Novell messaging

In a recent press release Novell highlights that more than 400 products now leverage the network management and security infrastructure provided by NDS. To whip up developer interest in NDS Novell is holding a Developer Contest with prizes. For the best commercial applications Novell will award up to $3 million in investment funding from their Internet Equity Fund. For the best custom (in-house) applications Novell will award up to $25,000 cash. This contest began in May and will run through August 1999.

Two winners in Novell's Developer Contest have been announced so far. They are HiTecSoft Corp. with its WebConsole 3.0 graphical network management solution, and Clemson University in the custom applications category with its authentication Server network security solution.

At Networld+Interop 98 in Atlanta, Novell also showcased the following directory-enabled applications: SBT Accounting Systems, Inc. - SBT Executive Series; Plus Factor Software, Inc. - PlusFactor Office Pack; NetPro - DS Expert; Netoria - SF Lock; Network Associates - NetShield; Office-Net KKT - Niagra Mail; and Pervasive Software - Pervasive SQL.

My take is that while Novell's strategy for fomenting NDS directory enabled applications will not induce thousands of Microsoft developers to re-host from NT back to NetWare, it will enable Novell to establish itself and NDS as a key platform for directory enabled applications that can run on multiple heterogeneous platforms, including NT.