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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (22019)	5/14/1998 1:14:00 PM
From: EPS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Report: Groupware market doubles By Erich Luening Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM May 7, 1998, 2:00 p.m. PT Driven by broad market support for Internet standards and increasing business reliance on groupware products, the worldwide market for collaborative systems doubled in 1997, according to a report by the International Data Corporation. The study, released yesterday, put Lotus Development's Domino/Notes at the head of the 50 million new user market followed by Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise, and Netscape SuiteSpot. Although Lotus commands the market, the authors of the report said they were surprised at the speed at which Microsoft has shrunk the gap between its Exchange and Lotus Domino/Notes. "It's already in range of catching up with Lotus in terms of new users," said Mark Levitt, an analyst with IDC and an author of the study. "But Lotus is still way ahead in terms of total users." In fact, Novell is even ahead of Microsoft in total users, holding second place in 1997. The news supports another report released earlier this week that said Lotus was indeed loosing ground in the new user market. Electronic Mail & Messaging Systems (EMMS), a biweekly newsletter, reported that 3.5 million Exchange client licenses were sold worldwide during the first quarter of 1998, compared to 2.7 million Lotus Notes licenses sold during the same period. Levitt said assuming those numbers are correct, the report does reveal great momentum by Microsoft in the new user market. In looking at the groupware industry as a whole, IDC expects worldwide revenues to reach more than $2.4 billion by 2002, up from $1.3 billion in 1997. As a result of the growing groupware market, the report noted a declining market for email and other information sharing products as more and more users demand network or Web-centric collaborative systems. It also said group calendaring, scheduling, and electronic conferencing products demonstrated double-digit revenue growth worldwide in 1997.

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (22019)	5/14/1998 1:16:00 PM
From: EPS	Respond to of 42771

Cisco jumps on directory train By Ben Heskett Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM May 7, 1998, 2:00 p.m. PT LAS VEGAS--Cisco Systems is taking advantage of its relationship with Microsoft to build new support for software services on top of the software giant's forthcoming Active Directory administration tools. Though directory services is largely viewed as an esoteric portion of an organization's software infrastructure, the technology has gained more and more significance as a central point of control for vast networks with attached resources, such as devices, applications, and systems. Boosting the technology is the fact that Microsoft is attempting to supply an enterprise-class directory in the next version of its Windows NT server operating system package. Others, such as Novell and Netscape Communications, are also among the myriad of firms who are finding increasing acceptance of directory services. Cisco plans to deliver new technology called Cisco Network Services for Active Directory in beta form in the third quarter of this year, with the final release pegged for the first quarter of next year. Versions of the technology for Active Directory on Hewlett-Packard's UX and Sun Microsystems' Solaris flavors of Unix will make it to beta in the fourth quarter, with final delivery in the first quarter of next year. The new Cisco software essentially allows networking services to be integrated into a directory. For example, a quality of service policy could be centrally stored in the directory database, providing a single point for allocating bandwidth to certain applications. Cisco's software is the first product fruits of a partnership with Microsoft that began with joint work on Directory-Enabled Networks (DEN), a standard specification for the inclusion of networking devices into a directory services system. Active Directory will ship as part of Windows NT server 5.0, due to ship early next year. Since that time, a plethora of third party acceptance has followed for DEN after a cry from the industry to open up the work to third parties. "What we've seen recently is a big jump in industry support for DEN," said Jonathan Perera, a Windows NT product manager at Microsoft. Cisco executives said the Cisco Network Services push is part of an effort at the firm to expose more of its software programming interfaces to corporate developers and allow its Internetworking Operating System software to tie into a directory structure. "While mostly marketing at this time, this is exactly where the world needs to go," said Craig Johnson, an independent consultant with the PITA Group. "Cisco is going to kick Bay Networks', 3Com's, and Cabletron Systems' butt here if they don't find a unique perspective." Not to be left out, Netscape announced earlier this week that it would offer the source code for its directory technology to third party developers. Separately, Novell announced its intentions to provide IP-based management in its NetWare 5.0 operating system via use of Novell Directory Services, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol integration, and DEN. The directory integration with Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol will be offered to standards organizations as part of the DEN specification. "Any questions about this being a Cisco/Microsoft-only thing are gone now," said Michael Simpson, director of marketing for Novell's network services division. "It becomes a foot race at this point."

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (22019)	5/14/1998 1:20:00 PM
From: EPS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Novell The Global Connection Few companies are better positioned to benefit from the intranet boom than Novell, the leading network software provider. Novell commands more than a 60 percent market share in network operating systems and its NetWare platform has more than 55 million users. Integrating these business networks with web technologies and the global Internet is a key element of the company's new strategy.