A peak at Novell’s Virtual Office

A peak at Novell’s Virtual Office

Novell’s Virtual Office provides end users with a Web-based virtualization of network resources. These resources revolve around the creation and participation in Virtual Teams. We found that team members got the ability to share common applications and files, join in online discussions (a combination of chat and instant messaging) with file resources. The also could use the Virtual Team interface to check Web e-mail, synchronize files (a resource called iFolder), and use virtualized printing resources (iPrint) and Novell eGuide – a customizable resource/indexing service. Of the Virtual Office Resources, we tested iFolder extensively and found it to be the handiest of the resources. We were able to load individual iFolders then impose either the default or customizable synchronization rules. We used a logon script to start the synchronization process, which is as easy as running PDA synchronization software. IPrint, which uses a discovery protocol to find, understand and adapt to various network printers, was handy but difficult to use across the lab’s firewall.

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