By Linda Leung, VNU Net
Novell has pledged to add multi-platform support to all its
products as part of an ambitious project which executives describe
as “the fabric of the net”.
The project, codenamed Denim (directory-enabled net
infrastructure model), forms part of the company’s bid to help
businesses create “one net”, which ties together corporate
intranets with the internet.
Speaking to delegates during the first day of Novell’s annual
Brainshare conference being held in Salt Lake City this week, Eric
Schmidt, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said
organisations need to take down their firewalls that separate their
intranets from the internet. This will enable them to do business
freely with their customers across the public network by adding
extra security layers to each network component rather than
erecting walls between intranets and the net.
“We built networks and put huge firewalls between the good guys
[within intranets] and bad guys [in the public network]. The
trouble is your customers are out there too. There’s now a shift to
allow people talk to each other while still dealing with the bad
people,” he said.
Denim forms the basis of “one net”, and according to Steve
Adams, Novell’s newly appointed senior vice president of worldwide
marketing, the company will put all its marketing budget behind the
initiative.
Despite the publicity surrounding the project, no major new
Denim-based products were unveiled at the conference. However,
company executives said Novell’s immediate goal is to add
multi-platform support to all its legacy products, including its
Managewise network and systems management tool.
Novell’s high-profile products such as Novell Directory
Services (NDS) and Zenworks desktop management tools already run on
a variety of operating systems, including Solaris, Windows NT and
Windows 2000 and Linux.
The project is the latest strategy in Novell’s bid to reposition
itself as a network infrastructure company developing
cross-platform software and move away from its Netware-based file
and print legacy.
“Back in the 1900s we were a network management infrastructure
company, now we are a network services and software company,” said
Adams.
Novell officials said having products that support a variety of
platforms is key, particularly as Microsoft begins targeting NDS
with its Active Directory, which was released as part of Windows
2000.
Schmidt said Novell does not view Microsoft’s directory server
as a threat because customers want cross-platform applications and
Active Directory only supports Windows 2000.