The brassiest brass at Compaq Computer Corp and Novell Inc came together yesterday to announce that they have signed something called a Master Business Agreement that builds upon their longstanding relationship and outlines new areas of co-operation: these include joint development of new products; simplifying the management and control of personal computer networks; raising the level of network dependability; and working together to enhance multivendor integration; on the first, the two will co-operate on joint development, marketing and support of network management products, while encouraging and supporting independent software vendor development efforts; the elephantine gestation of Novell System Fault Tolerance, Level Three – SFT III is a little closer to being born – it’s now in beta test and should be ready to ship in the second half; on multi-vendor integration, Compaq plans to offer Novell software products and support services to its customers; specific product, support and distribution plans will be announced later on.
