Attendees heading to Novell’s annual BrainShare customer conference later this month should anticipate the company announcing a variety of products designed to flesh out its Linux strategy.
Attendees heading to Novell’s annual BrainShare customer conference later this month should anticipate the company announcing a variety of products designed to flesh out its Linux strategy .
Having acquired Linux desktop vendor Ximian and the industry’s No. 2 Linux vendor, SuSe , over the past year, Novell is expected to tighten integration between those companies’ products and its own.
“What you are probably going to see is [the company] bringing together some pieces of the acquisitions coupled with [Novell’s] security, identity management and Extend strategies,” says Earl Perkins, a vice president at Meta Group. “They are trying to put together a vision that brings together the Linux server and desktop and their security and identity management play.”
According to sources, among the previews Novell is expected to make at BrainShare are:
• The integration of Novell’s ZENworks management suite and Ximian’s Red Carpet Enterprise. The company already has placed ZENworks and Red Carpet Enterprise under the Novell Resource Management umbrella but not yet integrated them into one product.
• Details of a future unified collaboration package that includes GroupWise, iFolder, Novell’s standards-based NetMail and Messenger, its instant-messaging package.
• An upgrade of Nterprise Linux Services for small and midsize businesses, which makes it easier to deploy and is less expensive. Nterprise Linux Services consists of eDirectory with DirXML, iFolder, iPrint, NetMail, Extend, ZENworks and ZeroG, an installation service.
• Details of the Novell Collaboration Solution for Linux, a collection of Linux products that includes GroupWise 6.5 for Linux, the Ximian Desktop 2, Ximian Evolution and GAIM, an instant-messaging product. Ximian Evolution is an e-mail, calendaring, meeting scheduling, contact management and task-list package for Linux and Unix. GroupWise 6.5 is presently in beta test.
• Upgrades across its Extend and identity management product lines.
• Two new Linux certification programs and a project to make an open source version of iFolder.
• Confirmation that HP’s ProLiant BL20p blade servers will support NetWare 6.5.
Novell declined to comment on its BrainShare announcements. The company says that as many as 25% of an expected 6,000-strong audience will be first-time attendees drawn by an interest in Linux.
When Novell unveiled its Linux plans at last year’s BrainShare, users said they hoped the company wouldn’t domineer other open source vendors.
“Novell really has to embrace the Linux community; they can’t afford to alienate them,” says John Enck, vice president and research director at Gartner. “It’s definitely a tricky thing for them to pull off to keep their current base happy, but still open their arms and make the Linux people feel welcome and loved.”
Customer reaction to Novell’s Linux push has generally been positive.
“The whole Linux foundation is such a great direction for Novell,” says Gary Hensley, director of IT for beverage company Odwalla in Half Moon Bay, Calif. Hensley has NetWare and Windows servers. “It should put them in a great position to compete.”
“Moving GroupWise onto Linux is a good move strategically for Novell,” says Joe Doupnik, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Utah State University in Logan. “The more support we have for it, the better.” Doupnik has at least 1,000 Linux servers installed in his environment.
