Novell creates file services for Net

BANGALORE: Novell Inc., a provider of Net services software has announced the

availability of hosted file services on the Internet. Novell claims to be the

first company to provide integrated file services with caching on the Internet,

which offers users increased scalability, distribution and acceleration of file

sharing, storage and access.

Novell's JustOn hosted file services is available for ISPs, ASPs and dot-com

companies that want to offer Internet file sharing as part of their Net services

offerings. Novell's hosted file services are a building block in its Net service

software strategy to help companies secure, simplify and accelerate access to

the Net, says the company. To offer this service, Novell is combining technology

from its recent acquisition of JustOn, Inc. and its Novell Internet Caching

System (ICS). The combined solution is said to accelerate delivery and

scalability of JustOn files and distributed file access across the Internet

while decreasing hardware costs by a factor of 20. The storing and sharing of

user files on the Internet instead of on hard drives provides a user with global

access to their files through a Web browser, and allows them to easily share any

files with friends and colleagues.

Novell chief scientist and vice president of advanced development Drew Major

said, "We are pushing files to the edge of the Net, closer to where users

need them and overcoming the latency issues that so many customers encounter

when accessing files remotely. " The company states that in recent

independent tests, ICS has been found to provide more than 20 times the

performance of other caching technologies on the market. Several ISPs and other

service providers are said to have already begun testing the hosted file

services from Novell and are preparing to offer the service to their customers

in the coming weeks. Pricing and Availability JustOn Files is immediately

available as a hosted service and is sold on a consumption basis measured in

megabits per second usage per month. Pricing for ISPs, ASPs and dotcoms is

$1,195 to $1,795 per Mbps based on a month's average consumption. Users can try

the hosted file services with a user account allowing 50 free MB of storage

space on the Internet at www.juston.com.