Novell Inc. on Feb. 12 will announce its next-generation network operating system, NetWare 6.5, which includes browser-based portal and team services functions, directory integration and an application server for Web services.
NetWare 6.5, code-named Nakoma, has been in closed beta trials for months but will move to public beta in April and will begin shipping midyear, said Rob Seely, product manager at the Provo, Utah-based company.
Seely listed 14 new features plus six improvements over Version 6.0, focusing primarily on the new Virtual Office interface, which brings together the previously released iFolder and iPrint Web services with new Virtual Team and eGuide functions. Virtual Office allows users to print, access and manipulate documents and collaborate via instant messaging and other functions in virtual teams from a customized browser, he said.
EGuide, a directory program, was already an internal Novell capability but is new to NetWare 6.5, Seely said. With the help of Novell’s meta directory, DirXML, eGuide provides connectors to multiple directories including Novell’s eDirectory, Windows NT domains and Microsoft Corp.’s Active Directory (AD), Novell officials said. Using the Virtual Office browser, a user could see all directory information with a single password.
In addition to Virtual Office, NetWare 6.5 focuses on business continuity and Web services innovations, Seely said. Among those features are Snap Shot Backup, allowing a continuous back-up to a server over a network so that work is preserved. The exteNd App Server and Perl, PHP and MySQL open-source programs are also part of the package.
Beta tester George Raetzke, a senior systems programmer at Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb, hailed a new server consolidation utility in NetWare 6.5. He said he would like to deploy a new cluster of servers using the utility, meaning multiple servers could work with pointers to a program in one server, resulting in a “huge savings in space for our labs.”
NIU, a campus of 23,000 students, has about 75 servers running earlier versions of NetWare and many Windows NT servers used for Web functions, Raetzke said. Both AD and Novell Directory Services (NDS) are in use. EGuide and DirXML in Version 6.5 would help with integration between AD and NDS, he said.
Another beta tester, Novell Inc. next Wednesday will announce its next-generation network operating system, NetWare 6.5, which includes browser-based portal and team services functions, directory integration and an application server for Web services., a contractor for Computer Science Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., who works as a network administrator at a large federal agency in Cincinnati, called the server consolidation tool a potential “lifesaver” for future migration to newer server hardware. He also said the Snap Shot Backup will allow administrators to back up a database with no downtime during the workday instead of overnight. EGuide should be valuable at his agency for looking up tens of thousands of workers in offices around the country for contact information and a photo of the person, he said.
John Enck, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn, said the new version does an “outstanding job” of enhancing the Web interface in Virtual Office, and described the integration with AD as an important feature for enterprise users who want to support multiple directories.
Enck predicted that NetWare 6.5 may help Novell stop NetWare’s market decline to a point. “It will help stop the bleeding, but no non-Novell customer will go running to 6.5 either,” he said.
NetWare generated US$2 billion for the company in 2001 and US$1.6 billion in 2002, but could decline to US$600 million by 2006 unless future releases improve the outlook, according to Gartner. There are now 4 million licensed NetWare users, Novell officials said.
