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

To: PJ Strifas who wrote (28183)	9/20/1999 10:16:00 AM
From: PJ Strifas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Interesting article: Tandy's Got Questions; Novell Has Answers Scalability, cross-platform support help retailer roll out applications By David Orenstein 09/13/99 Tandy Corp.'s ads for Radio Shack promise that if customers have questions, the electronics retailer has answers. But without a directory-managed network, Tandy won't have an easy way to get those answers to employees at its 7,000 stores. As it begins to roll out Web applications that will provide access to inventory and parts data, warranty information and answers to likely customer questions, Fort Worth, Texas-based Tandy is grappling with the complexity that scale brings. Using Novell Directory Services (NDS) for Windows NT and eventually the multiplatform NDS 8, network services director Ron Cook said he's confident "we have a great solution for the next three-plus years." "In this business, that's about as good as you can get," he added. The drive by companies such as Tandy to pour Web and e-commerce applications into highly distributed environments is swelling demand for directory software, which has grown from fewer than 2 million servers in 1997 to nearly 13.6 million in 2003, according to International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. 200,000 Network Objects Right now, Tandy has about 11,000 network objects such as users, printers and servers. But as the application rollouts continue, Cook said, "I don't think it's inconceivable to get to 100,000 to 200,000 objects in a year to 18 months." The rollouts have just begun and will wrap up next year. Analyst Tim Sloane at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston said NDS should be capable of handling Tandy's load. "I do believe Novell has put more thought into this than any other vendor," he said. Cook said NDS 8 is undergoing stress tests in Tandy's lab. But it isn't just about scale. It's also about interoperability. The applications Tandy must manage are based on Windows NT, HP-UX and OS/390. Users also have passwords for NetWare, Microsoft Exchange and PeopleSoft. Cook ultimately wants to give end users a single sign-on because confusion about logging on can quickly scuttle an employee's ability to provide answers. "When I think of the number of calls to the help desk, one of the biggest issues is the passwords not being simpler between NT, Exchange and NetWare," Cook said. Cutting the number of user IDs and passwords in half can cut administrative costs in half, too, he said. Ultimately, Cook said, Tandy would like to link its PeopleSoft personnel applications to systems such as Exchange so that when an employee is hired or leaves, the user accounts could be created or deleted automatically. But NDS does not run yet on HP-UX where PeopleSoft is deployed or on OS/390, another key platform for Tandy. Novell is planning ports to those platforms as well as to Linux and Tru64 Unix. NDS's emerging cross-platform support will make it crucial even after Windows 2000 is released with its highly touted but platform-specific Active Directory, Cook said. "I like my heterogeneous network. I look forward to Windows 2000 but will be doing most of the management and security with NDS," he said. That way, he said, "I can use the best-of-breed solutions in the right place. "