Lewis, vice president of partner marketing and enablement for the company, said that Novell is looking for partners not just to sell and implement SUSE Linux, the company’s flagship product, but also to sell and support its other offerings, as well.
Microsoft’s open source strategy is foggier than an ’80s hair band’s stage show. Here’s what I’ve been able to decipher through the haze: Microsoft wants to be friendly to certain open source tools like those from Novell. It also wants Windows to manage the open source tools, rather than having open source tools manage Windows.
Finance
Novell (NOVL) is sort of being upgraded, but the hypothesis upon which this is based neglects the disappointing results that Novell announced about a month ago.
Novell assumed with a Buy at Cross Research; tgt $6 . Cross Research assumes coverage of NOVL with a Buy and sets target price at $6. The firm believes that the upside story for NOVL is that economic conditions could motivate IT professionals to seek ‘more for less’ in terms of cost reductions from more expensive solutions like Unix and Windows.
Novell was under $3 not so long in the past. Regardless of Novell’s performance, the CEO always receives bonuses, year after year.
Past
Going further into the past, Novell’s client for Windows is being demoed for its problems in this new video which someone uploaded to YouTube some days ago.
NetWare was mentioned briefly in this article and this one too.
ICON Manager, which currently provides these advanced capabilities for Windows and VMware environments, now adds support for Linux in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will support Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V by early 2009. ICON Manager also supports simplified storage provisioning and management for other operating systems, including UNIX, Mac OS and Novell NetWare.
Microsoft’s channel partner strategy is essentially the backbone of its entire enterprise business; its care and feeding of channel partners is what differentiated it and allowed it to obliterate competitors like Novell in the applications server market during the 1990s.
SJVN wrote about obsolete operating systems and Novell had its place in his list.
In a way, it’s because of BSD/OS that we have Linux now. BSD/OS’ creator, (BSDi) Berkeley Software Design Inc., ended up in what you could describe as the first of the open-source lawsuits — AT&T/USL vs. BSDi-in 1992. After Novell bought Unix and AT&T’s Unix System Laboratories, Novell dropped the lawsuit. In the meantime, though, little work was done with any of the BSDs. And, so a Finnish college student named Linus Torvalds decided to build his own Unix-like operating system. And, the rest as they say, is history.
IDG mentioned Novell certifications, but the article is about something else altogether.
Another example: Users’ communities. Some smart vendors have been able to recognize that their products can generate passion among their customers — and they foster that passion. In the old days, this was through structured training and certification programs (Cisco and Novell leap to mind).
Virtualisation
Speculations about Oracle and Red Hat seem poorly substantiated, but the discussion about this has Novell’s virtualisation strategy mentioned in this couple of new articles.
Novell (NOVL): Also has built virtualization offerings on Xen. Also owns SUSE Linux, which could replace Oracle’s own version of the open-source OS. Some overlap in identity management and systems management.Market cap $1.5 billion; has more than $1.1 billion in net cash.
Novell (NOVL): Also has built virtualization offerings on Xen. Also owns SUSE Linux, which could replace Oracle’s own version of the open-source OS. Some overlap in identity management and systems management.Market cap $1.5 billion; has more than $1.1 billion in net cash.
Linux Pro Magazine cited us on previous erroneous speculations from the same source (Katherine Egbert). Red Hat told us it cannot comment on it.
Amid tough time, SKyPRO buys FaxGWise, which integrates with Novell’s GroupWise.
FaxGWise integrates with Novell GroupWise to provide an optimized solution for sending, receiving, and managing faxes. It has been available released in 2002 and is now at Version 4.
Blackberry and its partners keep boasting support of GroupWise too.
Blackberry Enterprise Server tightly integrates with leading email platforms such as the IBM, Lotus, Domino, Microsoft, Exchange and Novell GroupWise.
People
Danese Cooper, who is known to many as a Linux/FOSS diva, changed jobs and mentioned Novell.
Cooper said, “In a classic pattern of open source adoption and growth, R is being used to expand predictive choices at places like Google, Facebook, Novell, and throughout the life sciences and financial services industries. My role is to build bridges between REvolution Computing and the expanding community of R so that everyone can benefit from a robust exchange of ideas and experimentation.”
John Edwards will speak on behalf of Move Networks. He has history at Novell where he served as a Vice President.
This experience includes serving as Chairman and CEO of I-Link Corporation (enhanced VoIP services), President of Coresoft (object-oriented business systems for telephony and data), President of Digital Research (owners of DR-DOS), and Executive Vice President of Novell (enterprise networking).
Also from Move Networks comes a move in the Board of Directors and there is some Novell history to be spotted.
Mr. Butterfield also held executive positions in the software industry with companies such as Vinca Corporation, Novell and WordPerfect Corporation.
Broadweave kicked out its CEO and we find Novell roots in this article as well.
“We feel a great deal of appreciation for Steve,” said Moon, a former WordPerfect and Novell executive and chief information officer for the state of Utah.
Some people’s only connection with Novell is a certification, as in the following case:
Carson Wells, a former Navy engineer, Microsoft certified systems engineer, Cisco certified network associate, certified Novell administrator, and CompTIA A-plus certified professional with 15 years of experience in IP telephony, will administer the Cisco program for Anova.
Utah
Novell’s parking lot in Provo is being used to collect hazardous waste. Maybe Novell can bring out Moonlight and Mono to the collection point.
The waste-collection companies are making the disposal of certain household items easy from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 28, in the Novell parking area in Provo’s East Bay. Any resident of Utah County can take their hazardous waste to the collection point.
Utah County will host a hazardous waste collection day on Saturday, March 28, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., in the Novell parking lot in Provo. Certain items commonly found in garages will not be accepted at this event, such as old tires and electronics. Electronics should be take to the North Pointe Solid Waste Special Service District, which can be reached at 801-225-8538. Tires can be taken to landfill transfer stations, and disposal may require a fee.
Marketing
Novell is still clogging up YouTube with promotional videos and the latest additions are case studies that include Office Depot.
On the other hand, some videos are not promotional but instructional instead. Here, for example, is a new one about Novell Support Advisor 1.0.
Can Novell not host its own videos and make them available as Ogg? █
