* What products fit where?
Okay, so I may have exaggerated a tad when in last week’s newsletter I said that NewsForge editor Lee Schlesinger had called Novell “a marketing powerhouse.” But he did conclude that Novell’s marketing was better than Red Hat’s. That prompted long time reader Tim Houghton to opine that “…Linux is in trouble if Novell is considered a marketing powerhouse. Does anyone (other than newly indoctrinated Novell employees) understand what products/services are being touted under the uNsure, iNept, uNclear marketing program?”
Tim, of course, was referring to Novell’s reorganization under the four banners of Nsure, exteNd, Nterprise and Ngage. It has been 18 months since that reorganization, brought about when Novell acquired Silverstream Software, which is now the exteNd part. Subsequent acquisitions of Ximian (with its Linux tools) and SuSE (with its Linux operating system) caused a small amount of re-alignment.
For instance, eDirectory which had been part of the Nterprise division (and you thought I was going to say Nsure, didn’t you?) has been moved into the exteNd area along with the Silverstream products. Novell originally described exteNd as technology that “…helps companies rapidly build advanced Web applications that leverage existing systems to deliver relevant services to key business constituents.” That’s now been changed to “Novell exteNd is a Web service oriented application development suite, that simplifies and accelerates the development of interactive business solutions that leverage existing systems.” Still doesn’t explain why eDirectory would be in this area, does it?
Truth is, the Nterprise division was just getting too big. All of the Ximian and SuSE products were dumped into it along with Cluster Services, GroupWise, iFolder, NetMail, NetWare, Nterprise Branch Office, Nterprise Linux Services, Small Business Suite, and ZENworks. Nsure, which is described as the products that “give you the power to control access so you can confidently deliver the right resources to the right people,” is also pretty crowded: Account Management, BorderManager, iChain, Novell Modular Authentication Services, Nsure Audit, Nsure Identity Manager, Secure Access, and SecureLogin.https://www.suse.de/en/ and https://www.ximian.com/). In this regard, they resemble Cambridge Technology Partners (the “Ngage” component), which still maintains its own name and offices three years after the Novell acquisition.
Another thing to keep in mind is that both SuSE and Ximian – even though they are supposedly part of Novell’s Nterprise division – still maintain their separate identities (see
It sure looks like it’s time for another realignment, or at least for some new names for the old alignment. Perhaps we’ll hear something at BrainShare later this month.
In the meantime, be assured that Novell will never rival Microsoft in the marketing area just as Microsoft is no competition to Novell in the server operating system stakes. But if I had to choose between better marketing and better technology, then bring on uNsure, iNept, uNclear any day.
