Novell-Microsoft interop pact may look sweeter to IT shops these days

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RE: Novell look sweeter to IT shops?

The last I checked, Novell drove away the bottom 2/3 (in terms of sales) of its partner channel a couple of years ago. They also killed their SMB products, and raised its support calls to $650 each. (As a side note, in a few days Novell will require an annual support contract to get any phone support at all).

What this means is that any Novell install under 100 seats was suddenly serviced by a local shop that could no longer be a Gold partner, and had no Novell products designed for its needs.

Later, Novell reversed course, but its Linux-based SBS was weak compared to the M$ version. Worse yet, there was still no partner program for companies that catered to these customers. Novell claimed that it couldn't afford its SBS, but M$ grew its SBS to a $1 billion product.

The last nail in that coffin was that there is lots of money to be made in any migration, so if you must migrate off of Netware, then why move to a product from a company that has recently $%^ed you over?

And that's why most of the remaining Novell shops have kept their Novell ties -- Novell sends you a list of their users, and many remaining Novell partners just wait until they get a chance at a mass migration. Once Groupwise is migrated, most offices wonder why they keep dual eDir / AD systems going just for storage. And, at that point, Novell is left with IDM as its sole remaining product with any marketplace recognition.

Novell would make a great living as a pure Intellectual Property company, and I have to wonder why they persist in operations.

Posted by: geek49203_z   Posted on: 08/21/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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