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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (28994)	11/16/1999 10:03:00 PM
From: Spartex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Novell Finds An IT Foothold (11/16/99, 7:29 p.m. ET) By Stuart Glascock, TechWeb LAS VEGAS -- Networking software developer Novell introduced Tuesday an operating system-independent edition of its directory services product. Based on Novell Directory Services version 8, the new products, NDS eDirectory and NDS Corporate Edition, are designed to be personalized by consumers and business users, Novell said at Comdex Fall '99. "It is the first e-directory that spans the corporate network and the public network," said Novell chairman Eric Schmidt. "It has the world's fastest and most scalable LDAPprotocol, and it runs on NetWare, Windows NT, and Solaris." Novell obviously prefers customers to use NetWare, but has made the directory NOS-independent, officials said. Support for Linux, Compaq Tru64, and Windows 2000 will be added in the first half of next year. Novell officials said the product is aimed at helping the company gain a foothold in the corporate IT market in advance of Microsoft's Active Directory, which is slated to ship with Windows 2000 in February. "It's not just a good thing for Novell; it's good for consolidation of the LDAP standard," said Richard Linville, Novell vice president of industry marketing. "Our partners see a way to cut to the market immediately without a lot of political stuff, and they can go forward now." Directories are crucial to e-commerce web sites and for network security because they can authenticate users and differentiate persons on an intranet or the Internet. An aggressive pricing and promotion plan is being rolled out. Licenses for NDS eDirectory are available for $2 per user. Licenses for NDS Corporate Edition are $26 per user. The Provo, Utah-based company is also offering a free 100-user license of NDS eDirectory to customers who buy Windows 2000 Server within 90 days of its release. For ISVs, Novell is offering a free 100-user license copy of eDirectory to drive the implementation of directory-enabled applications. At a presentation outlining the products, Novell featured several partners who have adopted the e-Directory. Companies represented included Alta Vista, Sun Microsystems, Broadvision, Lucent Technologies, Xircom, Oblix, and Whittman-Hart. Gordon Eubanks, CEO of Oblix, said a major reason he chose eDirectory was because it is shipping. Novell has enjoyed a lead in shipping directory technologies, while the Microsoft camp has awaited the arrival of Win 2000. For Karen Mashima, Lucent vice president strategy and CTO, the company's 18,000 call centers and over 200 million mailboxes required a strong directory. "There isn't an Internet and an intranet anymore," she said. "It's all about people and profiles." NDS eDirectory extends the market reach of dot-com leaders like Alta Vista, while eliminating the barrier between the enterprise and the Internet for manufacturing companies like Xircom, the company said. Schmidt, the internet-savvy former Sun CTO, credited with helping to turnaround a once-struggling Novell, discussed the need for more personalized products that directories can enable during a keynote before the product launch. The next wave of Internet businesses will focus on relationships, profiles, identity, control and trust, he said. "Novell does not triumph at the expense of others," Schmidt said. "This is a new space. This is not about personal computer software. [The] era of restrictive licensing is all over." techweb.com