Hi TreeTopFlier,
(Taking a private conversation onto the public board that might get good input from others - sorry folks if the answers are to questions you havent seen).
The lid is on these companies (NOVL). They aren't going to recapture fame and fortune or
market share. You've have to agree that MSFT has successfully limited NOVL's
potential. As for NOVL products, they might be the most incredible things since sliced
bread (what came before sliced bread?), but market share is everything.
I agree with you TTF that NOVL will not regain the huge fame it had in the late 80s and early to mid 90s. MSFT has currently taken the mind-share and a good portion of NOVL's dominant market-share from them. I dont think NOVL can regain all that back now.
But, I think it could regain a good portion of it if it had the marketing clout and power of IBM behind it. If IBM merged its account control dominance and strong directions in San Francisco, Java and CORBA with NOVL's very mature and powerful network infrastructure porducts (NDS, NetWare) and still large NOS market-share - IBM would be able to restore a large portion of this IT arena strength. Your following point is a valid extension to this argument...
The fact that they have such an entrenched base of clients (my current client is one of
the larges NOVL shops in the world BTW) is a great thing. It means a significant
amount of maintenance annuity for whoever acquires them.
Now for your following question as to the value of NDS...
I'm still wrestling with what you term network infrastructure issues. I'm pretty
comfortable with the directory services and security and mail functionality in our
UNIX, MVS and AS400 environments. If I don't have LANs at all, why do I need
NOVL NDS is my question?
This is the biggest issue that NOVL has to put a lot of effort in trying to resolve. Too many industry people (and CIO's are unfortunately the biggest culprits in this porblem) do not have a clue as to what a Directory Service like NDS can offer their company. And the larger the company - the biggest opportunity that is being missed in the reduction of TCO. So let me try to clear this up (I'm glad you asked this question).
You need a DS like NOVL's NDS to tie ALL the computing entities into one common database. I cannot overstate the word ALL!!! therefore, it doesnt make a difference if you are a LAN environment, mainframe, Unix, NT, internet, etc. A DS is not something that resides in a platform. It resides as an umbrella overtop ALL the computing environment. In fact, NDS even brings business logic, policies, security, and a "Digital Personna" to the organization. The organization will reference the DS to define and provide about objects in the organization and the relationship between them.
This may still not make much sense. So lets use an example.
A company has NDS implemented across its world-wide organization. The structure is designed to reflect the organizational structure (both geographically and functionally). The company has a mainframe system, they have implemented Peoplesoft HR on NT, they have access to the internet, they have Unix apps running Oracle Databases, CISCO and 3COM routers allow remote user access to emplyees, and LAN based messaging, and various PCs that are NT,Win95,and Windows, and NT & NetWare file/print, etc.
This company has tied all these computing components into the NDS and their relationship is combined with the employees of the company. Based on that, the company can do the following:
- NDS will provide authenticaed login to MVS via the RACF (already accoplished by companies like Clemson University - and IBM will be completing its NDS for MVS by year-end) so that the employee will not need to login to the mainframe security. Also, NetWare for SAA (which is more of an IBM product than Novell) is completely integrated into NDS. This means that physical access security to the Mainframe and AS/400 platforms can be controlled via the NDS.
- Their Peoplesoft forms and information are objects in their NDS tree (Novell has already integrated this into NDS).
- Access to the internet is completely controlled by an NDS-aware firewall, proxy & web server, proxy cache server (BorderManager is fully NDS integrated). This means that employee access policies and restrictions (like restrictions of porno etc) can be implemented and more importantly changed across the entire world-wide organization in seconds by simply changing the policy in the NDS tree.
- The Oracle databases on the Unix boxes are security controlled to the table level by the NDS tree (this work is already being completed between NOVL and ORCL). This means business policies on access and security can be centrally controlled via NDS. The same is true with Unix access (90% of Unix vendors - including IBM - have commited to developing their platform's integration into NDS).
- Using NDS's RADIUS Services integration, the NDS tree can control access controls to one or a whole group of routers on the corporate network since these routers are taking security access instructions from NDS's RADIUS Server. A few clicks of a button and I can change the access policy of all router in Europe.
- Enterprise messaging. An NDS aware messaging system (currently Groupwise) will allow new emplyees to have their email-related ID created at the same time that their NDS object is created.
- The 1000's of desktops throughout the enterprise need software distribution, remote control access, desktop lockdown controls, and portable desktop look&feel. The NDS-aware ZENworks and NAL provides all of this functionality NOW. And because of the NDS, a desktop policy on all or a portion of these 1000s of desktops can be changed with the click of a few buttons within NDS. I can stop all people in Australia from running any applications from the "Run" box just by engaging the policy to the Australia container within NDS. I could distribute new software just by creating a new application object in the NDS tree. These objects can also be used to verify and heal existing applications that might have been corrupted. This is not future-ware - this is code that we have implemented in our own organization!
- OHHH - by the way - NDS can also control file and print LAN access to the hundreds of servers throughout the company (notice this was my last and least important point!).
Finally, here is the clincher TTF. Think of the TCO cost reductions, improved security, increased productivity a company can gain when all their corporate objects are in one single tree! Here is one quick example: One of my key employees leaves the company. He has critical and high security access to many of these systems. Well, with a few clicks of a mouse button (taking no more than one minute) I can remove his access from ALL COMPANY SYSTEMS!! GET IT NOW?
So that is why you and IBM should have interest in a mature directory service product like NDS even though you may not have a LAN at all.
Final point. Unlike MSFT's Active Directory that has almost none of the capabilities I described above, these are ALL capabilities that NOVL's NDS can perform NOW!
Do you see the challenge that MSFT's Active Directory has in front of it?
Toy |
