By year-end, Novell, Inc. was supposed to ship a revamped Web server that would be faster, easier to administer and better for building applications.
But after several delays and months of silence, customers are wondering what will ever become of the product designed to be IntranetWare's strongest link to the World Wide Web.
Why the uncertainty? Novell's work has been upstaged by its own spinoff - Novonyx, Inc. A joint venture started last June by Novell and Netscape to port SuiteSpot applications to NetWare 4.X, Novonyx is set to deliver Netscape's Enterprise Server 3.0 Web server for NetWare in December. "Why would anybody want Novell's pitiful Web server if they could get one of the industry kingpin servers?" said Ira Machefsky, an analyst with Giga Information Group, Inc., in Santa Clara, Calif.
Novell officials apparently agree. "We know the only real advantage our product has over the Novonyx one is price at this point," said Jim Greene, product marketing manager for Novell's platform division. The Novell Web Server comes free with IntranetWare.
Novell officials say they will deliver a new version of the Novell Web Server that can rival the Novonyx offer. They just do not know when or what the product will contain. "We know we have to reevaluate the features we need to add to our Web server that will present a stronger argument for existing users to stick with us," Greene said.
The most recent iteration of the Novell Web Server, Version 3.0, was released in March and provides some advantage over other third-party Web servers because it offers user access control via ties to Novell Directory Services (NDS). Novonyx will offer that same level of NDS integration.
Although Novonyx has yet to outline pricing, industry observers expect the cost to be comparable to the $1,295 Netscape charges for versions of the Web server that run on Windows NT or Unix. Regardless of price, existing Novell users say a switch to the Novonyx offering is a real possibility.
Some already have forsaken the Novell offering. Hillsborough County, Fla., uses IntranetWare for file and print services on its 2,000-seat network, but does not use the Novell Web Server. "When we did the upgrade, I looked at it and it was like a little applet they threw in there just in case you didn't have an alternate route to the Web," said Bill Kanneberg, technology manager for the county.
Hallmark, Inc. currently uses Unix-based Web servers to deliver Web access to users on its 60-server NetWare 4.X network. Technical analyst Dan Blevins never considered employing Novell Web Server be-cause it was not robust enough to compete with the Unix machines. "But I have heard good things about Enterprise Server and could see that as a better way for local users to interface to the Web instead of having them go over the corporate net to the Unix boxes, Blevins said.
Novell itself does little to support its Web server. Neither BorderManager, Novell's Internet/intranet management suite, nor the new Web-based components of GroupWise offer any specialized integration with the latest Novell Web Server.
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