Jeff Jaffe’s Blog

Servers and desktops

On April 3, I launched the Novell CTO blog with an enthusiastic discussion of the rapid technological progress made by the Linux desktop. The desktop is one breakthrough. Beyond that, our SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 launch is about a common code base for desktop and server. The near term market interest remains around the server. And thus a key focus is to take the server to a new spot – the data center.

So why the earlier focus on the desktop?

OK. I set myself up. If the action is on the server – why all the attention to the desktop. Here are three key reasons:

1. Disruption. Linux on the server is well established. Linux on the desktop is incipient. From a technology viewpoint, the disruption is more powerful on the desktop.
2. Top of mind. The desktop attracts attention. Pretty simple. It is what everyone sees every day. We use it. It is visual. The psychological effect of widespread Linux usage on the desktop will become the most powerful accelerant in the move to Open Source technology.
3. It solves the most strategic need. The most strategic need facing corporate I/T managers is lack of choice and vendor lock-in. The Linux desktop addresses this head-on.

Many people have spoken to me about my focus on the desktop. One group tells me I am too modest. How dare I call the Linux desktop “good enough”? Boast even more about the innovative graphics and search features! Look at all the incredible press reviews that say it is better than Vista.

Others say that I’m too optimistic. Don’t I realize that Microsoft is too powerful on the desktop? A waste of time.

Some of Novell’s most loyal NetWare customers also bemoan that we are not doing enough for them. I appreciate their concerns. We are addressing their needs with offerings such as the Open Workgroup Suite (check out my blog postings from June 26 and July 10).

So I’ve received my share of criticism from all sides. I’m comfortable with my middle position: significant enterprise Linux desktop pilots in 2006, followed by mass deployments in 2007.

Servers

But the action is on the server. Where Linux has had the most impact to date. Where mission critical applications take place. Testing and certifications are key. Quality and reliability must be fantastic. So how have we been doing with our Linux servers?

In truth, despite some impressive progress, Linux has a long way to go. Here are some data points. According to IDC, in 2005, Linux operating environment revenue was less than 3% of total industry operating environment revenue.

Growth rates have been modest. True, the projected growth rate of Linux (24%) is very impressive in a market that overall has much smaller growth. But none of us would call 24% “hypergrowth”. How many new technology areas have experienced growth rates in the 30-50% range. Especially when Linux has huge cost advantages in a market where it only has 3% share. Let’s face it. We have more work to do!

What is going on? What is missing?

Server workloads are very demanding. This is true about all servers. But it is particularly true as you get to the data center. That is where mission critical applications are housed. That’s where customers bet their businesses. The fact of the matter is that critical characteristics of server operating systems have not yet matured.

This is not to say that Linux does not exist in data centers. There are I/T shops with the maturity and skills to take a decent Linux solution, surround with enough people, and make it industrial strength. But have we moved the vast majority of mission critical applications? Just think about the 3% figure.

Characteristics of data center servers
Let’s look at some of those characteristics.

1. Testing, reliability and high availability. Data center servers simply cannot fail. A complete test strategy is a critical piece of ensuring high availability.
2. Virtualization support. To support the consolidation of workloads on fewer servers, virtualization support is required.
3. Scale and clustering. Mission critical applications need to scale to very large workloads. Companies cannot rewrite their applications as they grow. The underlying system must allow growth. A specific piece of scaling is to be able to run on a variety of clustered system architectures: including SMP (symmetric multi-processor), NUMA (non-uniform memory access), and loosely-coupled systems.
4. Performance. Many applications have demanding response time needs. A general purpose operating system must have overhead to deal with the wide range of applications environments; but it still must be tunable to provide immediate turnaround when needed.
5. Security. With many threat models challenging the security of I/T installations, security mechanisms are required to ensure that nothing can damage mission critical applications.
6. Manageability. Sometimes problems do occur. A rich set of tools is required so that the data center can be monitored. I/T managers must have their fingers on the pulse of the servers and must be able to fix problems as they occur.
7. Tuned to a variety of underlying architectures and integration. To allow maximum flexibility and portability, it is highly desirable that the operating system work across multiple processor architectures. Testing with these hardware architectures is needed to provide a better out-of-the-box experience.

Following the UNIX adoption curve

As we move Linux to the Data Center, we have the benefit of a clear roadmap. All of these key features were introduced over time in the UNIX world and became the obvious set of requirements to be addressed. We have the opportunity to address them much faster than the UNIX pace. We don’t need to follow blind alleys – we only need to enhance Linux to be at the level of other UNIX systems. We have the power of the community to address these features.

Of course, we are doing more than “catching up”. We are also taking it to the next level. Our approaches to security, virtualization, and manageability – among others – are fundamentally new. We are advantaged not only by the speed of the Open Source community – but also by its innovation.

What are the examples? What are the proof points? I’ll discuss these in the next posting.

