Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: EPS who wrote (28548)	10/12/1999 4:06:00 AM
From: EPS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

(Online News, 10/11/99 04:24 PM) Schmidt: Novell to Release Net-based Management Tools By Robert L. Scheier LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Novell Inc., hoping to leverage the strength of its Novell Directory Services (NDS), will release within the next three months a set of network-based tools to manage everything from single sign-on for users to digital security certificates, Novell Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said today. ``We will be an infrastructure supplier" to not only corporate ITorganizations but to application service providers (ASP), which host corporate applications and data and deliver them through the Internet, Schmidt told attendees at the Gartner Group's Symposium/ITxpo 99. Using NDS as a low-level system to track users, network devices, applications and other IT components, said Schmidt, the new tools will help IT administrators implement features such as single log-on, which allows users to sign on only once to access all their applications, as well as managing their public key infrastructures (PKI) for security. When quizzed by Gartner analysts about where this puts Novell into competition with systems management vendors such as Computer Associates International Inc., Schmidt said Novell is aiming for the ``low-end, but high-volume" market for tools that do basic tracking of objects such as users on a network. That leaves the market for specialized management applications to more specialized vendors such as CAto build, he said. Schmidt was noncommittal when asked by Gartner analysts whether he would end a practice that requires customers to pay for a separate per-user license to run NDS on either Microsoft Windows NT or on Novell's own NetWare operating system. Customers have complained about that practice. ``We've been taking steps toward that," Schmidt said, but gave no time frame for when Novell might allow such a single license for running NDS on multiple platforms. computerworld.com

To: EPS who wrote (28548)	10/12/1999 11:34:00 AM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Hello Victor, > October 11, 1999, Issue: 784 Section: Systems & Management > Novell App Eases NDS Configuration -- Company Adds Configuration > Tool And Certificate Server Now I understand what you were writing about ... This is a "fair" announcement, and I won't be able to determine the real value until I've played with the new certificate server. Some comments on ScheMax: > ScheMax 1.1, based on technology Novell acquired when it bought > Netoria in May, lets users customize NDS schema for their own > businesses, using graphical tools and wizards. This is a very cool tool, and an extremely valuable tool in increasing the adoption of direrctories. For a directory to be useful, you need to get information into, and out of, a directory. ScheMax is an awesome developer tool for doing this ... > Previously, users had to write C or Java code. Users can add > company-specific attributes to a schema, such as security > clearances, photos of users and employee numbers. The lists > can be managed by non-technical end users who can be granted the > authority to change passwords, change their own phone numbers and > addresses, and make other changes to the schema. Data can be > exported to structured text or SQL for reporting purposes. The > software also lets users create "snap-ins," which are tabbed pages > within a record, similar to the tabs for networking properties in > Windows Control Panel. Yes! I have played with this and it is an incredible product. The folks at Netoria were really thinking when they developed this ... > The software is priced at $4.50 per user in increments of 500 or > 1,000 users. This is insane!!! I have no idea what people at Novell are trying to do here! ScheMax should be given away for FREE! It is a tool that will be used by developers to make the directory more useful. They are trying to sell the directory! If there is a tool that could be given away for free that would drive the creation of more directory applications, why not give it away!?!?! They could even set up a web site where people could "trade" their creations ... posting the developed snap-ins and schema extensions. I believe this is, yet again, Novell missing the boat on the developer momentum ... trying to squeeze short-term tactical dollars out of a strategic product ... ;-( So on to the other products ... > Novell has also delivered a public beta of Certificate Server 2.0 > that extends the software's functionality to issue certificates for > users as well as servers and store the certificates in NDS. Oh great ... another release of the cert server that can't even produce a #10 cert for use in the Novell (or any other!) web server. This sounds like a great story, but after seeing and experiencing the gyrations that you have to go through to create certs for use I'll have to play with this product before I can understand the value. Up until now the Novell cert server can't even produce a simple certificate for a web site! If they haven't fixed that then I'm not sure that most users are going to care about some of the other features. The cert server was another example of Novell ... all technology and no end-user tools to use it. The UI for the product was extremely difficult to use ... I'll have to get a copy and experiment. ;-) Two announcements, but I just don't understand the "Internet" strategy behind them ... Scott C. Lemon