What's wrong with Novell?
Discussion
I spent the day looking at a pretty huge Zen works system at a bank HQ a few years ago, it was awesome IMO much better than an AD/SMS setup (well from what I could gather in one day and a few chats anyway 
Did some work at a small car hire place recently too, they had a novell box so covered in dust and crap you could hardly see it. During the course of the day it emerged that they turned it off every night.
me: "What, you log in and down it?"
him: "eh? No... just press the switch." every day for 6 years
I hope Novell make good with this SUSE stuff they're putting all their eggs into!
Edit: www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1940841,00.asp Sounds cool, using virtualisation to shift apps around to optimize server utilisation!
>> Edited by aldi on Wednesday 22 March 09:18
There still seems to be a lot of it about, just less obvious these days.
All the cross-platform, interoperability stuff has been a double-edged sword really. By reducing dependance on the Novell client (to the point where you can now do file/print/ZEN etc without it) opened up markets for them but reduced their visibility. There's a lot of organizations using eDirectory as a core org-wide directory service, doing file/print with Netware/OES, managing workstations with ZEN but on the PCs there's no obvious sign of Novell's presence. It just takes someone senior to be sweet-talked by an MS rep saying that Windows Server can do all the same stuff, blah blah lower TCO, blah blah reduced administration and you end up with pressure to replace perfectly-working systems that integrate nicely with anything, with expensive and inflexible MS ones.
There seems to be a lot of the "we want Exchange" pressure too with companies who implemented GroupWise years ago, never really used much of the functionality, never bothered to stay on top of updates and new versions, never bother doing any maintenance and allow it to run into the ground. They get sold on moving to a phenomenally expensive Exchange system, on the idea that it will suddenly make apathetic staff more productive, will need far less maintenance, gives you shiny new email clients and of course the FUD that only Exchange can work with stuff like Blackberry devices.
In many ways their crap marketing is to blame, there are legions of techs as well as the managers who simply have no idea of what Novell's been up to for the last 10 years and what they have to offer. They don't exactly go to great lengths either to speak to their existing customers and find out what they're up to, what sort of stuff they'll need, why they should stay with Novell. A lot of people I know who look after Novell systems weren't aware of things like iPrint, iFolder, eGuide, NetStorage, Virtual Office - they'd done upgrades to recent Netware versions but as all their old stuff just kept on running OK left it at that. There's a huge amount of added-value stuff that is very useful, all included in the licence. Lots of places could save themselves from the faff of VPN connections for most users just by rolling out NetStorage.
The linux stuff could gain some ground - SLES has been doing rather well, particularly as an Oracle platform as it's substantially cheaper than any other certified one. The identity managment software they do is superb, it's a bit of a niche but there's a lot of orgs that could make good use of it but have no idea it exists, let along what it can do. ZEN is still by far the best desktop management software, but (much as it pains me to say) they could do with making a pure AD version of it so it can be sold properly to MS shops. I'm sure too many potential customers have been scared off by it running on a (synced) edirectory. GroupWise is rather good these days but they've taken far too long to get there and afaik are still not yet on the promised complete rewrite version - it's still using bits and pieces of the Wordperfect Office they bought out all those years ago. OES/Linux is looking great, and for anywhere wanting a good general-purpose server OS without the licencing shackles of MS it's superb. All the manageability of Netware but able to run any linux stuff too.
Trouble is, they should be shouting this from the rooftops, actively seeking out sites with crumbling NT4 infrastructure, actively showing current customers how to get the most from what they have, but they just seem to be terminally incapable of doing so. It seems to be left in the hands of their resellers, who don't get much incentive to do it, and who often would rather push the (pricier and more profitable) Microsoft solutions instead.
All a bit of a shame really. I'm having to hedge my bets skills-wise (did an Exchange course a few months ago, revising for the exam now!), I still want to get the last bit of my CNE finished off but I'm questioning how many more job opportunities I'll have to use it.
All the cross-platform, interoperability stuff has been a double-edged sword really. By reducing dependance on the Novell client (to the point where you can now do file/print/ZEN etc without it) opened up markets for them but reduced their visibility. There's a lot of organizations using eDirectory as a core org-wide directory service, doing file/print with Netware/OES, managing workstations with ZEN but on the PCs there's no obvious sign of Novell's presence. It just takes someone senior to be sweet-talked by an MS rep saying that Windows Server can do all the same stuff, blah blah lower TCO, blah blah reduced administration and you end up with pressure to replace perfectly-working systems that integrate nicely with anything, with expensive and inflexible MS ones.
