suse

IBM continues to feed Novell with Cognos rollout on Suse Linux

IBM has long looked to Novell to serve as a buffer to Red Hat's growing dominance.

Years ago, IBM invested $50 million in Novell. More recently, IBM selected Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise for its Cognos 8 mainframe debut. A Red Hat Enterprise Linux version is planned for the future.

The choice of Linux was easy: 20 percent of IBM's System z growth stems from Linux, and Linux is easier to develop. According to an article in SearchEnterpriseLinux.com:

Cognos was able to fast-track porting the application to System z because it was already available for IBM Systems … Read more

Microsoft "endorses" Linux?

Come on, Novell, I can see touting SAP's seal of approval on SUSE Linux, but Microsoft? I found this banner on Novell's page today (while looking for a logo for an earlier post), and I laughed as I read, "A quick and easy way to certify..." and then this:

Bravo for interoperability. But Microsoft gets paid to put Novell, Red Hat, etc. out of business. That is its fiduciary duty. The minute Novell starts cutting into Microsoft's profits is the minute that Microsoft's "endorsement" disappears.

It may be momentarily good marketing (and … Read more

Invitrogen buys into Novell's SUSE Linux

Invitrogen is a billion-dollar supplier to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, with 4,700 employees worldwide and a history of supplying many of the world's leading laboratories in groundbreaking research like the discovery of the AIDS virus.

To help promote its innovative work, Invitrogen announced this week that it is standardizing on Novell's SUSE? Linux Enterprise for its servers. From the press release:

SUSE Linux Enterprise will allow Invitrogen to more easily manage its complex IT environment, consisting of a mix of different platforms and applications including HP servers, Oracle databases and Web servers, as well as PeopleSoft ERP … Read more

Novell's welcome gift for Red Hat

The VAR Guy suggested that Novell should greet Red Hat's "invasion" of Boston next week with a little tea party of sorts. Well, I don't know that Novell has any such intentions in mind - it's a peace-loving company, after all - but I can reveal Novell's welcome banner for Red Hat Summit attendees:

All's fair in love and advertising....

As shown, Novell has hung banners and put 7x7 floor decals in the Prudential Center Mall in Boston. The Hynes Convention Center is connected to the Prudential Center Mall, as are the three … Read more

A Microsoft coupon bonanza for Novell? Not really

Ed Moltzen writes headlines an article with "Microsoft's Coupon Money Boosts Novell's Linux Numbers," which is true on its face, but not as interesting under the covers. Justin Steinman, Novell's head of Linux marketing, had told me a week ago that Novell's "non-Microsoft- related Linux business is growing."

This remains true. While Novell continues to redeem its Microsoft coupons for a healthy amount of money, the relative amount of money attributable to Microsoft is in decline.

Moltzen notes that Novell had $16 million in Microsoft coupons (quoting Novell's Ron Hovsepian, who … Read more

Novell's Linux business up 31 percent

Yes, Novell has a ways to go to catch up with Red Hat, but with yet another strong quarter it's becoming increasingly clear that the enterprise Linux market is a two-horse race again. Importantly, Novell is competing much more strongly without backup from Microsoft.

Novell saw its Linux business top $29 million in its second fiscal quarter of 2008 ($30 million in total Open Platform Solutions revenue), up 31 percent over the same period a year ago, with other business units also seeing healthy growth. Only its Workgroup business unit continues to founder, down 1 percent in the period that ended April 30.

More importantly (to me), I asked Justin Steinman, Novell's director of Marketing for Linux and Open Platforms, how much of this is attributable to Novell's partnership with Microsoft. It turns out that Novell is starting to really grow its Linux business on its own, though it still looks to Microsoft as a strong partner to drive interoperability:

Novell's core Linux business is growing. By "core," I mean that our non-Microsoft- related Linux business is growing. These are Suse Linux Enterprise Server subscriptions sold directly by the Novell sales force or by our channel partners, without any Microsoft certificates or Microsoft salespeople involved.… Read more

Novell's big opportunity

A friend called me on Friday to ask what I thought about Novell. "Does it have a chance?" he asked?

The answer is increasingly, "Yes."

I never would have thought I'd be saying that, but whatever the cause of Novell's resurgence, it feels like the company is making a serious comeback. I've seen it with my own company, where an increasing number of our customers are requesting SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

Yes, it has yet to displace its competition: Ubuntu has more momentum but still lacks a winning revenue model that may hamper its transition from community standard to enterprise standard, while Red Hat continues to barrel forward yet doesn't feel as invincible as before.

But Novell's progress in its Linux business is nothing to sneeze at, with 65 percent growth in its last quarter. That progress is a direct result of its interoperability agreement with Microsoft, a relationship it has been extending of late.

I've harshly criticized this agreement because of the patent cloud it has placed over Linux, but after talking with a range of Novell SUSE/Microsoft customers about it, I'm increasingly convinced that the only company that is sold on the important of patent protection in the deal is Microsoft. As one recent customer noted to me, "The patent coverage for SUSE had exactly zero relevance to us in making our decision to go with SUSE."

Customers may be indifferent to the patent pact, but Novell's alignment with Microsoft has been very good so far for its business. Were that the only thing it was doing, however, it might not be much to cheer. Novell has been very busy on a range of different fronts:… Read more

Red Hat's (and Sun's) missed SUSE opportunity (Updated)

I posted a (substantiated) rumor last week about Red Hat getting first dibs on buying SUSE and ultimately passing on it. As it turns out, all sorts of people have come out of the woodwork to give me more information on Red Hat's near-miss on acquiring SUSE.

Here are a few gems, including a cameo role from Sun:

Red Hat actually looked at buying SUSE twice. The first time was two years before Novell ultimately acquired SUSE, when SUSE was teetering on bankruptcy, and the second was during the negotiations with Novell. The first time, at least one senior SUSE executive took an urgent flight to the US to try to sell the company to Red Hat, but the efforts were shelved when additional venture and industry funding was found in time to prevent a bankruptcy;… Read more

The virtualization opportunity/threat for Linux vendors

More good stuff from The VAR Guy today, this time on the likelihood that virtualization is starting to harm server sales:

Each time The VAR Guy speaks with a CIO or solutions provider, he hears about yet another server consolidation project. Through virtualization and more effective storage management, companies can simplify their data centers while raising server utilization rates....The VAR Guy doesn't think the economy is destroying server sales. Rather, businesses are becoming far more efficient at leveraging the servers they already have.

This is difficult for an established server vendor to accept, but I suspect it's an opportunity for any new entrant to the market. On the Linux side, this includes both Novell and Ubuntu. Yes, Novell has been around for a long time, but its server sales are still nascent. As for Ubuntu, its primary task is to take a stick to the incumbents. Incorporating virtualization into its business model may help.… Read more