John Dragoon’s Blog

It used to be you had to make a choice…do I select form over function or function over form.  One might argue that feature packed and heavy laptops loaded (bloated?) with expensive operating system software were evidence of this choice paradox.  In reality, it wasn’t much of a choice.

With the rapid emergence and accelerating market place demand for low cost netbooks and laptops the false choice of form or function is evaporating - at least when it comes to PCs with great form factors preloaded with a Linux operating system that takes advantage of today’s computing paradigm.

In a  recent IDC study on Linux adoption in a global recession a full 68 percent of customers indicated they are evaluating or planning to increase their use of desktop Linux as a result of the economic downturn.  This not only speaks to the low-cost value proposition of Linux on the client, but also to the fact that the software and the ecosystem surrounding it have matured significantly.  Linux is now preloaded and supported on a wide range of client systems.  And it’s taking a healthy share of the fastest growing PC segment – netbooks – where Microsoft is being challenged like never before.  In fact, just today HP announced their newest ProBook laptop line would be available with Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 pre-installed.  A terrific marriage of form and function.

As more and more applications get accessed over the web, I believe we’ve only just begun the rapid growth of PC clients with attractive form factors with Linux as the preferred operating system.

It seems you can have it all - Form and Function.

John

An update of our physical infrastructure isn’t the only critical target of the U.S. government’s economic stimulus initiatives. A compelling case can be made that a significant refresh and update of our technical infrastructure is equally if not more critical to our long term growth and competitiveness. The private sector has been more aggressive than the public sector in adopting a number of technical and business model advances. One such example is the adoption of rapidly maturing open source technologies as the backbone of technical infrastructures. Not only does open source offer compelling cost advantages, but also the innovation cycles are often shorter and more compelling than fully proprietary approaches.

Novell thinks the U.S government has an opportunity and obligation to aggressively explore and promote the use of open source. We posted our views on the benefits and call to action in a article we wrote for Forbes.com that was posted today.

To be clear, there are many great examples of the use of open source within the public sector. We just believe that today’s economic realities present a catalyst for more aggressive adoption.

John

Earlier today we announced that we had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Managed Objects, a market leader in Business Service Management (BSM) solutions.

This acquisition, like our acquisition of PlateSpin earlier this year, is yet another piece in our commitment to provide the best and most interoperable data center management solutions. We already had a very strong position in the data center with our cross platfrom management, virtualization and workload products. The Managed Objects products will complement and extend our data center value with a portfolio of flexible modeling, analytic and visualization technologies. The net result will be better visibility, for both IT and business managers, into how information systems deliver business services allowing users to understand and respond to issues in a business context in real time.

I believe Managed Objects is a natural fit for Novell for other reasons as well. For one, we share a number of customers in common and our lack of product overlap creates immediate benefit for those customers seeking a common data center management strategy. Second, we share a common value proposition. Our solutions are focused on helping clients reduce cost, complexity and risk. Managed Objects customer’s realize similar benefits through their unified approach to business service management. Finally, we share a mutual commitment to interoperability. Managed Objects extends our vision of “Making IT Work as One” by integrating customer’s existing IT management investments into a real-time model of the IT enterprise.

So we look forward to welcoming the employees and customers of Managed Objects into the Novell family….and in extending our commitment to providing the best cross-platform solution for the next generation data center.

John

Last week’s global economic news was historic from a number of perspectives and predictably there were a number of articles and postings on the impact to the technology industry at large and software companies in particular. One post by Information Week’s Serdar Yegulalp viewed the “grim financial times” as a test for commercial vendors of open source to show what they are made of.

I’ll certainly agree with Mr. Yegulalp that the current environment will test the value and business model of many firms. Having a diverse portfolio of solutions and customers and the financial vitality to weather this storm will serve all companies well. Against this backdrop I feel very positive about Novell. And I certainly agree with him that the open source model makes economic sense in good times and in bad. But I believe there’s more to the story. A lot more.

