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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearded One who wrote (27303)	7/3/1999 1:07:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 42771

Novell becomes strategic again By Scott Berinato, PC Week Online July 2, 1999 4:00 PM ET You won't get fired for buying Novell Inc. software. A year ago, that statement might have evoked snickering among IT managers. But Novell may have the last laugh. The Provo, Utah, company's ongoing turnaround, combined with Microsoft Corp.'s continued delays in shipping Windows 2000, has convinced many enterprise IT planners to include NetWare and NDS (Novell Directory Services) in their strategic planning, in some cases augmenting or replacing Windows NT servers. "We were a little concerned with Novell a couple of years ago ... but our direction now is definitely Novell," said Art Martinez, manager of distributed systems at United Airlines Inc. The Chicago-based company has 350 Novell servers deployed worldwide. "We took a look at a bunch of different things -- directory services, maintenance and administration -- and we found NT very tedious," Martinez said. "When you talk about a company the size of United, it would be a big undertaking to use NT, and NDS was much more flexible." Case studies Martinez epitomizes a new outlook toward previously maligned Novell software. Others buying into the strategic vision include cable and Internet service provider Wireless One Inc. and Fellon-McCord, a utilities consultancy based in Louisville, Ky. Wireless One recently replaced eight Windows NT servers at its Jackson, Miss., headquarters with three NetWare/NDS servers. The reason? NT couldn't handle the WAN connections to 23 Wireless One offices. As a result of the move, capital and maintenance costs dropped dramatically, and support costs have also fallen, said Network Engineer John Cressman. For its part, Fellon last month swapped out its NT server for a NetWare/NDS system and plans to grow the network over the next year. Fellon immediately realized a 30 percent capital cost savings, said IS coordinator Lee Alexander, who anticipates huge cost savings plus a more reliable feature set and shipment schedule. In addition to the server replacements, United, Wireless One and Fellon have included NDS in their strategic plans. United plans a directory-based single-sign-on system that will allow gate agents to receive their desktop information regardless of where they log in from. Wireless One will tap NDS for customer services, including messaging from the forthcoming Novell Internet Messaging System. Cressman claims that his deployment of Novell's ZENworks management software will reduce support calls by 75 percent. Anticipating growth, Fellon will also deploy ZENworks to ease management of new user accounts, officials said. Wireless One's Cressman said having future strategies is key when selling Novell software to management. "From the real world, Novell has a lead. From marketing, Microsoft has really got the upper management sold," he said. A heterogeneous world IT organizations shouldn't mistake this re-embrace of Novell software by some of their colleagues for a mass migration away from NT. In many cases, the two platforms complement each other. International Data Corp. numbers for last year suggest both the NetWare and NT markets grew moderately. Most organizations have plans to deploy some NT servers, with heterogeneous environments being the rule of the day. Other IT managers remain unconvinced about switching from NT to NetWare, despite problems with the Windows platform. Trader Joe's Inc. is sticking with NT even after a recent incident in which dozens of employees had no e-mail for six days because of a problem the company's service provider was having connecting to NT clients and servers. "We had a meeting to talk about [switching to Novell]," said Carlos Terry, IT manager for the Los Angeles-based grocery store chain. "But ... the switch-over would be just too expensive." www8.zdnet.com