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Ella Lee

Novell, the local area network software leader, has responded to Microsoft's aggressive expansion into enterprise networking by developing collaborative rather than competitive relationships with other networking vendors.

 Novell's strategy is to bundle its NetWare operating system and other networking software inside the servers of its hardware partners such as Compaq, HP, IBM and Acer.

 An extension of that would be to train each other's staff to sell products and provide technical support.

 Most importantly, Novell wants to make products such as its Novell directory service (NDS) work on Unix and NT, in addition to the company's NetWare, in order to form 'cross-platform networking solutions'.

 The future of the networking business 'is not about NetWare versus NT versus Unix, but NetWare and NT and Unix', said Novell's marketing vice-president John Slitz.

 Novell wants to out-manoeuvre Microsoft by running NDS on top of NT servers in order to act as a central administrator for managing network resources, or to define clients' capabilities.

  A powerful directory service, such as Novell's NDS, IBM's Warp server and Banyan's StreetTalk, is important for managing a large to medium-sized network.

 Reminding business partners, resellers and customers at last week's BrainShare event in Beijing of Novell's leading position in networking, Mr Slitz said it might take until 1999 for Microsoft to unveil a network directory service. Microsoft is number one in PC software.

 Novell has had a directory service for NetWare for some time and the one for NT is already available.

 Furthermore, Novell has formed a tighter camp with Netscape, Sun Microsystems and Oracle against software giant Microsoft.

 Novell and Netscape's alliance, named Novonyx, plans to integrate Netscape's full line of SuiteSpot servers, except the directory server, with NetWare; while Novell's upcoming NetWare 5.0, co-named Moab, will fully support Java, which is consistent with Sun's and Oracle's strategy on Java and network computers.

 Scheduled for shipment next summer, NetWare 5.0 supports the TCP/IP protocol, and features a Java virtual machine and a Java software developer kit that will result in a thicker server, or thinner clients, to allow users to customise their networks and add functions by developing Java applets.

 'It will finally realise Oracle's concept of 'network is computer',' said a Novell official.

 Novell has its NDS working on NT server as well as NetWare, and network applications such as Groupwise, a groupware application, and BorderManager, a firewall security software and proxy server, running on Windows clients. But its core product, NetWare operating system, competes fiercely with NT server.

 Arthur Ehrlich, Novell's Asia-Pacific vice-president, quoted IDC figures to show that NetWare still dominates the global market with a 65 per cent share, while NT server holds only 7 per cent. He said NT's rapid growth was basically on the client side instead of the server side.

 NetWare's share in Asia-Pacific, according to Mr Ehrlich, is even higher - 75 to 80 per cent. The region is Novell's most profitable sector.

 It currently accounts for 9 per cent of the company's total revenues, but will enjoy 15 per cent of total sales and marketing investment in the coming year.

 Next year, Novell plans to open offices in Taiwan and Indonesia, and to increase staff in almost every country in the region.

 This is in contrast to this year's strategy. When Eric Schmidt, Novell's chief executive, took charge of the company in April, the workforce was cut by 18 per cent.

 Novell's top three markets in the Asia-Pacific region are - in order - Australia and New Zealand, Taiwan and the mainland. Australia and New Zealand are responsible for one-third of regional revenues.

 Mr Ehrlich expects the mainland, where sales increased 30 per cent in the 1997 financial year, to move up to second place next year.



Novell emphasises collaboration over competition with vendors