From the customer perspective, it’s not about open source vs proprietary software. It’s about value. Period. Frankly very few if any of the commercial customers I talk to care about our development and delivery model. They do care about our ability to help them lower the cost, complexity and risk of their IT environment and help them solve their critical business issues. Customers want the best solution at the best price and whether you deliver that through open source or proprietary models is a distant secondary issue. Make no mistake, Novell believes very strongly in the power, flexibility and innovation that results from the open source model. Our primary focus, however, is on delivering software that integrates well with a customer’s existing environment and lets them leverage and extend their IT investments. If we can deliver powerful, interoperable software that addresses customer pain points at a price that fits well with our customer’s tightening budgets, then it really doesn’t matter whether a solution is proprietary, open source or a combination of both.

I enjoyed Serdar’s Japanese proverbs at the end of his post so I return the favor here:

“Even a sheet of paper has two sides”

John

As Novell and Microsoft approach the two year anniversary of our interoperability partnership, it seems appropriate to highlight the joint innovation that’s been delivered on behalf of our customer’s agenda of making Windows and Linux work well together.

Our partnership has been a lot more than talk and press releases. In fact, our joint investment in an interoperability lab has delivered significant innovation in bi-directional virtualization, document compatibility and cross platform systems and identity management. The best, and I believe most interesting, place to discover all this is at our newly refreshed site at moreinterop.com.

This new site has a ton of new features and information and takes advantage of some of the best in multimedia to make the discovery both interesting and educational. In particular, I invite you to take a tour of the new interoperability Lab. This site will be growing in the weeks and months ahead with the launch of local language versions in French, Spanish, German, Japanese and Chinese.

Let us know what you think.

John

It’s a testament to software legacy when you release the 8th version of a product. It indicates a certain longevity and customer satisfaction and a commitment to innovation. We’re proud to celebrate an important milestone this month. Our GroupWise product, known for more than 20 years as the most secure and reliable e-mail and calendaring solution on the market, has a new release in open beta. The highly anticipated GroupWise 8 continues the product’s long-term legacy–while taking personal productivity to a whole new level with a fully connected collaborative workspace that leverages the latest Web 2.0 technologies. For instance, with GroupWise 8, users can add wikis and blogs, RSS feeds and Web pages to their Home View. They can publish their calendars to the outside world and busy search across e-mail systems. They can manage contacts more effectively than ever before. And with more robust Linux, Mac and WebAccess clients, they can work on their preferred platform and in a way that suits them best.

This is a beta you simply have to experience for yourself. For our internal Linux and Mac users, the reaction has been phenomenal. They’re enjoying a whole host of new features that help them work smarter, faster and better. Our mobile workforce is discovering how powerful a thin, Web-based client can be. And there’s a lot for Windows client users, too, including brand new technology and enhancements to some of the great features that have been in the product since our last major release.

We all develop ruts in our work–things we do by force of habit even if they’re less-than-effective ways to get the job done. With the release of GroupWise 8 later this year, it’s time to break out and take advantage of next-generation collaboration technology–as well as some of the existing features you may not have realized were there–that can help achieve more individually or as part of a larger team. I’m excited about what the new GroupWise can do for me, and I’m confident it will revolutionize productivity for you.

To download the open beta—and to learn more about eight can’t-do-without features we’ve added to each client as well as the administrative back end—visit http://novell.com/promo/openbeta.html.

Thanks.

John

Last February 21 I blogged about Microsoft’s announcement on a new set of interoperability principles. In the announcement Microsoft declared a broad-reaching set of changes across both their business and technology practices, all of which were intended to increase the openess of their products and drive greater interoperability. As I said at the time, we were encouraged by the announcement and in favor of any technology vendor working towards the broad customer agenda of choice. Choice enabled by open standards and interoperabilty.

