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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (27926)	8/29/1999 1:44:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 42771

Novell Cashing In On Internet Speeding System Saturday, August 28, 1999 BY GUY BOULTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE One of the many forms of luck in the business world is when a new market emerges for an existing product. That apparently has happened to Novell Inc. The company has software, previously packaged with another product, that can provide quicker access to the Internet while lowering costs for companies that provide Internet service. And that serendipitous software -- repackaged and introduced as a stand-alone product -- could open a booming new market for Novell. The company, based in Provo, had sales of $1.1 billion last year and employs about 3,000 people in Utah. The product is called "Novell Internet Caching System." A cache is a place where data can be stored to provide quick access. Think of a spice cabinet. The salt and pepper are kept near the front, where they can be easily reached, since they are used more often than that box of cumin buried in the back. The same principle is used in caching. When someone gets on the Internet, they typically connect to a local server run by their Internet service provider (ISP). Servers are the boxes that are the nerve centers of the Internet and other computer networks. If the information the person wants is stored on the local server, the information doesn't have to be fetched from a server in another city. That speeds access. It also lowers telecommunications costs because the ISP doesn't incur what is basically a long-distance call. Novell's software enables ISPs to store the most frequently accessed Web pages on local servers. "You've got pages you know people are going to go to," says Gordon Evans, a Novell spokesman. Providing quick access to those pages will become increasingly important as traffic on the Internet soars. By one estimate, traffic is doubling every 100 days. The Internet Research Group in Los Altos, Calif., estimates the market for caching software will reach $2.2 billion by 2003. "And we intend to have a substantial portion of that," Evans says. The company's optimism may be well founded. "Novell has absolutely killer technology going forward," says Peter Christy, who follows the caching market for Internet Research Group. What must make this particularly sweet for Novell is the software isn't even new. It was part of an existing product introduced in September 1997. That product, now called "Novell BorderManager Enterprise Edition," was designed to provide security for corporate computer systems tied to the Internet. The so-called firewall slowed performance. Novell used caching software to deal with the problem. What Novell has done is strip out the caching software and package it as a product for Internet servers. "We realized we had some great performance advantages with the caching software over anyone in the industry, so we decided to make it available in a different way," Evans says. Christy of the Internet Research Group says Novell is doing a clever job of retooling existing technology for the Internet. "They are building on the stuff Novell really knows how to do well," he says. That's one of the company's goals. Novell's core technology helps companies manage their computer networks. And Eric Schmidt, Novell's chief executive and chairman, wants the company to look for ways its technology can be applied to new markets. "We fundamentally understand how to move files on a network, so extending that expertise to the Internet was very easy for us," Evans says. The Internet, after all, is basically a network. All this is part of a resurgent Novell. The company has seen its stock soar from about $9 a share to around $25 a share in the past year. And net income for the first nine months of its fiscal year ending Oct. 31 nearly doubled, increasing to $117 million from $60 million for the same period the previous fiscal year. Novell will sell its caching software to companies, such as Compaq Computer Corp. and Dell Computer Corp., that make servers designed solely for caching. Those servers are sold to ISPs and corporations that run their own Web sites. The product also will be sold to companies that sell Internet software and hardware. "We really see this as an opportunity to make Novell known as an Internet infrastructure player," Evans says. The company says the software is easy to expand and easy to install. "It takes about 10 minutes to set up," Evans says. Installing the software, in other words, takes less time than explaining caching to the average person. And though the average person probably doesn't care about caching, he or she does care about getting quick access to information on the Internet. Novell's new product is designed to do that. And the company apparently believes it has a winner. "This is obviously going to be a break-out business for Novell," Evans says. sltrib.com

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (27926)	8/29/1999 5:19:00 AM
From: Frederick Smart	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42771

