Novell Drives Open, Cross-Platform Computing at BrainShare 2003

Delivering on its promise of a world without information boundaries, Novell made a series of announcements today at its annual customer conference around new solutions to help customers move to open, cross-platform computing quickly and cost effectively.

Novell is incorporating key open source components and industry standards in the latest version of NetWare®, making it a comprehensive new platform for deploying Web services applications while still providing the reliability and security customers expect from Novell. In addition, Novell is launching a new initiative to engage more deeply with the open source community, while also contributing its work with a key Web services standard, UDDI, to that community. New offerings around managed computing, along with a Liberty Alliance-enabled identity management service and a new GroupWise® client for Linux* and Mac*, will give Novell customers the ability to leverage existing technology investments while moving their environments forward on an open, standards-based path.

The rise of the Web has customers demanding open-platform environments. An open, services-oriented infrastructure requires Web development capabilities, secure management of identities across the network, and the ability to integrate and centrally administer the multiple technology platforms that most organizations have today. "This year's BrainShare conference marks another important step in achieving our one Net vision of a world without information boundaries," said Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of Novell. "Open source and standards-based solutions have become increasingly critical elements of many organizations' IT environments. The new solutions we're announcing today - whether they leverage open source and industry standards or contribute to them - will give customers powerful new ways to not only take control of their increasingly complex networks, but leverage them to drive new business."

Novell's annual BrainShare conference brings together more than 5,000 customers, developers and partners to learn about new Novell® solutions, get trained on the latest Novell offerings and hear about what's coming. Reflecting market trends, this year's conference revolves around a theme of openness: open source, open platforms and open standards-based computing. Novell's one Net vision, launched in 2000, captured how the Internet was fundamentally changing the nature of enterprise computing, putting an increasing premium on the ability to manage the corporate network as part of the larger Web environment. Novell has moved quickly to leverage and integrate emerging Web services standards and critical open source technologies into Novell's solutions. With Novell Nterprise™ for cross-platform network services, Novell Nsure™ for secure identity management, Novell exteNd™ for Web application development and integration, and Novell NgageSM for professional services, support and training, Novell now provides customers powerful solutions to take advantage of open, cross-platform computing.

NetWare 6.5, the latest version of Novell's flagship operating system announced today, offers a compelling platform for developing and deploying Web-based applications. The integration of the Novell exteNd Application Server with NetWare gives customers a powerful environment for deploying Java* and Web services applications. In addition, NetWare 6.5 includes and integrates several key open source components, including the MySQL* database and Apache Web server, so that many applications designed for these components will run seamlessly on NetWare. New features in NetWare 6.5 also give end-users the ability to access all key network resources, regardless of location or device, securely and reliably, making the office truly virtual. Finally, server-consolidation, branch-office and storage features ensure that customers can keep their systems up and running cost-effectively. (See separate press release for more details.)

Novell is making several additional announcements today (see separate press releases) that also reflect Novell's commitment to giving customers solutions for developing open, cross-platform environments. These include:

Resource Management and Novell ZENworks®: Novell has integrated its various ZENworks management products into a single, comprehensive package to manage complex networks. The Novell Resource Management solution, powered by Novell ZENworks, will manage all elements of a network - desktops, servers and handheld devices - in a unified manner, reducing complexity and the high costs of network management.

Novell Forge Open Source Initiative: While Novell has contributed to open source projects for many years, Novell is today creating a more direct path for the open source community with the launch of the Novell Forge Web site (http://forge.novell.com), a developer resource. In addition, the company is releasing to the open source community the source code of the Novell Nsure UDDI Server, which makes Web services registries more secure and easier to manage by adding identity management capabilities to the UDDI standard.

Liberty Alliance-Enabled Secure Identity Management: Businesses will be able to rapidly provide customers and employees with single sign-on to a multitude of Web sites and reach across the Internet to form secure, profitable relationships with business partners thanks to two new services from Novell. These services, the Liberty identity provider for Novell eDirectory™ and the SAML extension for Novell iChain®, enhance the company's Nsure secure identity management solutions to better address the demands of federated identity.

Collaboration Across Platforms: Novell is announcing a GroupWise client for Linux and Macintosh* desktops, expanding the reach of the most secure and trusted messaging platform on the market.

Certified Linux Engineer: Reflecting the growth in services and solutions that Novell has developed to run on the Linux platform, Novell is also launching at BrainShare a new certification to recognize those IT professionals who have obtained a high level of understanding of both the Linux platform and how Novell technologies run on and integrate Linux in mixed network environments.

"Novell is listening to its customers, who are wary of being locked into proprietary environments, and we're responding to what they're asking," said Chris Stone, Novell vice chairman - Office of the CEO. "Open source is gaining momentum in the market; customers want to leverage it. NetWare 6.5 is a great example of how we're melding the best of Novell's networking services with the power of open source and the benefits of key Web services standards. Novell helps customers leverage these new technologies with comprehensive solutions, while still getting a high level of comfort from the security and reliability they expect from Novell."