Q&A With Novell's CTO Glenn Ricart (03/26/97; 11:00 a.m. EST)
By Clare Haney , TechWire
SALT LAKE CITY -- Finding the right technology Novell needs to propel itself to the top of the networking world is a priority for Glenn Ricart, chief technology officer at the Orem, Utah-based company. Ricart steers the development and acquisition of third-party technologies at Novell and is responsible for leading the vendor's research and advanced development efforts.
Previously, the company's senior vice president of corporate research and development, Ricart has navigated Novell's transformation from a provider of proprietary local-area networks to an independent company that is committed to open standards and the Internet.
His predisposition toward open networking is no surprise. Before taking over as technology guru at Novell, he held positions at the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency and was director of the University of Maryland's Computer Science Center.
Clare Haney, TechWire's senior software editor, caught up with Ricart at Novell's Brainshare developer conference here Tuesday and found out where Novell is headed and why.
What holes in your product portfolio would you like to fill with acquisitions?
In the areas of collaboration and network services, there are a lot of small companies doing interesting things. With GroupWise [Novell's groupware product], we're looking for ways to add capabilities for further collaboration, such as audio and video.
With network services, I think there are a few fundamental services that we ourselves will be fairly aggressively promoting, such as directory management, security, and file and print. But there's a number of other interesting network services, such as subscription and commerce services, that could leverage the foundation of our directory.
How are you likely to go about acquiring companies or technologies?
That depends completely on the situation. It could be a technology purchase or lease or us taking a minority stake in a company. Take Novonyx [the joint spin-off announced by Novell and Netscape last week] -- there we have two seats on the board of directors and a less- than-20 percent equity position in the company.
What about the rumors of a possible merger between Novell and Netscape?
We are an independent company going forward. Our best value to our stockholders is staying as an independent company, though perhaps there's some select technology we could bring in. We're not looking to be acquired or merged. With most technology agreements, we'll make the least invasive arrangements we can.
How many companies does Novell have stakes in?
It's a good number -- I don't know exactly how many. The significant ones include our 17 percent stake in Corel, where [Novell President] Joe Marengi has a seat on the board, and Interlogis that is [turning our power line technology into products].
What do you say to those who feel Novell doesn't count as a player any more?
People looking at the facts will realize Novell has not really lost its way -- we sold almost 1 million servers last year. If you take out our miscues with WordPerfect and Unix, our network sales have risen every quarter.
We've been fairly successful. We have market-leading products with our directory, GroupWise and Application Launcher that no one can argue with.
How about Microsoft's NT vs. Novell's IntranetWare?
Microsoft's marketing attack has been rather successful in making users think they have to make a decision between NT and IntranetWare -- they don't have to. Novell integrates well with NT. People can get the benefits of running both NT and IntranetWare.
Are you aiming your products at your existing base or at customers new to Novell?
With our product code-named "Border Services" [software due late this summer that aims to provide users with better security and management on the borders between traditional, proprietary networks and the Internet], we'll target both our existing user base and folks who've never been Novell customers before. You don't have to be using IntranetWare to use Border Services.
When would you advise users to buy IntranetWare, and when should they go for NT?
Our software was designed and optimized for network applications. If you're looking for software with a very nice user interface for applications, then go for NT.
In the future, our Java-based Management Console will be very important. We're not going to create a new graphical user interface paradigm for our customers.
If you're running a general-purpose accounting system, it's hard to say which one -- IntranetWare or NT -- you should choose over the other. But our network services are superior, and you can mix up your network -- Macintosh, Unix together -- whereas with Microsoft, you have to buy only Microsoft products.
Were you affected by the uncertainty surrounding Novell's future last year?
When I was made CTO, I brought a huge reservoir of optimism to the job and I've been very well repaid. I came with a predilection to open standards, and it's very clear we've become committed. I'm proud and excited that we've carried off Novell's transformation.
If vendors still see us as a small proprietary local-area network provider, they haven't noticed what we've been doing lately. We'll be at the center of what's going on with networking.
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