DigitalHelp!!!! >>Fred what is happening here is the Feds are saying, "we need to know who is breaking the law." Since identities are being stolen because identities are not being protected very well, then the Feds ask for more and more leeway. Meantime the web sites ask for more and more identity information. And the financial institutions ask for more and more identity information. And more and more of everything that comprises our individual digital identities gets out into cyberspace so that more and more people can masquerade as you or I and do things that the Feds say they have to keep track of. This goes on until everybody knows everything about everybody and nobody uses the internet anymore because it is like going into a place to get robbed. In fact the internet already has that reputation amongst the large number of people who refuse to use it.>> Paul: Novell must jump on the Privacy Bandwagon. ZeroKnowledge Systems is one little company that's getting a huge new following for it's "Freedom" program.... >>The unique nature of the Internet and digital communications has created serious threats to individual privacy. In the physical world, once a phone call is disconnected, the conversation is over. If you do not want to be overheard, you can find a private place to talk. The Internet is different. The Internet can maintain a recorded trail of all you do--email can be read by others long after it was sent, web surfing habits can be traced and newsgroup postings made today can still be linked to you years from now. Do you have to accept this technological invasion? No. There is something you can do, and it is easy. We call it Freedom. FreedomTM is easy-to-use software designed to give you total privacy while on the Internet. This driver-level software runs in conjunction with all your current Internet software, ensuring your privacy in a totally transparent, unobtrusive way. Freedom uses high-grade public key cryptography to encrypt the contents of any Internet transmission, including e-mail, chat room, web browsing and newsgroups. It also protects the source and destination of all Internet traffic. Freedom simultaneously manages all of your digital identities, watches all outbound traffic for personal information and automatically encrypts and routes traffic through the Freedom network, transparently decrypts all incoming traffic, places cookies into Cookie JarsTM, filters spam. Customized pseudonyms to manage your identities Freedom allows you to create one or several digital pseudonyms. A digital pseudonym lets you create a unique online identity for yourself (which may or may not be like your true self) that you can use to perform all your Internet-related tasks. You are the sole owner of the pseudonyms, which can be configured to have different e-mail addresses, geographic locations and encryption keys. Different pseudonyms give you the opportunity to separately explore completely different areas of the Internet and avoid being profiled by Internet marketers. Who do you want to be today? You choose how to use your online identities. For example, if you like to debate politics online you can designate one pseudonym as your "politics" pseudonym. Use it when you post in political newsgroups, surf activist web sites, e-mail your political contacts and chat in political chat rooms. No one can trace it back to your real self. Any concern you have about people monitoring you or collecting your personal information on the Internet is gone. Your boss will not be able to find out what you like to chat about on your own time. Marketers cannot generate a profile of you and put you onto mailing lists without your consent. No one--not even Zero-Knowledge Systems--will be able to find out who is behind a digital identity. Full strength encryption and Cookie JarsTM Each digital identity uses full strength encryption that ranges from 128-4096 bits. This transparent encryption permits all outgoing Internet packets, e-mail and newsgroup postings to be encrypted, and where appropriate, digitally signed by the pseudonym's public key. Every Freedom user is connected to a Freedom server that anonymizes source information to protect your identity. When sending e-mail both the sender and recipient's addresses are encrypted, as well as the message itself. Many web sites place cookies (little bits of information) on your computer to record and customize your visit. To prevent cookies from revealing or correlating any of your identities, Freedom has a cookie management system called Cookie Jars. Each digital identity has its own Cookie Jar, and any cookie received by that identity is collected in its individual jar. This way, your digital identities remain completely separate from each other and from your real self. Advanced spam control Freedom also has advanced spam filtering tools so you can filter out unwanted, unsolicited e-mail sent to your pseudonyms. When enabled, Freedom's anti-spam functions eliminate 100% of unwanted bulk email before it even gets to your mailbox. For a complete list of Freedom's features and technical details, see the white paper. >> For more information go to... zeroknowledge.com Novell should be hitting this space NOW to provide "DigitalHelp" with DigitalMe. I think its time we all get moving to create this DigitalHelp "tribe" which focuses on getting DigitalMe and NDS out to the consumer marketplace. Targeting the same privacy space ZeroKnowledge is going after would be a good first step. Bottom line, Novell has many logical reasons to include privacy concerns in a BIG way as it trys to find a market for not only DigitalMe, but NDS in general. Building mindshare in this are will be key. Thoughts? Peace. GO!!