March 2008
Features
- Tech Talk 01 Get ready for a new release of GroupWise. Wanna busy search a client's calendar? Go for it. Want more panels on your home view? Track a couple of Web sites in your home view too. Take your pick of these and many more new features in the next release of GroupWise.
- Tech Talk 02 Upgrading from NetWare to the next generation of technology doesn't have to be painful—or costly. Take advantage of all the benefits Open Enterprise Server 2 offers for less and without the pain of retraining your staff. See how this migration path stacks up against moving to the big unknown—Windows Server 2008.
- Tech Talk 03 Try it just once and it'll be the last time you'll want to call support. It's faster, cheaper and unlimited. See how this new support option is going to change the way you want support from Novell.
- Tech Talk 04 Does your enterprise have legacy systems that won't talk to other computers? The hotel industry had that problem-until Novell stepped in. Now, using code that Novell open sourced, the hotel industry can use identity management solutions-on their legacy systems! See how you can teach your old systems to talk.
- Tech Talk 05 The word spin can have a negative connotation—unless it's PlateSpin. Read how Novell's acquisition of Toronto-based PlateSpin is going to give your data center several positive benefits. If you want your data center tasks to manage themselves, welcome to the new Novell technology from PlateSpin.
- Tech Talk 06 For beginners, databases can be frightening. But with a little help in building effective forms, you'll be on your way to populating a database that can almost take care of itself. See how here in our OpenOffice.org series cover the database application included in the free office suite.
- Tech Talk 07 If you're like most companies, your end users' teams are comprised of people across the globe. Yet they want to feel like their teammates are just down the hall. Enter Sitescape. It's now a part of Novell and provides the engine to the new Novell Teaming + Conferencing products. Find out how this recent acquisition benefits you.
Connection Magazine March full .pdf
Departments
- Proof Point Toll Brothers, the leading builder of luxury homes in the U.S., had issues. One was managing desktops across 300 locations, including construction site trailers across 22 states. Keeping them in standard, working order was quite a problem. See how Novell automated that, increased the security of sensitive financial data, and much more.
- Trend Talk Are you up on your backups? Are you a synthetic backer upper? What about your recovery objectives? How will you recover after the crisis strikes? Learn what types of backup and recovery procedures are available, so when the crisis strikes, you'll be up on your backups and know just how to recover.
- Laura Chappell Analysis Session: TCP Connection Loss
A Choice Decision
Upgrading from NetWare?
The feature-rich Open Enterprise
Server 2 far surpasses Windows Server
Tech Talk 2 by Ken Baker
Additional Training Investment
Whether migrating to Windows Server 2003 or Novell Open Enterprise Server 2, network administrators will require some level of additional training. The degree of required training will vary from organization to organization and depend on each administrator’s previous experience with Windows Server and Linux.
In the area of helpdesk technician or agent training, organizations moving from NetWare to Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 on Linux should require no additional training since they'll use the same Novell iManager interface to support users. Organizations migrating to Windows Server 2003 might require training in this area. If the experience of their help desk agents is focused on NetWare environments, they will need to be retrained to support Windows Server 2003.
End users won’t require training in a Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 environment because their desktop look and feel, how they authenticate to the system and how they access files and applications will all be the same. But end users moving to Windows Server 2003 will need instructions and support to learn how to authenticate to the network and access their files and applications using Windows Server.
Depending on your environment, the need for training on Windows Server 2003 can be significant. While there are some training requirements for administrators on Novell Open Enterprise Server 2, overall training needs are expected to be lower than what would be needed for Windows Server 2003. Additionally, Novell offers a number of free training courses to help administrators bridge their skills as they move from NetWare environments to Linux environments.
Higher Planning and Deployment Effort
Due to complexity and associated risk factors, it will require considerably more time and effort to plan and deploy a migration to Windows Server 2003 than an upgrade to Novell Open Enterprise
Server 2. Customers and partners say the time required to plan a migration from NetWare to Windows Server will be at least twice as long as planning an upgrade to Open Enterprise Server; and the deployment of Windows Server will take up to eight times as long as deployment of Open Enterprise Server. Further increasing the planning and deployment costs will be the likely need to augment your IT staff with administrators experienced in Windows Server environments and migrations.
Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 Delivers
When considering whether to upgrade from NetWare to Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 or migrate to a Windows Server environment, you need to consider more than just migration costs and efforts. You need to examine what you actually gain or lose in terms of migration choice. A move from NetWare to Windows Server falls short of feature parity with losses in operational efficiencies and increases in administrative overhead. But upgrading to Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 on Linux provides significant operational and financial gains, especially in the areas of storage virtualization (Dynamic Storage Technology), server virtualization and user self-service.
As do a number of other past Novell Connection articles, the forthcoming study details the benefits provided by these Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 services, as well as the steps Novell is taking to facilitate your transition to Linux on Novell Open Enterprise Server 2. The bottom line is that migrating to Windows Server opens you up to significant increases in both immediate and ongoing IT costs, considerable degradation in operational efficiencies, loss of user productivity and exposure to a wide array of risks. Yet moving up to Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 delivers greater savings, higher efficiency, more productivity and minimized risk. So what’s the obvious choice?
Customers and partners say the time required to plan a migration from NetWare to Windows Server will be at least twice as long as planning an upgrade to Open Enterprise Server; and the deployment of Windows Server will take up to eight times as long as deployment of Open Enterprise Server.
Figure 1
Effort required to upgrade NetWare components to Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 versus migrate them to Windows Server 2003.
Figure 2
Risk involved in upgrading NetWare components to Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 versus migrating them to Windows Server 2003.
