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"Intranet Technologies May Help Novell, Users Say"
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"Novell Maps Web Route"
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Intranet Technologies May Help ...
By SHARON FISHER
NEW YORK Users say they hope a series of Internet-related
announcements from Novell will help boost the company's
turnaround efforts.
Criticized of late for lacking an Internet strategy, Novell earlier this
week launched an effort to reshape itself as an intranet company.
At Internet World here, the company made a number of
announcements, including plans to ship a Java software
developer kit, a new version of its Web Server software and a CD
of early access technologies.
Don Ramsey, network administrator at the Kettering Medical
Center, Dayton, Ohio, said he is "very favorably impressed" with
the Java SDK, due to ship on Dec. 30. But Ramsey also said he
is disappointed by its lack of integration with Novell Directory
Services.
"That's on tap for next year," Ramsey said. "We'd like for NDS
stuff to come sooner rather than later."
The announcements might help Novell retain its user base, the
administrator said. "If Novell can leverage users like ourselves
and keep us from moving away, they'll do pretty well," he said. "So
far, the perception among people is that Novell has sort of fallen
down and not positioned themselves well."
Bob Sakakeeny, an analyst with the Aberdeen Group, a Boston
consultancy, agreed. "If you look at their installed base, their
preference is not to move away from NetWare, but to use it in
different ways," he said. "If Novell can come up with solid offerings
to connect to the Internet, I think they'll do fairly well."
Jim Mah, manager of global LAN services at Fritz Information
Services, San Francisco, said the same applies to the new
version of Web Server. "We'll see if it pulls them up a little bit," he
said.
Java support and Novell's free licensing of NDS should also help,
he said.
Web Server 3.0, now in beta, includes improved security, virtual
directories and enhanced scripting, but does not include
promised support for Open Market Inc.'s electronic commerce
software. Novell would not comment on the missing functionality.
"It's still unclear what effect it's going to have on people, but it's a
necessary step for them to stay competitive," said Doug
Wilkinson, senior systems programmer at Brown University,
Providence, R.I.
Still, Wilkinson mentioned a problem that may be dogging
Novell-that at his university, those who work with NetWare and
those in Web development are in two different groups with little
overlap. "Unfortunately, we're in the minority when it comes to
things like NetWare," the programmer said.
The early-access CD includes a proxy server, encryption for
Internet connections, improved security, built-in remote access
and advanced routing.
Novell Maps Web Route
By Barbara Darrow
Novell Inc., as expected, outlined its Web strategy
with plans to add support for prominent Internet
protocols to its GroupWise product.
GroupWise 5.0 already supports SMTP/MIME and
TCP/IP, but over the course of next year will add
support for Java applets, Post Office Protocol
(POP3), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP), Secure Multipurpose Internet Message
Extensions (S-MIME), Internet Messaging Access
Protocol (IMAP4) and Network News Transport
Protocol (NNTP), officials said.
The WebAccess product gives users access to both
Web sites and GroupWise messaging and libraries
from a single desktop and a single in-box. The
current WebAccess 4.1, shipping since this summer,
does not handle attachments, a gap that will be filled
in the next release of the product. In the first quarter
of next year, the company hopes to ship that version,
which also will support HTML 3.0 browser and
Java applets.
Also at Internet World here, the company will give a
sneak preview of The Jefferson Project, technology
slated to be rolled into GroupWise that will let users
publish documents easily to the Web and assign user
access to documents in GroupWise libraries. Such
documents can be published to the Web and
updated dynamically, so any changes made by an
author to content or access privileges automatically
will ripple to the Web. |
