Novell flees home
appliance-based NEST market
By Matthew Woollacott
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 3:28 PM PT, Jan 30, 1997
Novell has abandoned its plan to develop the Novell Embedded
Systems Technology (NEST) as a universal embedded operating
system. Some parts of the technology have been distributed among
Novell's other divisions, and other development efforts are being
dropped.
Specifically, the NEST elements designed to add intelligence to office
equipment are being moved into the company's Internet Access
division. These include the Autoroute routing technology for fax
services, and the Office SDK, which is designed specifically for
hard-copy output devices such as printers, copiers, and scanners. The
Client SDK, intended as a general-purpose client for accessing NEST
services, also moves into the Internet Access division.
"Having done this, they really need to show some results in the next 12
months," said Peter Davidson, president of Davidson Consulting in
Burbank, Calif. He welcomed the reshuffle "in terms of them moving
NEST people and Novell Distributed Print Services (NDPS) people
into the same place." He added that Novell has been successful in
persuading printer manufacturers to implement the technology, "but
they need to add the same level of support for scanners and faxes."
The reorganization will allow Novell to concentrate engineers with
complementary skills in one place, said Rob Hicks, Novell vice
president and general manager for NEST. "In some ways, it's the
NDPS people who are positioned to provide a lot of the fax
capabilities in conjunction with NEST, which is why it's good to have
the two together," he said.
The recently announced NEST Server Software SDK moves into
Novell's core Internet Infrastructure division. It is being repositioned
as a lightweight mini-server with integrated access to Novell Directory
Services for repository applications -- for example, Novell hopes to
see it integrated with a CD-ROM jukebox.
Novell wants to back out of the two most ambitious aspects of
NEST, which would have seen the technology moved into the
consumer and utilities markets. The project to get NEST into home
consumer devices has been dropped completely.
Novell is now looking for a partner to take over its active role in the
project to transmit NEST-based energy usage information over power
lines -- although the company still wants to retain an equity stake in the
project. Hicks said that "while [these applications] are very interesting,
they don't fit into Novell's core business right now" since "it represents
a different business with different customers and different channels."
This view was echoed by analysts, who feared that Novell was trying
to spread itself too thin.
"Novell has a hard enough time maintaining an installed base in
corporations, much less going out to compete in the dishwasher field,"
said Davidson.
Novell Inc., in Orem, Utah, is at (801) 429-7000 or at
novell.com.
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