Product Rollouts: Netware 5.1 and E-commerce server first
to hit the street -- Novell Takes Advantage Of Win 2000 Slip
Paula Rooney
November 01, 1999, Issue: 866
Provo, Utah - With Windows 2000 slipping into next year, Novell Inc. is
grabbing the spotlight by releasing its own product blitz.
Novell will launch NetWare 5.1 "within a few weeks" and plans to roll out in
December the first product under its slated iChain Internet E-commerce suite: a
business-to-business network service that offers authenticated access on a
per-user, per-application basis, said Eric Schmidt, Novell's chief executive.
"Nobody knows how to do that except Novell," Schmidt said.
The Provo-based company will ship ten Zen products by the end of January,
including ZENworks for Servers, a directory-enabled, policy-based server
configuration tool based on the company's popular ZenWorks desktop solution,
Schmidt said.
Novell claims it will beat Microsoft Corp. to the gate by releasing NetWare 5.1
within weeks, while Microsoft plans a Feb. 17 launch of Windows 2000. The
Novell upgrade, code-named Cobra, will incorporate IBM Corp.'s WebSphere
application development platform, enhanced clustering and a sophisticated Java
development environment, Schmidt said.
But those products are just the beginning. Novell will roll out other Internet
network appliances in the short term including directory, security, storage and
database appliances, executives said.
Novell's resellers appear unconcerned about the company's divergent product
plans or Microsoft's second major assault on NetWare. What many see is a
total revitalization of the company under the direction of Schmidt, and more
chances for the Novell channel to cash in on the new service portfolio.
Last week, Schmidt acknowledged the biggest challenges are Microsoft's
marketing machine and transforming Novell from a product-oriented to a
services-oriented company.
Resellers are backing the vision. "[Schmidt] has brought vision and focus back
to the company," said Kim Flagstad, president of RMI Network Services Inc.,
Hoffman Estates, Ill.
Over the long term, Novell is developing a next-generation file-sharing system
that will revolutionize drive mapping. The intent is to build intelligence and
automation into NDS to eliminate the need for administrators to divide and map
data into logical drives, sources said.
In spite of the imminent release of Windows 2000, few VARs expressed
concerns about the long-term viability of NetWare as it evolves, even as it
serves as the well from which all of Novell's Internet appliances will spring.
"Novell is finally making the right technology moves," said Bill Tower, chairman
of Powerscourt LLC, a Novell Platinum Partner based in Tacoma, Wash. "As
the server becomes more of a commodity, we're seeing network services, now
appliances, become infrastructure applications. It's not about server market
share, but who is controlling your network rights. I think Novell is better
positioned now than before," Tower said.
Copyright © 1999 CMP Media Inc.
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