Novell on cusp of unveiling its extranet strategy
By Matthew Woollacott
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 11:55 AM PT, Mar 14, 1997
With less than a fortnight to go until Novell announces its Border Services strategy for linking
IntranetWare networks over the Internet, the company is undecided on how to market the
technology.
Discussions are under way at Novell as to whether Border Services should form a part of the
company's standard IntranetWare package or be sold separately.
Border Services is Novell's pitch for the extranet market. It has three main components covering
security services, proxy caching, and virtual private network support.
Security is being implemented at the packet, circuit, and application proxy levels, with address
translation, authentication, and filtering provided at each level.
The proxy caching technology -- which sits on a LAN server -- is designed to increase
performance by storing frequently accessed Web pages. The virtual private network services,
which support the Point to Point Protocol, ISDN, analog dial-up, frame relay, and X.25, use
encrypted tunneling to connect networks together over the Internet.
Desktop client support will include Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT, Macintosh
System 7, Unix, and the network computer. On the server side, Windows NT Server and Unix
will be supported alongside IntranetWare.
Novell wants to ship Border Services this summer, possibly as soon as May.
Analysts agreed that integrating the Internet with intranets is becoming a priority for
cash-strapped network managers.
"A lot of organizations see the Web as a cost-effective WAN," said Chris Le Tocq, an analyst
with Dataquest, in San Jose, Calif. "Anything that helps them take advantage of that WAN is
very much on their list."
Novell Inc., in Orem, Utah, is at (801) 429-7000 or novell.com. |
