Novell to Open Enterprise to Netware and Linux

Novell announced today that it was moving up the timetable by
10 months on its new Open Enterprise Server (OES). The new server, due out in February, will
include Novell’s NetWare operating systems, as well as its SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server (SLES) 9.

OES also will include a new common management interface that promises to
make migration and management easier for both Linux and Netware.
According to Charlie Ungashick, director for product marketing and
management for Linux, Open Source and Platform Services at Novell, Netware
customers have been asking for this type of server.

“Our customers have reacted quite positively to several things Open
Enterprise Server provides,” Ungashick told internetnews.com. “With the
core Novell network services running on either Linux or NetWare, IT
professionals have the choice about how and when they migrate their IT
infrastructure. Since the core services behave the same way, moving to
Linux is easy, with practically zero interruption for end users.”

OES will not be the first opportunity offered by Novell to its customer to
use both Netware and Linux together. In fact, Ungashick claims that
“many” Novell customers are using Netware and Linux together
today.

“In December, 2003, Novell delivered Enterprise Linux Services, which
allowed current NetWare customers to start running some of the classic
NetWare services on Linux,” Ungashick explained. “In February, Novell will
deliver Open Enterprise Server, a combined NetWare and Linux offering,
that will enable customers to run the advanced Novell services on NetWare,
Linux, or both.

“This will mark the opportunity for NetWare customers to begin a
transition from NetWare to Linux if this direction makes sense for their
environment,” he added.

SLES on its own also offers interoperability with Netware out of the box,
though it does not offer the same level of functionality as that promised
by OES.

“OES enables IT professionals to more effectively use Linux for IT
infrastructure, particularly when servers are deployed in clusters or
disparate locations,” Ungashick said.

The server is expected to be
available as an open beta in late November. Earlier
this week, Novell pulled the wraps off of it latest consumer version
of SUSE Linux, version 9.2.