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Novell may be moving forward with its Linux strategy, it hasn’t forgotten about its roots.
Among the announcements to come out of Brainshare is the news Novell will remain loyal to its NetWare base.
Novell CEO Jack Messman this week announced long-term support for NetWare, as well as a number of new Linux and Groupware and Identity Management product initiatives at the company’s BrainShare conference.
At the top of Novell’s BrainShare product news is the release of its flagship Linux server, SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 (SLES 10).
Among the notable additions in SLES 10 is the integration of the Xen 3.0 virtualization engine. With the SLES 10 release, Novell stakes its claim as the first enterprise Linux distribution to integrate Xen, months ahead of the expected inclusion by Red Hat.
SLES 10 also includes AppArmor, which is Novell’s answer to Red Hat’s SELinux providing enhanced system controls to secure the operating system.
Also, an enhanced Novell edition of OpenOffice.org enables the use of many Microsoft Excel spreadsheet macros inside of the open source office suite.
Novell is expanding its Linux-based collaboration offerings with the new Open Workgroup suite, which combines Novell operating and collaboration offerings. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, Open Enterprise Server, GroupWise and Novell’s ZENWorks system management are all part of the new workgroup suite.
GroupWise users no longer need to be tethered to their servers, as Novell’s collaboration suite is set to get a mobile boost.
Novell GroupWise Mobile Server, powered by IntelliSync, offers the promise of “seamless integration with more than 400 mobile devices and virtually every mobile operating system,” according to Novell.
The company also announced a new BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 for GroupWise, which will enhance RIM users’ mobile experience.
Novell’s identity management solutions are also getting a boost with the new releases of Novell SecureLogin, Storage Manager and Designer for Novell Identity Manager.
The Eclispse-based Designer for Novell Identity Manager is a free download that enables to test and deploy identity management scenarios. Novell’s single sign-on application, SecureLogin 6, doubles the number of single sign-on solution target applications of its previous versions and includes a new wizard to allow users to add even more applications.
Despite the focus on Linux, Novell isn’t forgetting about its installed base of NetWare users.
“For those of you running NetWare with no immediate plans to migrate to Linux, I am pleased to announce today that we will support Netware until at least 2015,” Messman said in his Brainshare keynote.
“Typically Novell offers 10 years of support for products after they initially ship with advancements in virtualization technology. however, Novell will be able to support Netware 6.5 for as long as customers want to run it.
“That’s as close to as forever as you can get.”
This article was originally published on internetnews.com.
