Some rivalries just never die. Despite the love fest between Microsoft and Novell over Linux, in many other areas the two are die-hard competitors. Enterprise configuration management falls into that category. Microsoft announced last week that Systems Center Configuration Manager 2007 (the update to Systems Management Server) will begin shipping in about two months. Novell, too, has already launched ZenWorks Configuration Management, the latest addition to its systems management portfolio.
Despite interoperability pacts between the two companies, Novell seems to think nothing of targeting pure Microsoft shops with ZenWorks, either. According to a Computerworld story :
“‘We think there is a very compelling rationale that says we can take these great Novell tools and deploy them to customers who don’t have eDirectory and Open Enterprise Server, people who have nothing but Windows Server and (Microsoft) apps,'” said Ross Chavelier, Novell Canada’s CTO.”
