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Several things to blog about today. I am currently sitting in the Phoenix airport waiting for my connecting flight from SLC to Seattle....through Phoenix. I guess it is just one of those days :)

So...first up...Zimbra owned by VMWare recently put out some FUD and mis-information about the future of GroupWise. We have prepared the following information.

Zimbra Mis-Information and FUD

Several customers recently received an erroneous and self-serving communication from Zimbra/VMware. This communication promoted the misinformation that Novell is ending support for GroupWise 8 next month, with no new release anywhere in sight. To validate this claim, they pointed to a dated screen capture of a customer-maintained wiki. This information obviously did not reflect Novell’s actual support of or product plans for the GroupWise product line.

Here are the facts:

1) The Attachmate Group has made several public statements about its unwavering support for GroupWise and GroupWise customers.

Proof Point: “Attachmate Corporation Reaffirms Commitment to GroupWise” web page available at http://www.novell.com/promo/collaboration/groupwis....

2) Novell does, indeed, have an imminent release of GroupWise: GroupWise 2012, slated for general availability in late November.

Proof Point: “Coming next for GroupWise” content available at http://www.novell.com/products/groupwise/. Look for the top “Highlights” item under the “Overview” tab.

We also recently posted in this blog about Public beta for GroupWise 2012.

3) Beyond this, Novell has an aggressive GroupWise roadmap that will feature major releases on a roughly annual basis.

Proof Point: Interactive roadmap app coming to the GroupWise home page when GroupWise 2012 releases (stay tuned).

4) General support for GroupWise 8 is not ending in November of 2011. In fact, Novell will support GroupWise 8 through at least May of 2013.

Proof Point: Official product support lifecycle page for GroupWise available at http://support.novell.com/lifecycle/.

5) Novell is taking every opportunity to reach out to GroupWise customers, listen to their feedback, and let this input inform development plans.

Proof Point: Through the GroupWise “War Room” effort, we are meeting face-to-face with 210 GroupWise customers globally. Several hundred more are being contacted by phone to re-establish relationships and solicit input on our product plans.

In preparation for the release of GroupWise 2012, Novell has already taken the following steps related to our launch of GroupWise 2012 at BrainShare last week. These steps should provide concrete proof of Novell’s very real plans in the GroupWise space.

1) E-mail to our full GroupWise and NOWS customer database reaffirming support for GroupWise, announcing the launch of the product at BrainShare, and promoting the availability of a public beta.

2) “What’s coming in GroupWise 2012” content on the GroupWise home page. This is now the first item in the “Overview” section. www.novell.com/groupwise.

Let me know if you have further questions about Novell's commitment to GroupWise and its very bright future.

Los Angeles and their ongoing issues with Google

As many may know, the City of Los Angeles has been trying to move from GroupWise to Google over the last few years. It does not appear to be going very well.

Check out this news article from MarketWatch.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-documents-sho...

AND

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/e-mail-fails-to-d...

It appears that the security of GroupWise is still making headlines. If I remember correctly, the City of Los Angeles was running GroupWise 7 at the time they decided to kick the tires with Google. Now we are about to release GroupWise 2012. Imagine the comparison between Gmail and GroupWise 2012 and how much better Novell's product is in comparison.

At the end of the day...you get what you pay for and the City of Los Angeles is learning a very costly lesson. Cheap is exactly what you get!

Mobility News for GroupWise

Normally the following information deserves top billing, but with today's blog...there is so much to share.

First of all....Apple released iOS5 last past week. If your organization has already deployed Novell Data Synchronizer 1.2 from August 5, 2011 - then you are good to go. The Apple upgrade will not disrupt service for your users who upgrade to iOS5. However, the new features that are available in iOS5, like Task Management, will not function until our next major release of Novell DataSynchronizer. The code name for that release is Eenou and is scheduled for Q4, early Q1.

On to the next topic...

Mobility Pack Patch File

Novell Data Synchronizer Mobility Pack 1.2 Patch File 1 has been published on patch finder. This is Not an update and will not modify the Build Numbers. It will only replace few files on the Mobility Server running Build 579 to fix some issues mentioned in the Readme

http://download.novell.com/Download?buildid=J-KjQH...

Quick and to the point, but my flight BACK north is about to board. Love the free Wi-fi in Phoenix airport....nice.

Enjoy!

Dean

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.