MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-03-22 |
| FROM | From: "Inker, Evan"
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Novell announces small-business Linux bundle
|
Novell announces small-business Linux bundle
By Stephen Shankland
http://news.com.com/Novell+announces+small-business+Linux+bundle/2100-7344_3
-5629033.html
Story last modified Mon Mar 21 16:31:00 PST 2005
Novell has packaged several Linux-based products into a suite geared for
small business, Chief Executive Jack Messman said Monday.
The package includes Suse Linux Enterprise Server, or SLES, for up to three
servers; Novell Linux Desktop for personal computers; GroupWise server
software for managing, e-mail, contacts and calendars; and eDirectory for
managing computers.
The software will be available March 31 at a cost of $475 per five computer
users up to 100. The server software may be used on up to three servers,
Novell said. Messman announced the software at the company's annual
Brainshare conference in Salt Lake City.
The package is the Waltham, Mass.-based company's latest move to elevate its
Linux products. Novell, the second-ranked Linux seller after Red Hat, also
is trying to compete against Microsoft and to convince customers of its
venerable NetWare operating systems to move to Linux.
Messman said Monday that Novell is tailoring Linux for high-performance
technical computing, a market increasingly dominated by clusters of
lower-end machines running Linux. The open-source operating system has been
popular in that market, in part because it's available for free, but that
no-cost availability has made the business hard to reach for Linux sellers
that want to charge a fee.
Novell hopes to change that. "In the next few months, you'll learn about
multiple activities, from special pricing to high-performance focused
components that we're currently working to deliver," Messman said.
Jump-starting Linux sales is important for Novell. In the company's most
recent quarter, NetWare and SLES revenue were less than hoped.
Another part of the Linux push was the first shipment of Open Enterprise
Server earlier in March, which includes a copy of SLES along with each copy
of NetWare.
GroupWise promotion
Messman also announced on Monday a second program to give away SLES for
free: The software will be included with a forthcoming version of GroupWise
code-named Sequoia that's scheduled to ship this summer.
Novell announced in February that it's making a lower-end competitor to
Sequoia, NetMail, into an open-source project called Hula. But customers
shouldn't be worried that the move means an end to GroupWise, which will be
supported until at least 2015, Messman said.
Two new versions of GroupWise are planned: "Aspen," scheduled for release in
the fall of 2006 and "Cedar," scheduled for the spring of 2008. In addition,
Netmail will be supported through 2010 and Novell will help customers
migrate to Hula if they want, the company said.
Messman boasted that Hula is becoming a dominant part of the open-source
software realm. "The initial interest and contributions to Hula show that
Hula is already on course to become in collaboration (software) what Apache
is to Web servers," Messman said.
GroupWise today competes chiefly with Microsoft Exchange and IBM's Domino
and Notes.
Starting Market Start
Also Monday, Messman announced a new program called Market Start, through
which Novell will help smaller companies promote and profit from their
open-source software--in return for a piece of the action.
Market Start will combine Novell's Linux products with open-source software
from companies that need a boost in sales and marketing. Novell plans to
provide support for the products and expects to share revenue from their
sales.
"Lots of venture-funded companies spend on R&D to develop their products,
but a significant cost is getting it to market. If you spend $1 on research
and development, you probably spend $10 to go to market," Messman said.
"We'll ensure all the components work together and we'll take them to market
through Novell sales channels."
Market Start will kick off with a small number of partnerships, said Angie
Anderson, general manager of the program. "We hope to get at least two or
three by the end of the year," she said. "But as we grow the program over
the next few years, we easily see it going to the tens or hundreds."
Among the areas in which Novell is looking for Market Start partners is
accounting, customer relationship management and health care. "We've got a
list of 75 open-source projects we're looking at," Anderson said. "We're
trying to slim that to 10."
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