Novell sings open source tune

BANGALORE: Novell has announced that it has incorporated key open-source components and industry standards in the latest version of NetWare, making it a capable of deploying Web services applications. New offerings around managed computing, along with a Liberty Alliance-enabled identity management service and a new GroupWise Client for Linux and Mac, will give Novell customers the ability to leverage existing technology investments while moving their environments forward on an open, standards-based path.

"This year"s BrainShare conference marks another important step in achieving our one Net Vision of a world without information boundaries," said Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of Novell. "Open source and standards-based solutions have become increasingly critical elements of many organizations" IT environments."

Novell"s annual BrainShare conference revolved around the theme of openness: open source, open platforms, and open standards-based computing.

NetWare 6.5, the latest version of Novell"s flagship operating system announced today integrates the Novell exteNd application server with NetWare enables developers to deploy Java and Web services applications. In addition, NetWare 6.5 includes and integrates several key open-source components, including the MySQL database and Apache Web server, so that many applications designed for these components will run seamlessly on NetWare. The company says that new features in NetWare 6.5 also give end-users the ability to access all key network resources, regardless of location or device, securely and reliably, making the office truly virtual. Finally, server consolation, branch-office and storage features are new features that hope to keep users’ systems up and running cost-effectively.

Novell has also started the Forge website (http://forge.novell.com), a developer resource. In addition, the company is releasing the source code of the Novell Nsure UDDI Server to the open-source community. The company expects developers to use this to make Web services registries more secure and easier to manage by adding identity management capabilities to the UDDI Web services standard.

Businesses can rapidly provide customers and employees with single sign-on to a multitude of websites and reach across the Internet to form secure, profitable relationships with business partners thanks to two new services from Novell. These services, the Liberty identity provider for Novell eDirectory and the SAML extension for Novell iChain, enhance the company"s Nsure secure identity management solutions to better address the demands of federated identity.

"Novell is listening to its customers, who are wary of being locked into proprietary environments, and we"re responding to what they"re asking," said Chris Stone, vice chairman - office of the CEO. "Open source is gaining momentum in the market, customers want to leverage it. NetWare 6.5 is a great example of how we"re melding the best of Novell"s networking services with the power of open source and the benefits of key standards like Web services. Novell helps customers leverage these new technologies with comprehensive solutions, while still getting a high level of comfort from the security and reliability they expect from Novell."