Orem, Utah - With GroupWise 5.2 slated to ship any day, Novell, Inc. already is working on a follow-on, code-named Surge.
According to customers who have been briefed, Surge will accelerate the Internet makeover that GroupWise badly needs to keep pace with rival groupware/messaging products such as Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus Notes, Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange and Netscape Communications Corp.'s Communicator. These customers said Surge is likely to include client support for the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP); improved calendaring and scheduling; and an enhanced Web Access client.
In addition, Surge is expected to feature the fruits of Novell's long anticipated Jefferson Project, although this Web-based document management technology may eventually emerge as an add-on rather than as an integrated part of GroupWise.
Novell officials also have spoken in the past of adding support for Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) and Secure Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) in upcoming versions of GroupWise. However, officials declined to confirm details about Surge's feature set or timetable.
"The release schedule and feature set is not fixed for the next release," said Eldon Greenwood, director of product management for the Novell GroupWare Division. "But NNTP is one of the technology areas that we want to fill ."
So, too, is S/MIME, he said, despite its recent derailment from the Internet Engineering Task Force's standards track. "It's our belief that [RSA Data Security, Inc.] will try to get S/MIME back on the standards track," Greenwood said. "It's a customer requirement [for Novell] whether it becomes a standard or not; we just hope it becomes a standard."
GroupWise customers said they are pleased with Novell's continued emphasis on extending Internet hooks and functionality.
"Like Netscape, they want to put LDAP integration inside of the GroupWise client so that it can find out addresses of other people in other directories, like 411," said one regular beta tester who requested anonymity. "That will actually be pretty significant [because] right now you're limited to what's in the GroupWise address book.
"They showed us a bunch of fancy things involving scheduling that go significantly beyond what they have now," he added. "They said this stuff was speculative, though."
Another customer that participated in the GroupWise 5.2 beta believes Novell is doing good work with its Web client.
"The [GroupWise] Java Web Access is really sharp," said Travis Berkley, supervisor of LAN support services at the University of Kansas. "That just needs one of two more features thrown in, and it will be just as good as the native desktop client."
What's in Version 5.2?
As for the imminent release of GroupWise 5.2, the beta testers were universal in their praise. The upgrade adds support for Post Office Protocol 3, Internet Message Access Protocol 4 and LDAP on the server; dial-up Simple Mail Transfer Protocol; and in the Web client, support for the HTML 3.2 frames environment.
"Early September is what we're saying, and it could conceivably be [this] week," said Greenwood, of Version 5.2's shipment date.
Novell: (801) 222-6000
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