I also wrote at the time that while we were both supportive and encouraged, we would judge the long term impact of the announcement based on the actions taken and delivered. Well earlier today Microsoft “walked the walk” and announced what we believe is a major win for choice - specifically for those seeking to leverage open standards in office applications via the Open Document Format. And despite what you may or may not think about Microsoft’s intentions, you have to applaud the follow through and commitment they are displaying in their support for ODF and interoperability at large.

So what exactly was announced today? The two most interesting items from my perspective are:

1. Microsoft’s announcement to add support for the Open Document Format (ODF) 1.1 in the next service pack for Office - SP2 scheduled for 1st half 2009 and

2. Microsoft’s intentions to increase its participation with the community and help maintaining ODF by joining Oasis, the community focused on creating an open, XML-based file format specification for office applications

Novell has been a long time contributor and leader in promoting the Open Document Format as the preferred standard for office applications. We believe cross platform document interoperability between openoffice.org and Microsoft office is key to the long term growth and adoption of Linux and openoffice.org. We’re proud of our work in the Document Interoperability Initiative, the Interop Vendor Alliance and our direct collaboration with Microsoft in our Interoperability Lab. Having Microsoft support the format natively in their application can only be viewed as a positive step towards the choice that all commercial and public sector customers are seeking. Actively participating in the dialog and development of interoperability through participation in Oasis and the community at large is equally positive.

Helen Keller once said, “It’s a terrible thing to see and have no vision”.

We’re staking our reputation and promise on interoperability and Making IT Work as One. We know delivering on this promise will take more than Novell and we welcome all partners and vendors as active participants to this mission.

Today’s announcement only strengthens this vision.

John

Last week the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council hosted its annual spring conference. This year’s conference, of which Novell was a proud sponsor, focused on “China, India, and Russia - Our Partners in the New Global Economy. There was an impressive list of speakers led off by Dr. Lawrence Summers. In addition to being an economist by trade, Mr. Summers also has held distinguished positions including former US Secretary of the Treasury, Chief Economist of the World Bank and President of Harvard University. I found myself feeling like an underachiever as I read his bio and introduced him to the conference attendees.

Dr. Summers talked without notes or charts (a great lesson for all presenters) on “America and the New Global Economy.” While the essence of Dr. Summers’ observations were on how America could continue to compete in the face of accelerating competition from China, India, and Russia, it was his remarks on innovation and the source of innovation that struck me, and I hope you, as the most profound.

In adapting to the changing global landscape and accelerated economic growth abroad, Dr. Summers primary observation was that our strength and long term competitiveness must come from innovation and our ability to generate and sustain this innovation. I know innovation is not a new or novel concept regarding competition but it was Summers’ comments on the source for innovation that really hit home.

So the big question was “What’s the optimal source for creating and sustaining innovation (capabilities and knowledge) and therefore competitive advantage? Innovation that is difficult to replicate and therefore difficult to dislodge.” The traditional answer has been through individuals and proprietary models. The new paradigm is prosperity built on the communities capacity, a capacity which is open and fluid. Indeed it’s not hard to imagine innovation created and delivered through innovation communities is more difficult if not impossible to exploit by any one individual.

Now I’ll admit that “innovation communities” is not a new concept to those of us in open source. But it was refreshing and encouraging to hear a distinguished economist, public servant and academic leader espouse the model’s promise across a broader platform. Dr. Summers’ concluded with his keys for creating successful communities of innovation.

1. Education - It’s not surprising that Dr. Summers long time commitment to education has him leading off with the need for educational institutions to take an active role in the sponsorship, encouragement and knowledge transfer for the creation of innovation communities.

2. Science & Technology - A passionate plea for a cultural and philosophical shift in America for active support, encouragement, and respect for the noble and worthwhile pursuit of science and technology professions.

3. Engaged & Active Universities - Similar to #1 and #2 above but a specific plea for high profile Universities like Harvard and others to enable the incubation of innovation communities.

