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

To: Loring who wrote (28502)	10/6/1999 7:44:00 PM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Not my area This is a technical question for Toysoldier or Scott Lemon. I'm hoping that all of the Microsoft will eat them fear is now out of the market.

To: Loring who wrote (28502)	10/6/1999 11:16:00 PM
From: ToySoldier	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Regarding the ZoomIt/MSDSS Beta release is MSFT's PR machine going to working at preping its Windows2000 product release. They know that the Directory technology is getting a ton of press in the industry and they need to show the world that "dont fear - we are getting ready for a Directory solution some time soon". They really needed this ZoomIt solution in an attempt to hopefully leach into Novell's huge NDS market lead. But Novell should not be too fearful of this product because of several reasons. 1) ZoomIt is a two-way sync product (unless MSFT has mutated the product that makes NDS control of AD difficult) so that means the the administration of both directories can be managed by both management tools - not just MMC. 2) The maturity of Novell's NDS directory, its NT deployment of NDS, its more mature management tool, its stake in and delpoyment of NetVision's Synchronicity (better meta-directory than ZoomIt in my opinion), and its shier marketshare will prove an extremely tough and even stupid thing to migrate away from. . . . Novell's synchronicity announcement... novell.com 3) MSFT will not be allowed to ride on Novell's product experience to "eat Novell's lunch" like - in my opinion - they did when they leveraged Novell's IPX protocol to make migration from NetWare to NT easy. Why, because Directories will have to stay open and inter-accessible via LDAP and other proprietary point-to-point meta-directory solutions like ZoomIt & Synchronicity. MSFT will not be able to hide inferior products behind the proprietary fear-mondering - like they were able to do with previous technologies. They will have to provide a Directory that can stand on its own merits. All evidence shows that AD will be stumbling out of the blocks and running out of gas when any moderate stress is put on it. In fact, evidence that Novell is not scared of MSFT's ZoomIt solution is their promotion and investment of Synchronicity. Novell's best strategy is to be as open and inter-operatable as possible when it comes to NDS. They have the best directory services solution in the industry. If they keep themselves wide open - and BRAG ABOUT IT, the industry will continue to gravitate toward Novell's NDS solution. So, my perspective on MSFT's ZoomIt Beta is - "Great for them - Even Better for Novell". MSFT is damned if they do and damned if they dont because of their huge development delays and lack of guts in making the decision to defer their need to revolutionize their Domain-structured Active Directory. It is inevitable - they will have to make this fundamental change in their AD. They just fear - and rightly so - that the extra time needed to make this change would KILL any hopes of MSFT being in the DS market. As for some of the comments in the article: "These interoperability tools will help customers accelerate Windows 2000 migration, while enabling coexistence with other directories and environments in the enterprise." I dont fully understand this comment. Accelerate the Windows 2000 migration? From what? Does the Burton Group believe that MSFT needs ZoomIt to migrate from NT's own Domains? Do they feel ZoomIt will encourage customers to abandon NetWare and its 6 year Mature NDS to an infant AD and Windows 2000? I sure would like to ask him what he meant by this statement. Easily managed via a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, MSDSS supports all versions of Novell's NDS and bindery directory services. Of course the article fails to mention that Novell's NDS for NT can manage Domains now and Activy Directory when its finally out. Also, with ZoomIt - the customer can also use the NDS NWAdmin that hey have been use to for years to manage the A.D. directory. but of course MSFT would fail to mention this. ROFL! They are smooth! Thats about it. Toy

To: Loring who wrote (28502)	10/7/1999 12:06:00 AM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Hello Loring, So this is the Microsoft attempt to announce that they will sync with NDS. This is part of their strategy, IMHO, to try and migrate NDS users to their platform. The problem is that NDS is already out there, and Novell already announced DirXML which will provide much of the same functionality. And it doesn't solve the problem, that for right now ActiveDirectory has almost no integrated applications ... it will get there ... but it's not there yet ... This is a move that Microsoft has to make to try and enter this space ... Scott C. Lemon