There seems to be a lot of the "we want Exchange" pressure too with companies who implemented GroupWise years ago, never really used much of the functionality, never bothered to stay on top of updates and new versions, never bother doing any maintenance and allow it to run into the ground. They get sold on moving to a phenomenally expensive Exchange system, on the idea that it will suddenly make apathetic staff more productive, will need far less maintenance, gives you shiny new email clients and of course the FUD that only Exchange can work with stuff like Blackberry devices.
In many ways their crap marketing is to blame, there are legions of techs as well as the managers who simply have no idea of what Novell's been up to for the last 10 years and what they have to offer. They don't exactly go to great lengths either to speak to their existing customers and find out what they're up to, what sort of stuff they'll need, why they should stay with Novell. A lot of people I know who look after Novell systems weren't aware of things like iPrint, iFolder, eGuide, NetStorage, Virtual Office - they'd done upgrades to recent Netware versions but as all their old stuff just kept on running OK left it at that. There's a huge amount of added-value stuff that is very useful, all included in the licence. Lots of places could save themselves from the faff of VPN connections for most users just by rolling out NetStorage.
The linux stuff could gain some ground - SLES has been doing rather well, particularly as an Oracle platform as it's substantially cheaper than any other certified one. The identity managment software they do is superb, it's a bit of a niche but there's a lot of orgs that could make good use of it but have no idea it exists, let along what it can do. ZEN is still by far the best desktop management software, but (much as it pains me to say) they could do with making a pure AD version of it so it can be sold properly to MS shops. I'm sure too many potential customers have been scared off by it running on a (synced) edirectory. GroupWise is rather good these days but they've taken far too long to get there and afaik are still not yet on the promised complete rewrite version - it's still using bits and pieces of the Wordperfect Office they bought out all those years ago. OES/Linux is looking great, and for anywhere wanting a good general-purpose server OS without the licencing shackles of MS it's superb. All the manageability of Netware but able to run any linux stuff too.
Trouble is, they should be shouting this from the rooftops, actively seeking out sites with crumbling NT4 infrastructure, actively showing current customers how to get the most from what they have, but they just seem to be terminally incapable of doing so. It seems to be left in the hands of their resellers, who don't get much incentive to do it, and who often would rather push the (pricier and more profitable) Microsoft solutions instead.
All a bit of a shame really. I'm having to hedge my bets skills-wise (did an Exchange course a few months ago, revising for the exam now!), I still want to get the last bit of my CNE finished off but I'm questioning how many more job opportunities I'll have to use it.
sjg said:
There seems to be a lot of the "we want Exchange" pressure
Yeah, I've seen that in alot of different environments. Though not a huge MS fan I do consider exchange to be a class leader, especially as users love it. You can't buy love, or train it into people, MS have really got something right there.
[quote=sjg}The linux stuff could gain some ground.[/quote]
Sadly I can't see it. I suspect they're going to lose out to open source solutions to network management, and will find it very difficult to gain new cutomers. They're running on application legacy requirements and I'm sorry to say, I think it's all dowhill from here on.
Sorry to only take a couple of points out of a very good post, but these two will, I think be the killers.
Novell has now and always has had DECitis; the primary symptom of which is a refusal to accept that good technology doesn't sell itself, and may be accompanied by a sales team that couldn't sell its way out of a wet paper bag.
DEC stuff was legendary - from the software to the hardware to the documentation - for its quality and ability to work as advertised.
The problem was that they thought this was self evident.
Microsoft rapidly figured out that Sales & Marketing = Everything.
I still rue the day that Compaq bought DEC.
>> Edited by CommanderJameson on Friday 24th March 06:27
DEC stuff was legendary - from the software to the hardware to the documentation - for its quality and ability to work as advertised.
The problem was that they thought this was self evident.
Microsoft rapidly figured out that Sales & Marketing = Everything.
I still rue the day that Compaq bought DEC.
>> Edited by CommanderJameson on Friday 24th March 06:27
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