John Dragoon’s Blog

Linux and Open Source technologies continue their advancement into today’s data centers where according to Gartner, 67% of data centers run some combination of Linux and Windows. Serving this growing market reality was the driving catalyst behind our interoperability partnership with Microsoft. And it’s nice to see as we end 2007 that we’ve been jointly recognized by Frost and Sullivan by receiving their industry innovation and advancement award for system interoperability.

While there are certainly user and productivity benefits from deploying the right technology for the task, it does carry a potentially higher degree of management complexity. We view it as our mission to reduce this complexity on behalf of our customers thereby letting them focus on their own business innovation and growth.

Of course there’s lots more to do, not just on the interoperability front, but automating the management of the growing mixed source world and the bridge between physical and virtual environments…but that’s a discussion for next year (ie tomorrow).

Happy New Year!

John

I came into the office today with the intent of spending a few hours cleaning up various odds and ends before calling it a day and spending the holidays with family and friends.

Among the piles on my desk were a group of holiday cards. The notes were great reminders of the numerous business and personal relationships I enjoyed this year. There was one card, in particular, that stood out from the rest. There was no return address on the card and as I opened the card, a family photo appeared as did one of those form letters that seem so popular this time of year. I actually enjoy reading those letters and the sender on this one surprised me. I had not expected to receive a card from him.

I’ll maintain the anonymity of this particular sender but it’s fair to say I haven’t always appreciated his points of view regarding our company. I suspect he tries to be balanced and fair but his occasional criticisms make me wince and bite my tongue. But this letter was personal. It included a picture of his family and a thoughtful letter that beamed with pride for his family. Through his personal and sincere sharing he showed me a side of him I had not been privileged to. I’m glad he did.

It was a great reminder that behind the ticker symbols of most companies are good people just trying to do the right thing. Passion is the fuel that drives most individuals to believe in the things they do and it would indeed be boring if we all saw things the same way.

I’m proud of my company and the thousands of teammates I have. We won’t always get it right but we’ll keep trying. I’m very much looking forward to 2008 and can’t wait to get started.

Till then, my nameless friend’s closing reminder is a good place to end. As he stated, “Having a great job with exceptional people. Having you as friends. Wonderful blessings. Life is good.”

Well said.

Happy Holidays all and all the best for a wonderful 2008.

John

Community….a group of people having characteristics or interests in common.

There’s been a lot written, and rightly so, about the evolving importance of community or more broadly communities in shaping, informing, enhancing, promoting, criticizing and prioritizing a company’s agenda and value in the market place. Whether you’re an adherent to the “wisdom of crowds” philosophy or “the cult of the amateur” there’s tremendous value in providing a meaningful and engaging platform from which to enable the community conversation. Done well, a well executed community platform can sharpen a company’s focus and enhance the value for all stakeholders. Done poorly, there’s an opportunity cost and negative drag on the company brand.

Novell has a long history of building and supporting communities including communities for employees, partners, and customers. Today, we are announcing the launch of a new electronic community site that integrates and accommodates Novell Cool Solutions, Novell Users International (NUI), and Novell PartnerNet. The new site, built with the popular open-source project called Drupal, provides a wide and rich array of interactive features and gadgets.

The new site makes it easy for community members to upload and share tips, articles, and tools while allowing all to build their personal community reputations. Frankly, there are too many new features and possibilities to list – the only limit is the creativity of the participant. That’s where you come in. The site’s live now so why not jump in and get involved. We’d love to hear form you.

John

Making the Novell.com experience more meaningful, interactive and even entertaining for all who visit is a continuous journey for us. We know we’ll never reach perfection but the web is a terrific platform to test new ideas and continue to innovate.

So it is with our electronic marketing team who has been quietly launching a slew of cool rich media resources on Novell.com that make it easier for our customers, partners and others to learn about Novell offerings and more importantly how to address their IT needs. Not only is it fun to use, it is very effective from a training perspective. For example, take a look at the ZENquest and Team N Force games that teach you about the features of the new ZEN and Teaming + Conferencing products. You collect PCs to put them under ZEN management while avoiding network failure or maneuver a space ship around the playing field to rescue team members (without getting struck by falling meteors). Yeah we’ll not win the Nobel prize for this but why not have fun along the way.

Take a look at the Your Linux is Ready video viewer that lets Nat Friedman and other SUSE Linux Enterprise luminaries tell you about the most compelling reasons to use SLED, SLES, Xen Virtualization, and AppArmor. Or watch Martin Buckley, the evil ZEN scientist, and his colleagues share their knowledge on how ZENworks Configuration Management can help you lower the costs of ownership for Windows (including Vista!) desktops.

And for a more traditional learning experience, check out the Chalk Talk videos. Each video provides technical tips and tricks for installing, deploying and administering Novell Teaming + Conferencing from Rob Luhrs, senior product engineer.

The point of all this is to make your electronic experience with us more relevant, engaging and interactive. Digital doesn’t have to be boring nor impersonal. We hope you agree and welcome your feedback.

John