Novell Delivers New Desktop Management Power to eBusiness

• Directory-based product simplifies desktop management for mobile users
• Securely extends networks by allowing administrators to centrally manage and personalize company desktops
• Accelerates eBusiness transformations by freeing IT staffs from time-consuming, repetitive maintenance tasks

Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net services software, today announced the availability of ZENworks for Desktops 3, Net services software that reduces the cost of managing user workstations by nearly 50 percent (source: IDC). Built on Novell's eDirectory technology, ZENworks for Desktops simplifies desktop management and securely extends networks by allowing administrators to centrally manage and personalize company desktops, including those of mobile users. With support for all Windows* desktops, including Windows 2000, ZENworks for Desktops 3 accelerates a company's transformation to eBusiness by allowing automated software distribution, remote desktop management and self-healing capabilities for applications. ZENworks for Desktops 3 frees IT staffs from time-consuming, repetitive maintenance tasks, allowing them to focus on more strategic technology challenges.

"ZENworks for Desktops is one of our most crucial network management products," said Brad Staupp, senior support analyst of Johnson County Community College. "The ease of rolling out applications with ZENworks for Desktops is a dream come true. Our system administrators no longer need to physically visit the over 1,000 student and employee workstations in our organization for upgrades and modifications. It allows us to store a snapshot of an entire lab on the server, and the software can be run locally or off the server. The snapshot can be configured and administered on the servers saving our system administrators hours of time."

Instead of managing corporate desktops workstation-by-workstation, ZENworks for Desktops provides policy-based management that can be customized to the needs of individual users, the shared requirements of user groups, or the standards of the entire organization. Core new eBusiness enhancements in ZENworks for Desktops 3 include:

• Management of mobile users ZENworks for Desktops 3 provides application installation and self-healing even when users are disconnected from the network - providing support for remote and mobile users.
• Cross-platform support ZENworks for Desktops 3 runs on NetWare, the most reliable and secure Net services platform on the market, Windows NT* and Windows 2000, giving users their choice of platforms.
• Support for all Windows desktops ZENworks for Desktops 3 supports the distribution and self-healing of the latest Windows 2000 applications (MSI applications), as well as Windows 9x applications.
• Desktop imaging ZENworks for Desktops 3 offers new imaging functionality that enables administrators to get new workstations or damaged workstations up and running quickly based on corporate standards. Because these images are stored in eDirectory, the roll out of a new desktop operating system, such as Windows 2000, can be accomplished in a very simple, structured fashion. Further, application policies can also be applied to standard images so that when the image is deployed users have a completely configured workstation operating system and critical applications. ZENworks for Desktops 3 also offers disconnected imaging, providing the ability to ship images via CD, Jaz disk, etc.
• Tiered Electronic Distribution ZENworks for Desktops 3 will make use of Tiered Electronic Distribution (TED), a feature coming later this year in ZENworks for Servers 2. This feature will provide the ability to automatically deploy applications, patches and workstation images from a central point to many servers at many sites. Tiered Electronic Distribution will also provide the ability to create installation packages and fan them out to staging servers for install to client machines.

"ZENworks for Desktops is a powerful management tool that dramatically reduces the cost and time involved in managing user workstations, which is a huge resource drain for all IT departments," said Craig Miller, vice president and general manager for Novell's Net Management Services Division. "An ever-increasing mobile work force make the new features in ZENworks, such as disconnected application distribution and repair, even more compelling. And when ZENworks for Desktops 3 is combined with ZENworks for Servers 2, which will be available later this year, businesses gain an end-to-end, policy-based management solution for their entire network. Administrators will be able to fully automate software packages and image distribution, deploy them once, and let Tiered Electronic Distribution deliver the content locally as required."

ZENworks Backed by Award-Winning Support, Consulting and Education Programs

The rapid growth in ZENworks Net services software deployments has contributed to Novell's fast-growing business ecosystem of customers, application developers and solutions and services providers. This has coincided with the success of Novell's directory-enabled NetWare platform and NDS eDirectory. Backed by Novell's extensive consulting, technical support and education programs, ZENworks customers are using its directory-based tool set in businesses of every kind and size, from wide-area networks with tens of thousands of desktops, to small and mid-sized networks where efficient network management, improved internal support services, and expanded user access are at a premium.

Availability and Pricing

Licenses to ZENworks for Desktops 3 are available Aug. 25 through authorized Novell resellers, by calling Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4272 or through http://shop.novell.com. Pricing for licenses to ZENworks for Desktops 3 is the same as version 2 with a list price of $59 per user license for new software and upgrade pricing of $32 per user license. Customers who are using the ZENworks 2 Starter Pack may take advantage of upgrade pricing until Oct. 31, 2000.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL), is the leading provider of Net services software that delivers services to secure and power all types of networks the Internet, intranets, and extranets; wired to wireless; corporate and public across leading operating systems. Novell's Net services software provides the foundation for one Net a single global network that supports new applications and forms of business. Worldwide channel, consulting, education and technical support programs, along with strategic alliances, combine Novell Net services software with third-party products and services to form complete Net solutions.

For information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom. In addition, detailed comparisons between Novell products and competitive offerings from other vendors are available on the Web at http://www.novell.com/competitive.

Novell, NetWare and NDS are registered trademarks, and eDirectory and ZENworks are trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. *All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.