Getting tickled over Novell’s Salmon catch

I saw a headline last week that grabbed my attention: “Novell catches Salmon to beef up services.” Well, it is eye-catching but it was the sub-head that intrigued me: “The open-source networking specialist has acquired a U.K. consultancy company to extend the range of its service business.” I did wonder why Cambridge consultants weren’t enough for Novell.

Turns out, it’s another one of those confusing moments caused by the differences between British and American English – two countries, it is frequently said, separated by a common language. The “U.K. consultancy company” turns out to be Salmon, LLC, a custom services and applications provider that’s strong in the retail and financial sector, especially in the U.K. and Australia. Its expertise is in providing Web-based services including content provisioning, order-entry, cataloging, authentication and more, using both open source and proprietary tools including Novell’s own SilverStream products.

Now the former networking company can really proclaim itself as the enterprise software company providing, as it does, application platforms (SuSE Linux), file print and network services (NetWare), identity services (eDirectory), collaborative services (GroupWise) and all of the management tools (ZENworks) needed to keep it all running in good order.

Those of you running NetWare in a small part of your organization, almost as some sort of backwater outpost of your corporate empire, now have even more ammunition to preach the gospel of NetWare when it’s time to project your organization’s IT needs into the future. Web services are all the buzz right now, and you can offer real world-class expertise with the aid of your Novell sales people. Application platforms, open source modules and a cadre of people (from Salmon) ready to customize whatever you need. You can offer all the buzz, all the hype, all the rage – and slip in a request for some new NetWare 6.5 at the same time. As the lawyer, Billy Flynn, sings before going into court in the musical “Chicago”:

Give ’em the old razzle dazzle

Razzle Dazzle ’em

Give ’em an act with lots of flash in it

And the reaction will be passionate

Give ’em the old hocus pocus

Bead and feather ’em

How can they see with sequins in their eyes

The people making the financial decisions have voted down NetWare time and time again because there was no razzle and there was no dazzle. Novell is now providing the “beads and feathers” of Linux and Web services and applications – make good use of it.