News article received, Tuesday, June 22, 1999 8:49:26 PM EST
Novell Advances Caching Agenda Via Partners
Jun 22, 1999 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- Novell put its Web face forward Tuesday at PCExpo, rolling
out new technologies and alliancesthat show its next focus is working the Net.
With the aim of going after the booming Internet caching market, Novell signed two OEM partners for its
Internet Caching System (ICS) appliance. The partners, Quantex Microsystems and Pionex Technologies,
plan to release products in the third quarter. Pricing has not been determined.
The ICS product is designed to improve the speed of Web servers by storing frequently accessed Web
pages at local hubs.
"Novell believes every routed segment can benefit from caching," said Michael Wilkenson, product marketing
manager for Novell's ICS. "We're looking at places on the low end of the market that could be addressed,
and these OEMs fall into that area."
Novell also has OEM relationships for the ICS appliance with Compaq, which helped develop the appliance,
as well as Dell.
Collaborative Research estimates caching appliances will become a $1.6 billion market by 2002.
Officials said the new Novell Internet Messaging Server will initially ship as a GroupWise bundle in the next
three weeks.
"Most higher-education accounts have academic licensing agreements that give them the right to use all our
product already," said Tom Rhoton, Novell marketing director. "Now they can give full collaboration services
to their staff and students from one directory. The value-add is administering both accounts through one
directory tree and the same administration console."
In related news, the GroupWise product group said it had added 1 million new messaging seats last quarter.
The total installed base is now 18 million, of which half are new users and half are upgrades from the
existing user base, Rhoton said.
Microsoft Exchange Server gained 4.6 million seats during the first quarter of 1999, bringing its installed
base total to 28.9 million. Lotus' Notes/Domino posted 3.8 million seats during the same period, upping its
total to 37.3 million, according to the newsletter Electronic Mail & Messaging Systems.
Rhoton said a GroupWise plug-in to support Microsoft's Outlook 98 client is now in closed beta.
"Outlook support was not originally on our road map, but we put it there because a number of customers
requested the Outlook client," he said.
The anticipated ship date is mid-July. The plug-in will be available as a free download to registered
GroupWise users. |
