Novell Inc has slashed prices on its NetWare Global Messaging Server and at the same time announced the promised support for X400, the SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol beloved of the Unix world and IBM Corp’s SNADS Systems Network Architecture Distribution Services. The price cuts suggest that it hasn’t sold too many of the NetWare Loadable Modules that turn a NetWare server into a multi-protocol mail gateway. However the UK arm expounded the usual Novell pitch about ‘wanting to grow the entire market’, before admitting that it wasn’t sure about the strategy behind the cuts. Software for 20 mailboxes now costs ?290 compared with the original entry level of ?640 for 10 mailboxes. The 50 mailbox version has dropped 69% to ?530; 100 mailboxes fall 72% to ?800, 250 mailboxes is down 64% to ?1,590. There is also a new pricing category – ?4,410 for 1,000 mailboxes. Novell claims the SMTP support module will provide complete and seamless integration between the NetWare Servers and Unix boxes and that since there is no data lost during the translation process, SMTP can be used to connect NetWare mail servers rather than the company’s proprietary MHS. Presumably this is part of the company’s design to make NetWare and its UnixWare Unix sit together nicely, but it is also handy since companies with an existing IP network can use it to link NetWare messaging servers, rather than building new links. Loading up the SNADS Module should make the NetWare server look like an IBM distribution services node to other machines on an SNA network once again the company says that SNADS can be used to link NetWare Messaging servers, this time over an existing SNA network.

No promises

But unlike the SMTP implementation there are no promises about lack of data loss. For SMTP and SNADS Novell relied on in-house expertise, but for X400 it adopted a curious hybrid approach. Novell itself did an X400 Protocol Access Module’, the basis for OEM customers to do their own X400 implementations. By itself the module is a foundation, which provides XAPIA’s client side API and Novell’s OSI transport layer code. Onto this, Retix Inc has grafted its software and says it will be selling the combined package for ?4,110 from the first quarter of next year. The SNADS module is available now for the much more reasonable price of ?1,470 while the SMTP Module, available next month will cost ?1,760. Other OEM customers will get their hands on the X400 module from late November.