Brainshare 2007 announcements, part II
April 23rd, 2007 by Jeff Jaffe
In my March 26th posting, I provided an overview of Brainshare 2007. I explained how much of the focus instantiated Novell’s two key strategies: enterprise Linux and enterprise systems management. Then, on April 11th, I provided a drill down of our recent announcements supporting the Linux part of the strategy. Herein, I will describe how Brainshare highlighted Novell’s second area – that of enterprise systems management.
Just a reminder how these two strategies fit together. With enterprise Linux, there is a disruptive change in I/T infrastructure. Managing this disruption – simultaneous with the introduction of an ITIL-based service approach for management – creates a need for a different style of management tools. These tools also need to address other major disruptions in I/T: a focus on heterogeneity, management of virtualization, compliance management, and increased sensitivity to security issues. So let’s see how we addressed this at Brainshare.
Open Enterprise Server 2
In my last posting, I highlighted OES 2’s realization of our enterprise Linux strategy – with NetWare services virtualized on Linux. But OES 2 has much more. A key component is Domain Services for Windows. This enhancement allows Windows users to get access to Novell back-end services. This helps with desktop management. Using iManager allows network managers to manage fewer desktop images. It also eases directory management, by allowing cross-authentication between Microsoft’s Active Directory and Novell’s eDirectory. Another key component is Dynamic Storage Technology. This technology automatically “ages” storage based on usage. By migrating less frequently used storage to back-end storage farms, I/T managers save considerable cost. This capability is driven by tight administrative policy control.
ZENworks Configuration Management
Novell made an important announcement the week before Brainshare, at Cebit 2007 in Germany. At Brainshare, we provided demonstrations of this capability. ZENworks Configuration Management is the first management product that has native support for both Active Directory and eDirectory. This is important for our second strategy goal of enterprise management of a mixed source environment. To deal with heterogeneity, it was necessary to rearchitect our ZENworks products in a way that made them independent of the eDirectory structure. Certainly there is value-add with eDirectory; but multi-platform is a priority as well. So ZENworks Configuration Management is more than a configuration management product. It is the first of a family of ZENworks products that is architected to be cross-platform and service oriented. The latter makes it a better fit with the emerging ITIL service discipline to manage systems. As a desktop configuration management product, ZENworks Configuration Management also is a great addition. Between the ITIL focus, new architecture, and attention to Vista’s special needs, it has the promise to be the world’s best management product for Vista desktops – which has the attention of I/T managers.
ZENworks Linux Management 7.2
ZENworks Configuration Management is not the only addition to the ZENworks family. At Brainshare, we introduced ZENworks Linux Management 7.2. Two areas of note. First, we are now supporting both SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux – important to customers that are using both primary Linux distributions. Second, we have incorporated a full lifecycle management capability. Some of the features, for example, include policy-based automation for system lockdown. These capabilities are complementary to, and extend, our YaST setup tools that come with our SUSE Linux Enterprise distribution.
Identity Manager 3.5
Turning to the security management piece of our enterprise management strategy, there were significant enhancements announced to our identity management portfolio. With Identity Manager 3.5, Novell provides a first-in-the-industry integration between three key security management products: Identity Manager, Access Manager (for Web management and federation), and Sentinel (for security event management). Combining these into a single umbrella simplifies the multi-faceted issue of user management and compliance for I/T organizations.
Identity Manager 3.5 has other enhancements – many focused on simplifying identity management for administrators. A great example is the capability to customize approval flows as part of identity management. Other enhancements include increased usability and support for multiple authentication techniques.
Sentinel 6.0
Last April, Novell acquired e-Security. At Brainshare, we announced the first major new product release after the acquisition. As already noted, we are also tying in the event management capability into the rest of our products. This was noted above as part of the Identity Manager 3.5 release. There is new capability in the event management product, Sentinel, itself. There is capability to automate real-time monitoring. Many network managers use the real-time monitoring capability, and this automation is an ease-of use enhancement for them. Customers are also leveraging Sentinel for compliance. So in Sentinel 6.0, we have made it easier to document regulatory compliance.
Teaming and Teaming + Conferencing
In my 2006 Brainshare keynote, one of the commitments that I made was to bring the power of innovation and open source across the product line. I particularly noted the opportunity to bring that power to the collaboration area – an area where we have seen an enormous explosion of new paradigms for collaboration. The introduction of teaming and conferencing is the prime example of this. It is also an example of Novell listening to our customer base. Our GroupWise customer base has been very clear in requesting this capability – and we have now delivered it! Several aspects of this introduction are noteworthy. First, to speed time-to-market, we resisted the temptation to re-invent the wheel and spend years developing the capability. SiteScape, Inc. already has a great solution, so we simply took their solution and will integrate it with our other workgroup products. Second, we chose not to provide a monolithic collaboration suite in which all capabilities (email, portal, real-time conferencing, team support, document management) are required to be purchased in a tightly integrated package. Such tight integration often is accompanied with extra cost, complexity, storage requirements, and vendor lock-in – all properties frowned upon by I/T. So we are making this available in a looser configuration of standalone products. Over time it will be possible for customers to choose between a tight and loose configuration.
Open source is a key part of this strategy. This is important for three reasons. First is Novell’s overall commitment to open source as the development paradigm of the future. Second, open source establishes a community framework for innovation. For a fast moving area such as collaboration, we want to make sure that there is a continued infusion of new ideas. Web paradigms and social networking approaches are continually changing the way that we collaborate and we need to be open to that. Open source is a facilitator. Finally, open source provides investment protections for customers. If they like Teaming + Conferencing, but want a vendor to take it a different direction than Novell, they can rely on the power of the community. So, for all of these reasons, we, together with SiteScape, launched the ICECorps open source project to drive this technology further.
Summary
Quite a large number of announcements. We are very focused on enterprise systems management.