* The Novell-Microsoft deal continues to be a major topic of conversation
Editor’s Note: We regret to let you know that starting in 2007, we will no longer be publishing the Novell NetWare Tips Newsletter. To reflect Novell’s market direction, starting Jan. 3, you will begin receiving our Linux & Open Source newsletter, written by Network World Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth and published every Monday and Wednesday. Coverage of Novell and its products will continue at NetworkWorld.com. If you would like to update your newsletter subscription or sign up for others, such as the Unified Communications Newsletter or Dave Kearns’ Identity Management newsletter, please go to the Subscription Services link below.
The Novell-Microsoft deal of a couple of weeks ago continues to be the major topic of conversation among Novell fans as well as those who follow Open Source Software. And rightly so as this is a major event on many different levels. There are parts of the agreement that favor Microsoft and parts that favor Novell. But what about the rest of us? Is there anything in it that really favors network and IT managers?
– What do you think the deal means? Discuss.
Some will point to the agreement for joint effort to produce compatible virtual platforms so that Linux can run on Windows and Windows can run on Linux. But that’s not really anything new. VMware has done both for many years. Microsoft’s Virtual Server and Novell’s Xen are currently delivering that functionality. The joint development effort should help smooth out any rough edges, but it’s not a big deal.
No, to me, the biggest things for you and me in the agreement are:
* “Web services for managing physical and virtual servers. Web services and service-oriented architectures continue to be one of the defining ways software companies can deliver greater value to customers. Microsoft and Novell will undertake work to make it easier for customers to manage mixed Windows and SUSE Linux Enterprise environments and to make it easier for customers to federate Microsoft Active Directory with Novell eDirectory.”
* “Document format compatibility. Microsoft and Novell have been focusing on ways to improve interoperability between office productivity applications. The two companies will now work together on ways for OpenOffice and Microsoft Office system users to best share documents, and both will take steps to make translators available to improve interoperability between Open XML and OpenDocument formats.”
If Novell’s ZEN and Microsoft’s MOM can be made to work together, then anyone with a mixed network will have an easier time. Merely going from two to one monitoring stations would help, but this promises to allow tying all of the management under a single management console and that’s essential for keeping your network in good health.
The document format agreement should reduce the headache of document translation that normally falls to IT, but it will also be a boon to large enterprises (commercial, educational and government) which for one reason or another need to maintain multiple formats while still allowing access by all to all. The “tempest in a teapot” that incompatible formats can cause was best illustrated in the machinations within the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts last year when dueling legislators and state CIOs raged about document formats. What’s important is that the documents continue to be able to be read – not which format they’re written in! This historic agreement between Novell and Microsoft should ensure that we can continue to read them all.
