NetWare Directory Services Fuels Success Of NetWare 4

Industry Analysts Pick NDS as Leading Directory; NetWare 4.1 Wins PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Based on Strength of NDS

PROVO, UT--May 22, 1995--Since the introduction of NetWare 4.1 five months ago, growth in deployments of this advanced network operating system have increased the number of NetWare 4 nodes shipped worldwide to approximately 6 million. NetWare 4 is gaining momentum as customers, industry analysts and trade publications recognize the benefits of NetWare Directory Services (NDS).

"Forrester's top pick to win the directory battle [is] Novell," stated Forrester Research, Inc., in a spring 1995 report titled "Scaling Mail." "As NetWare 4.1 gains momentum in large accounts, NDS will become a de facto part of the infrastructure."

In its May 30, 1995, edition, PC Magazine gave its prestigious Editor's Choice award to NetWare 4.1 based on the superiority of NDS. Additionally, customers throughout the United States have made the NetWare 4.1 World Solutions Tour, which showcases third-party business solutions integrated with NDS, one of the most successful seminar series in Novell's history.

"NetWare Directory Services is the future of our network," said Evan Trebing, network engineer for the United States Geological Survey. "While some of our network administrators were initially skeptical, today they can't do without NDS. It gives us 'one-stop shopping' for all network administration. It provides reliability and redundancy to ensure network services are available when needed. Additionally, it allows us to customize our network, turning it into a collection of optimized services rather than a series of isolated, all-purpose servers. NDS is rock solid, and we're so pleased by its performance that we want to make NDS the central point of integration for our entire information system."

NetWare Directory Services turns a multiserver network into a single, integrated information system that is easier to access, easier to administer, and less expensive to own, operate and maintain. NDS gives users a single point of access to all network information and resources they need. It gives administrators a single point of administration, saving companies time and money. As the industry moves toward pervasive computing, NDS provides the most robust, reliable and secure directory available today.

Industry Analysts Chart Success, Importance of NDS

In addition to the Forrester report forecasting NDS as the leading directory, other industry analysts have recently cited the importance of NDS:

• Computer Intelligence InfoCorp, in a spring 1995 report charting the momentum behind NetWare 4.1 as Novell's installed base begins buying more NetWare 4 than NetWare 3, states that " . . . a major factor in the trend toward greater acceptance of NetWare 4.1 is the growing number of applications that can take advantage of the directory services that differentiate NetWare 4.1 from NetWare 3.12."

• A March 1995 report from Sentry Market Research shows that as more customers begin migrating to NetWare 4, Microsoft NT Server is being largely deployed in the LAN Manager installed base and is making no inroads into the NetWare installed base. Sentry sees NetWare Directory Services as a key reason for NetWare 4's increasing success.

• Also in a March 1995 report, META Group Inc. notes that "notably absent" from the list of NOS vendors providing directories is Microsoft, "as its strategy forces users to wait until 1997 for the Cairo object-based directory." (META Group, Global Networking Strategies, March 27, 1995, No. 350)

Customers Learning How NDS Benefits Their Business Today

Novell and 24 partners kicked off the NetWare 4.1 World Solutions Tour in April, giving customers the chance to see firsthand a new generation of network solutions that are tightly integrated with NDS, making networks easier to use and administer and less expensive to own, operate and maintain. Products being demonstrated include fax, backup, database, paging, voice messaging, network management, antivirus and document services. The 24 hardware and software partners joining with Novell for the NetWare 4.1 World Solutions Tour range from long-time industry leaders--including Oracle, Sybase, Motorola and Cheyenne--to new companies setting technology trends, all delivering solutions that take advantage of the power and flexibility of NetWare 4 and NetWare Directory Services. The tour will visit 25 cities in the United States and Canada, and will continue on to Europe, Australia, South America and Japan. More than 2,000 people have preregistered for seminars scheduled for Frankfurt, Germany in June.

PC Magazine Gives NetWare 4.1, NDS Top Honors

The PC Magazine Editor's Choice award is one of seven "top product" honors awarded to NetWare 4.1 by industry magazines such as InfoWorld, PC Week, Network Computing and LAN Magazine. In its comparison of leading network operating systems, PC Magazine selected NetWare 4.1 over Microsoft Windows NT Server, OS/2 LAN Server (Entry and Advanced), Banyan VINES and NetWare 3.12. PC Magazine cited NetWare 4.1's integrated management utility, improved management facilities and improved installation, but said the most compelling reason for its decision was NetWare 4.1's global directory: "Why did we give the nod to NetWare 4.1? Quite simply, because of Novell's NetWare Directory Services, a distributed database of network resources that provides a single point of management . . . No other directory services system is as robust. NDS is also extensible: Developers can add both objects and attributes for network applications."

NetWare 4.1: The Only Network Ready for Tomorrow, Today

Released in December 1994, NetWare 4.1 is the latest version of the NetWare 4 network operating system. NetWare 4.1 simplifies network access, simplifies network administration, and reduces the cost of network ownership for businesses of all sizes while retaining the performance, reliability and scalability that have made NetWare the overwhelming NOS leader. As the only network operating system that provides the seven essential network services--file, print, directory, security, messaging, multiprotocol routing and management--NetWare 4.1 lays the foundation for pervasive computing, Novell's vision of connecting people to other people and to the information they need, allowing them to act on it anytime, anyplace.

In Novell's first fiscal quarter of 1995, sales of NetWare 4 more than doubled over sales in the fourth fiscal quarter of 1994 and increased to represent nearly 30 percent of the company's total NetWare NOS revenue. Fueled by the shipment of NetWare 4.1, this aggressive market growth signals the industry's growing recognition of NetWare 4 as the emerging NOS standard. More information about NetWare 4 can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www/NetWare.com.