A couple days ago Richard Bliss had a long blog entry about, "Novell's Cash Cow - How NetWare almost killed the company". It had some very interesting points. Some we knew:
In 2001 I knew that Windows had for all intents and purposes won. The only place you ever really saw NetWare servers were as file-servers, or running GroupWise or the small handful of apps that used NetWare as an application server. The stalwart loyalists among us saw this as annoying, but not a major problem.
It was also good for Novell's bottom line. NetWare still accounted for a large percentage of their revenues. Even though the writing was on the wall, they were still making real money on it so didn't see a need to change. This is why NetWare 6.0 introduced the AMP stack to NetWare, as a way to better make NetWare an application server and to slow the loss of customers. At BrainShare 2001 there was open speculation about "NetWare 7.0" and what it would look like.
And there still was until 2005 when Novell announced what the next version of NetWare would be. This being after the SUSE and Ximian purchases, it would be based on Linux. This move had been rumored, and alternately derided and lauded, for some time. There was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of the stalwart NetWare loyalists. It also started an exodus of customers, as Novell's financial reports at the time point out.
Fortunately for the company, they started actively promoting (for certain values of 'active' that are higher than they were previously, but still in the theme of Novell Stealth Marketing) and developing their other products, like GroupWise, Novell Identity Management, ZenWorks, and most especially their Linux business. It took them until last quarter to turn in a quarter in the black, and NetWare revenues are under 20% of total now. So, they've turned the corner and are no longer dependent on the NetWare cash cow. They have a couple of them in the field now, which is a MUCH healthier place to be.
It's a funny thing, but one of the reasons why NetWare is such a kick-butt file-server compared to everything else is why it's a challenging environment to develop in. Had Novell seen the light earlier and bought SUSE (or rolled their own Linux distro) in... 1999 instead, right after the NW5.1 release, they still would have run into the fundamental architectural problems in 32-bit linux that make it an inferior file-serving platform for large environments. By 2008 their server could have been a LOT more mature, and perfectly poised to take advantage of 64-bit Linux.
Novell in the 1990's is not an example of a 'nimble' company. It is trying to get there now through diversification. Not many companies (especially tech companies) have survived the loss of their prime money earner; Apple has done it through OSX, which required a fanatically loyal fan base to survive the dark years. This is the prime reason people kept predicting the imminent demise or buyout of Novell. Now that they're earning profits again, and have diversified away from just the OS sector, they're not going to be going out of business any time soon.
Now if only they had better SMB packages and programs. I hear repeatedly from peers who support SMBs that Novell's packages and programs in that space are lacking or exploitative. Significant revenue, and more importantly mindshare, are in the SMB market. Plus, today's SMB is tomorrow's large or global enterprise.
We are all familiar with NetWare, the dominate Network Operating system of the 1980s and 1990s. We are all familiar with Microsoft's tactics of penetrating the NOS market with Windows NT by focusing on using Windows as an application platform.Apparently Richard worked for Novell around 2001. I find that interesting since my first BrainShare was 2001, and that was when they announced the release of NetWare 6.0. While there he saw what seemed to be an outright denial that NetWare had been passed up by Windows and something new needed to be done.
In 2001 I knew that Windows had for all intents and purposes won. The only place you ever really saw NetWare servers were as file-servers, or running GroupWise or the small handful of apps that used NetWare as an application server. The stalwart loyalists among us saw this as annoying, but not a major problem.
It was also good for Novell's bottom line. NetWare still accounted for a large percentage of their revenues. Even though the writing was on the wall, they were still making real money on it so didn't see a need to change. This is why NetWare 6.0 introduced the AMP stack to NetWare, as a way to better make NetWare an application server and to slow the loss of customers. At BrainShare 2001 there was open speculation about "NetWare 7.0" and what it would look like.
And there still was until 2005 when Novell announced what the next version of NetWare would be. This being after the SUSE and Ximian purchases, it would be based on Linux. This move had been rumored, and alternately derided and lauded, for some time. There was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of the stalwart NetWare loyalists. It also started an exodus of customers, as Novell's financial reports at the time point out.
Fortunately for the company, they started actively promoting (for certain values of 'active' that are higher than they were previously, but still in the theme of Novell Stealth Marketing) and developing their other products, like GroupWise, Novell Identity Management, ZenWorks, and most especially their Linux business. It took them until last quarter to turn in a quarter in the black, and NetWare revenues are under 20% of total now. So, they've turned the corner and are no longer dependent on the NetWare cash cow. They have a couple of them in the field now, which is a MUCH healthier place to be.
It's a funny thing, but one of the reasons why NetWare is such a kick-butt file-server compared to everything else is why it's a challenging environment to develop in. Had Novell seen the light earlier and bought SUSE (or rolled their own Linux distro) in... 1999 instead, right after the NW5.1 release, they still would have run into the fundamental architectural problems in 32-bit linux that make it an inferior file-serving platform for large environments. By 2008 their server could have been a LOT more mature, and perfectly poised to take advantage of 64-bit Linux.
Novell in the 1990's is not an example of a 'nimble' company. It is trying to get there now through diversification. Not many companies (especially tech companies) have survived the loss of their prime money earner; Apple has done it through OSX, which required a fanatically loyal fan base to survive the dark years. This is the prime reason people kept predicting the imminent demise or buyout of Novell. Now that they're earning profits again, and have diversified away from just the OS sector, they're not going to be going out of business any time soon.
Now if only they had better SMB packages and programs. I hear repeatedly from peers who support SMBs that Novell's packages and programs in that space are lacking or exploitative. Significant revenue, and more importantly mindshare, are in the SMB market. Plus, today's SMB is tomorrow's large or global enterprise.