What was billed as Novell’s spoiler for today’s Microsoft ‘scalability day’ turned out to be little more than the re-announcement of two previously announced additions to Novell’s IntranetWare network operating system. Novell announced the software as part of its strategy to fit its products with the internet. But it was no doubt also hoping that a major event could not only steal some of the interest in the Microsoft launch and also help to win back Wall Street interest in the company. CEO Eric Schmidt was reportedly addressing Wall Street analysts aiming to boost the company’s stock which stands at around $8 a long way from its last year high of above $15. In what amounted to little more than a cry for attention, Novell said it had has re-named what had been code-named Border Services (CI No 3,128) , BorderManager. BorderManager works at the border between the internet and the corporate networks to add security and management. It also serves to provide security at the boundaries or borders within a corporate network. The IntranetWare addition includes firewall security, proxy/cache, circuit gateways, Virtual Private Networking, routing and remote access capabilities and a runtime version of IntranetWare as the server operating system. BorderManager will start shipping in the third quarter but pricing details are no pricing has been set. Novell says its previously touted Novell Replication Services (CI No 3,131), a Network Loadable Module, is designed to make it easier to disseminate information across a WAN. According to the company, the technology can be used to replicate all types of data including video, from one server to any number of other servers that are within a designated Novell Directory services tree – limiting the reach of the new functions. The software will be available for downloading from the Novell web site later this month at no charge. On Friday, Novell announced it had a new formal testing process for 1,000-plus user environments to prove that IntranetWare can handle such large enterprise customers systems. However, the company has yet to give details of how it will integrate the Wolf Mountain clustering technology developed at the company to boost the scale of Novell networks, which had been expected by now.
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