Menlo Park, California-based Gupta Technologies Inc and Novell Inc have sealed their betrothal with a distribution deal that consigns Novell’s own SQL Server to no more than a niche market. The Provo, Utah network operating system developer has agreed to distribute Gupta’s SQLBase Server, SQLWindows, SQLGate and Quest products for NetWare to its sales channels. They will also undertake joint marketing and sales activities to promote NetWare v3.11 and the Gupta SQL System. Back in April 1990 Novell took a 19% stake in Gupta and this deal marks the first tangible results of the alliance. Novell sales director Ben Smith admits that Novell’s own SQL Server will now appeal mainly to those customers that want to convert Btrieve-based applications for use with SQL front-ends. Superficially, Gupta is taking a very different approach from Sybase Inc, which announced that it plans both to sell and support directly when it launched its own NetWare Loadable Module recently. SQL servers, Sybase claims, are simply too complex to be supported via standard NetWare channels. Gupta’s approach is sophisticated however; while using NetWare resellers to push its products, post-sales support will come through its own Authorised Support Centres, of which there are two in the UK. The deal looks good for Gupta as the company has between 80 and 90 resellers in the UK, whereas Novell has more than 1,000. The difference in approach between Sybase and Gupta reflects more than anything their different roots: the former comes from the mid-range world with a direct sales force, the latter has an existing personal computer dealer network. Birtles assures us that the Gupta SQL System will catch up with the Sybase and Oracle products in gaining Novell NetWare Loadable Module certification when it ships in red Novell boxes at the end of June.