4. Open - Most encouraging perhaps was Dr. Summers’ observation that the best communities are open - that “open systems” beat “closed systems”.

So all in all an encouraging and enlightening day….with a final observation that innovation communities not only benefit the community but those proximate to the community as well. Also another good reminder that the best economic system is still founded on competition and the belief that markets are efficient.

John

Creating a powerful and compelling brand. The holy grail of many if not most marketeers - indeed I’d say of most companies. Stating the objective is simple, getting there is not. In a world of commodity phrases and empty promises it takes work and discipline to position one’s company in a distinctive, credible, relevant and enduring way.

In a blog I posted in early March I told you about some positioning research and work we were undertaking and promised to communicate the “results” shortly. This post is the first of many on our positioning and where we are headed from here.

With a clear and consistent strategy in place our next mission is to communicate a brand promise that reflects the stability and promise of our strategy. To accomplish this task we undertook a five month critical and objective review of our overall brand equity and marketplace positioning. This post summarizes our findings, our new positioning and next steps.

In November 2007, with the assistance of a leading external research and branding agency, we surveyed over 1,000 IT decision makers around the world regarding Novell’s brand equity in the marketplace with the objective to specifically understand:

• Where and why the Novell brand is strong and has traction
• How to best leverage the overall equity of the Novell name
• Which attributes drive selection and recommendation
• Ways to differentiate Novell vis-a-vis the competition

As a result of the primary research, validated with conversations with customers, partners, employees and the analyst community, a number of alternatives were developed and tested. One positioning among all the alternatives emerged as the most credible, relevant, unique, durable, aligned and actionable concept.

Novell Corporate Positioning

Novell. Making IT Work as One

Through our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships,Novell harmoniously integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one.

The above is more than a marketing tag line. It’s who we are, what we do and it embodies the core values that we provide to our customers. In this simple statement we clearly declare our category (infrastructure software), the critical importance our partners bring to our overall value proposition, the business driver that is our unique differentiator (interoperability or the support of mixed IT environments) and the declaration that interoperability is not just a technical goal but a human one as well (allowing people and technology to work as one).

Those of us in the IT industry know that our markets face substantial challenges on multiple fronts. Customer IT landscapes are increasingly more complex with proprietary and open source software, new and legacy technologies, heightened business unit requirements and an increasingly sophisticated end-user environment. Security challenges and compliance issues continue to multiply. Against this backdrop customers still demand the freedom to deploy the right technology for the job and they want it all to work together. That puts even more pressure on IT managers who are tasked with managing multiple physical and virtual platforms while maximizing the value of this mixed environment. By Making IT Work as One we will enable our customers to meet these challenges at low cost, with reduced complexity and mitigated risk.

Delivering on the promise of “Making IT Work as One”

As I said earlier, many corporate positions are empty tag lines. We believe it is critical our positioning reflect, support and enhance our strategy, technical vision and culture and values. We believe three distinct Novell leadership dimensions, working as one, deliver this promise of value, namely our: actionable strategy, workable vision, and extraordinary talent.

What: Actionable Strategy

With a unique combination of enterprise Linux and heterogeneous IT management software, Novell lowers costs, simplifies complexity and reduces vulnerability on virtually every platform. Our strategy reflects our long term commitment to interoperability and helping clients leverage and extend their IT investments - not rip and replace them.

How: Workable Vision

Novell’s technical prowess and applied technology give our customers the infinite IT flexibility and agility necessary to deploy IT resources to meet and then exceed their business objectives. Our interoperable infrastructure software helps organizations to take advantage of the best that open source has to offer while delivering the management software that allows companies to address their security and compliance challenges and automate the management of both their physical and virtual environments. We define our technology vision as one where IT is truly agile allowing people and technology work as one.

Who: Extraordinary Talent

When you partner with Novell, you partner with innovative, creative and committed people. Our internal team, extended community of open source developers, and ecosystem of high-impact partnerships are focused on supporting customers with one voice, one purpose and as one team - truly Making IT Work as One.

