MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-04-22 |
| FROM | Ruben I Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Novell/Linux
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By Deni Connor
Network World, 04/21/03
SALT LAKE CITY - Novell's announcement last week that it would migrate
NetWare file and print, collaboration and security services to Linux
could have created a lot more buzz among industry watchers and customers
if only it had come sooner.
Instead, the move was met with a mixture of applause and skepticism.
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Novell announced at its annual BrainShare user conference that it would
continue to develop and support products and services for the NetWare
operating system and also migrate them to the increasingly popular Linux
platform.
"As Linux increases its presence in the corporate world, we are actively
building out our services to work on Linux," says Jack Messman, Novell
chairman and CEO. "It's all about choice. If customers want to go to
Linux, we will get them there without a lot of pain and aggravation."
Within 18 months, Novell promised to introduce a raft of services that
run natively on Linux. The first will be NetWare 7, code-named Uinta, a
version of its flagship operating system that will be available on
NetWare and Linux kernels.
"It's a fairly clever move, but only if they can pull it off," says Earl
Perkins, an analyst for Meta Group. "Novell has had mixed results in the
past being able to do these things. The big problem is we are looking at
18 months before they will have significant services working on Linux.
It would have been better if they made this decision a little bit
sooner."
Just last year Novell promised that NetWare would compete head to head
with products from Microsoft and IBM thanks to its acquisition of Web
services company SilverStream Software. In 1998, when Novell shipped
NetWare 5, the company said it had a strong application server platform
that could compete with Microsoft. However, those visions have gone
unfulfilled.
Although Novell officials say they have not decided which Linux
distribution the NetWare kernel will use, they say NetWare users have
been asking for this capability.
"We see Linux as a good migration path for NetWare users, who were
worried about where we were heading with NetWare and were worried that
there might not be a migration path beyond a certain version," Messman
says. "We wanted to give them comfort that they could get all the
services they have with NetWare."
The company already has several products and services that run on Linux.
Among the most prominent are eDirectory and ZENworks. At BrainShare,
Novell showed off Linux products such as a client for GroupWise based on
technology acquired from Newcomp Computer Systems and an alpha-version
GroupWare server running on Linux.
Novell customers say the company really has no choice but to embrace
Linux.
"It would be great if Novell just took everything they did and put it on
Linux," says Peter Strifas, senior directory engineer for Mount
Sinai-New York University Health Organization in New York. "The biggest
problem we've been having lately is facing hardware vendors that don't
have NetWare support. For example, HP doesn't support NetWare on its
server blades. That was just enough for management to ask why we were
keeping this stuff around."
Strifas manages about 60 NetWare servers and uses Novell's eDirectory
and other tools.
Doug Spindler, an Active Directory services coordinator for Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., also is encouraged by
Novell's plans. Lawrence Berkeley deploys Linux clusters that have as
many as 1,700 four-processor nodes for crunching scientific data.
"These [researchers] are very closely related to open source Linux,"
Spindler says. "If Novell keeps its NetWare Linux open and standard,
Lawrence Berkeley may embrace this, but they also may not." Spindler's
organization has 100 Windows and 25 NetWare servers providing core
services.
Novell?s Linux initiative
A sampling of cross-platform products from Novell:
Product Availability Platform
NDS eDirectory Now Linux, OS/390, Windows, AIX, Solaris
GroupWise client Now Linux, Macintosh, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Windows
GroupWise server Within 18 months Linux
NetWare kernel Within 18 months Linux
NetWare file and print services Within 18 months Linux
iFolder Now Linux, Solaris, Windows
DirXML Now OS/390, Linux, Unix
NetMail Now Linux, Windows
ZENworks Now Linux, Windows
"We are trying to consolidate services, so it doesn't make sense for
each department to have its own applications, infrastructure and virus
signatures," he says. "When it comes to the operating systems, it would
be great if all of them ran on Linux. If Novell tries to domineer Linux
vendors, affect open source and require that you use a Novell DNS
server, that's not going to fly. Novell has to be a peer to other Linux
vendors."
Novell says more than 5,000 people attended BrainShare this year,
roughly the same as last year.
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