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Novell boosts storage and management offerings

By Deni Connor
Network World, 03/26/01

SALT LAKE CITY - Novell bolstered its directory-enabled applications last week with a slew of new products and features designed to make it easier for net managers to solve file and print, remote access and management problems on their NetWare, Windows NT/2000, Solaris and Linux networks.

At its annual BrainShare customer conference, the company announced a network-attached storage (NAS) product, improvements to its ZENworks for Server and Desktop management products, and Internet printing. In addition, company executives updated users with news of shipment dates for GroupWise 6 and NetWare 6 Enterprise Edition.

Novell will ship a NAS product for workgroups, departments and branch offices this summer that works with NetWare, NT/Win 2000, Unix, Linux and Macintosh files. It will compete with NAS devices from Maxtor, Dell and Compaq. Most NAS appliances don't work with Novell's file system and few vendors have plans to support it. For NetWare 3 and 4 users, NAS represents a potential replacement for file and print services.

Novell also announced that its server clustering software for NetWare 5 now works with EMC's TimeFinder and Symmetric Data Replication Facility. Sources say a version of EMC's PowerPath that will work with NetWare is in the offing. PowerPath provides load-balancing and failover capability for servers connected to EMC Symmetrix storage arrays.

An informal survey of Novell users during an EMC/NetWare briefing at BrainShare showed that 50% of NetWare users have Symmetrix storage.

The company also introduced a product called Novell Internet Printing that lets a user print to any of his company's printers over the Internet, regardless of location. For instance, users working from home or a remote office can send print jobs to headquarters for their manager's perusal. Novell Internet Printing will be available for any customer that has at least one NetWare 5.1 server with Support Pack 2 or higher.

Novell also detailed its road map for ZENworks for Desktops and Servers.

It will ship a version of ZENworks for Servers later this year that will allow management of NT and Solaris policies as well as use on Windows-only networks. ZENworks for Desktops will also be enhanced to include support for PDAs.

Finally, Novell announced that its Single Sign-On product now works on Solaris and Linux networks, as well as NetWare and NT/Win 2000. Single Sign-On is a directory-enabled password management system that lets users only enter their passwords once for access to any desktop or Internet application.