By Nick Patience
America Online Inc has enlisted Novell Inc in its battle with Microsoft Corp for control of the instant messaging market. The deal goes further than some of the distribution deals its has signed with ISPs, because as well as the two companies developing a co-brand instant messenger product, AOL IM will be tightly integrated with Novell Directory Services (NDS) and Novell will also develop a co-branded portal using Netscape’s Custom Netcenter tool. Novell is, of course, no friend of Microsoft Corp, but the Provo, Utah-based company says the two companies began talking about this tie-up many months ago, long before the launch of MSN Messenger in July that sparked the feud.
Like all the AIM agreements that AOL has recently signed to try and offset the Microsoft challenge, it is not exclusive says AOL. That means that Novell and the others, including Apple, Lotus, Earthlink and Mindspring could conceivably sign on to Microsoft’s rival Messenger service. But as AOL is currently blocking messages from MSN Messenger, it wouldn’t make much sense. AOL plays down the tit-for-tat battle with Redmond, but because these deals are not exclusive it is important that AOL makes it fairly pointless to sign similar deals with Microsoft as well.
The only other enterprise software company to sign on to this AIM program so far is IBM Corp’s Lotus Development Corp, which did so way back in late 1997. AOL was talking up the interoperability with Lotus’s SameTime product, which NDS users will be able to access through this deal. NDS could be used to define members, policies and security of AIM groups more easily than the current AIM tool, which some enterprise users may not be as familiar with as the tens of millions of individuals that use it every day. In addition, says Novell, NDS will able easier access to AIM for mobile users who will be able to pick up their buddy lists and preferences from anywhere on an NDS-enabled network.
The Netcenter-driven portal will be aimed at small businesses, says Novell, providing them with a variety of business-to- business services, as well as promoting use of Novell’s products. It will be linked off netcenter.com and novell.com. The co- branded client will be ready within two months, the co-branded portal within three and the NDS integration within four to six months, according to AOL. Novell was reluctant to put a timescale on anything yesterday.