In the last major posting I argued that the right approach to infuse new technology into NetWare and GroupWise was via the open systems approach, rather than with proprietary solutions. Actually, there are numerous actions which all fall within the rubric of “open.” And we are using many of these. Examples are:

1. Porting to industry standard platforms
2. Partnering with industry-leading technology providers
3. Leveraging open source
4. Bundling technologies together in providing broad solutions for customers

A common theme across these examples is a focus on customer cost. Industry standards and open source dramatically reduce cost. Bundling grows markets and allows for efficiencies for the vendor which keeps costs down.

Porting to industry standard platforms

This technique is most analogous to the DB2 vignette mentioned in the last major post. And this is exactly what we are doing with NetWare and Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES).

OES shipped last year as a transition strategy – to provide NetWare services on Linux. When DB2 ran on MVS, the value was mostly in the database services provided by DB2, not in the MVS piece. When DB2 was ported to UNIX and NT, the database value moved with it.

In a similar fashion, the piece of NetWare that customers find most valuable are the services: file, print, and storage services – with highly granular administration capabilities. It is not the operating system! NetWare does not equal a kernel. So moving NetWare services to Linux moves what customers find valuable to an industry standard operating system.

One of the important approaches is enabled by virtualization technology. Virtualization is coming to the Linux server via the Xen project, and will be shipping with the next release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (look for a future post blog on SLES). This will enable a more substantial migration of NetWare to Linux in future releases of OES.

Partnering with industry leading technology providers

The world is replete with small companies that are creating innovative technology. This is an area of substantial opportunity.

An example of where we have used this approach is in the GroupWise Mobile Server. Rather than creating new, incompatible technology that would take a long time to develop, we are partnering with Intellisync (now part of Nokia) and BlackBerry to bring industry technology to our GroupWise customers for the broadest support of mobile devices found in the industry today.

Leveraging Open Source

Leveraging open source is deep in Novell’s DNA since we are a leading provider of pure open source solutions (such as SUSE Linux Enterprise). But, aside from building pure open source products, we also can leverage the community’s investment by taking components and putting them inside our products.

One example that we are looking at very seriously for Open Enterprise Server (and participating in) is Samba. Samba is an open source project to provide file and print services. It also interoperates with Microsoft. Its value to Novell’s customers is evident.

This is but one example. Novell has been including open source technologies in NetWare for years – Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP, to name a few.

Bringing it all together with the Novell Open Workgroup Suite

As computing tools mature, and as workgroups depend more and more on these tools, companies are looking for a broader value proposition that would come from the consolidation of various collaboration tools into a single suite.

That simple motivator has driven Novell to create the Open Workgroup Suite. At its base, the Novell Open Workgroup Suite combines networking and collaboration functionality from NetWare/OES and GroupWise with resource management tools from ZENworks into an attractively-priced offering. Also included is the complete Novell Linux Desktop (soon to be updated to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10) and OpenOffice. I don’t endeavor to provide a product description here – that can be found at www.novell.com/nows. But I will comment on how this fulfills the promise of infusing new technology with an open approach that leverages the industry.

For, in creating this suite, we asked ourselves the following question. Instead of merely bundling a few products together – did the Novell Open Workgroup Suite provide us an opportunity to further leverage the industry and build more value and function for our existing and future customers? We did the analysis – and the answer was, yes!

Specifically, we focused on the following:

• Can we use the Novell Open Workgroup Suite as a means to support the movement to Linux? So the NetWare services work on Linux as provided through Open Enterprise Server.
• Can we add additional workgroup functionality to this bundle by leveraging open source? So we have included an open source Linux desktop and OpenOffice as an important application in the Novell Open Workgroup Suite.
• Can we use this suite as a means to encourage choice? So we support two clients: a Windows client and a Linux client with the Novell Open Workgroup Suite.
• Can we extend value to customers by looking at cost as well? So Novell Open Workgroup Suite is priced to be as much as 45% less than the core products (OES, GroupWise, ZENworks Suite) sold separately, and up to 70% less than the cost of Microsoft’s workgroup suite products.

Summary

Taken together, we have an impressive set of technology infusion into our installed base via several techniques that leverage the industry.

1. We have re-implanted NetWare services from a proprietary operating system – moving it to Linux.
2. With virtualization, we will virtualize NetWare under Linux.
3. At the same time, we are maintaining a commitment to support NetWare.
4. We provide easy migration tools, deployment assistance and training to transition skill sets.
5. We have added mobility to GroupWise.
6. We are participating in numerous open source projects (e.g. Samba, OpenOffice) to improve this further.
7. We are providing new value to the customer base via bundling.
8. The bundling also adds open source assets such as OpenOffice with the necessary support.
9. We are providing access to services through a choice of desktop clients.
10. We are pricing attractively to give our customers greater value – a true witness to the strategy of providing enhancement by an open approach that leverages the industry.

There is a great deal of function being developed in the industry. There are over 100,000 open source projects. GroupWise and NetWare customers should expect a continued infusion of innovative technology over time.