We have undertaken a thoughtful, objective and deliberate analysis of Novell’s brand equity and what we should do to enhance it. While Novell’s general marketplace awareness is competitive, there was not a universal understanding of what makes Novell unique. Highlighting the business drivers that emphasize our differentiated value is our priority. Novell’s focused commitment and support of interoperability and mixed IT environments and our strong partner ecosystem emerged as key positioning cornerstones for the company. In the tagline “Novell. Making IT Work as One” we have created a clear and differentiated positioning. Making IT Work as One is aspirational and perfectly aligned to our strategy, technical vision and employer brand. Making IT Work as One is our promise to our customers and it’s our rallying cry for successfully moving forward.

John

On Wednesday, April 16, Novell announced the SUSE Appliance Program and the beta availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise JeOS (for Just enough Operating System). Both of these announcements are aimed squarely at simplifying the use of Linux and in doing so expanding this already hot market. More importantly, these announcements deliver on our promise to reduce the cost, complexity and risk of IT deployments and in doing so help vendors and clients make their IT work as one. The SUSE Appliance Program will enable independent software vendors (ISVs) to create appliances combining their applications with the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform in one integrated package for end customer deployment. These bundles of applications will help ISVs simplify application support while dramatically reducing development costs and easing deployment of applications by end customers. As previously mentioned, we also announced, as part of this program, the beta availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise JeOS, a minimized version of the SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system that ISVs can use to build appliances.

As part of the press interviews that are typical with an announcement of this magnitude, Novell’s open source chief technology officer and strategist, Nat Friedman, suggested that “the stand alone OS is dead”. A provocative quote to say the least and it made for a good headline in a number of articles. Indeed, for those who were privileged to hear Nat’s entire comments, this statement was part of a larger trend Nat was discussing on the long term trend of independent software vendor application deployment.

Nat’s certainly right that on balance, enterprises and end users don’t begin the journey to solving a business problem with the selection of an operation system. Operating systems live and die by their ecosystem of applications and technology integration. To be sure, a well engineered, secure, reliable and well supported operating system is a must. But history is full of examples where better engineered products didn’t survive because they lacked the integration with the broader platform and problem the customer was trying to solve. Our approach to operating system development—from our early NetWare days to SUSE Linux Enterprise—is to recognize that the OS is but one piece of the overall stack and that our partners and customers are well served when we take aims to facilitate the integration and deployment of the stack.

But did Nat really mean the stand alone OS is dead? Of course not. And indeed Novell remains firmly committed to the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, the best engineered, most interoperable platform for mission-critical computing from the desktop to the data center. The SUSE Appliance Program is a complementary component to the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform. Novell recently announced our development themes for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, scheduled to ship in 2009. Those development plans have not changed.

The IT landscape today is one of mass customization and our technology strategy reflects that. Novell’s business strategy is based around customer and partner choice. We deliver our SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system in a wide variety of formats designed to address a wide variety of customer needs across the enterprise, ranging from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for mission-critical application support like SAP to our award-winning SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time for low latency workloads. SUSE Linux Enterprise JeOS is another flavor of the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, designed for ISVs who wish to deliver their application as an appliance and thus need an appliance operating system.

Novell will continue to distribute SUSE Linux Enterprise through a variety of channels, including our reseller and partner ecosystem, our IHV partners, our direct salesforce, and our ISV partners. The SUSE Appliance Program is designed to make it easier for our ISV partners in particular to deliver SUSE Linux Enterprise to their customers. It’s also clearly aimed at making it easier for customers to deploy the applications they need in an easy, reliable and low cost manner.

The SUSE Appliance Program is part of Novell’s integrated operating system strategy. This strategy is designed to deliver operating systems as stand-alone products as well as integrated solutions into our partners’ hardware and software platforms.

So while the stand alone OS is not dead, making it hard to deploy applications to the best OS platform is.

John