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Novell Partners with Hardware, Software Developers to Expand Third-party Device, Application Support for IntranetWare and NetWare 4.11 Commitment to Third-Party Developers Will Make IntranetWare/NetWare 4.11 Novell's Most Compatible, Interoperable Release Ever OREM, Utah -- September 17, 1996 -- Novell, Inc. today announced new partnerships, events and products for third-party developers that will make its upcoming IntranetWare and NetWare 4.11 releases the most compatible, interoperable and widely supported platform available to businesses. Novell entered into new agreements with server hardware leaders Compaq and IBM to provide an expanded array of disk and LAN drivers for use with IntranetWare and NetWare 4.1. Also, Novell hosted nearly 200 OEMs and software developers this summer at PlugFest, a unique plug-and-play event that enabled Novell partners to test and optimize their products for use with Novell's upcoming IntranetWare and NetWare 4.11 releases. Over 5,000 third party products are certified for compatibility with NetWare today. Novell expects this number to increase with the evolution of NetWare 4 into IntranetWare, the complete intranet and Internet access platform for businesses of all sizes. "Novell is listening to developers and customers and is making it easier for third-parties to develop products that ultimately benefit the end user," said William Donahoo, senior director of product marketing at Novell. "We are committed to continually provide tools, enhancements and the means for third-party developers to provide products that add value to IntranetWare for businesses and customers."
Novell Labs Driver Distribution Agreement Another indication of Novell's commitment to achieving interoperability and far reaching hardware support for IntranetWare is the signing of the new Novell Labs Driver Distribution Agreement with two of the industry's largest OEMs, IBM and Compaq. The signing of the agreements adds more IBM and Compaq disk and LAN drivers, in addition to a large number of other OEM drivers, to IntranetWare -- the most in Novell's history. "The new plug and play server installation feature of Novell's IntranetWare, which automatically detects the server's hardware and intelligently installs and configures the proper driver, was a driving factor for Compaq to include our driver suite in the IntranetWare release," said Tracey Stewart, director of systems software. "Compaq drivers integrated into IntranetWare gives customers an easy to install, high performance server for their business use."
Novell's First PlugFest a Success July 30th marked the beginning of Novell first PlugFest that invited 200 OEMs and developers to Novell's Provo, Utah site. The objective of the 3-day event was to test compatibility of LAN, Host Bus Adapter and Client drivers with IntranetWare. The event provided a highly-productive environment for developers to check products for cross-platform interoperability, problem solving, and to learn about new network technology. Participating systems vendors set up their system hardware in separate testing areas and developers scheduled blocks of time to test their products on a wide range of hardware configurations. Novell's development engineers were on hand to assist and trouble shoot if needed. A total of 296 LAN adapters were tested as were 186 Host Bus Adapters for a grand total of 482 drivers tested. Overall, 85% of the drivers tested were successful on the first try and the remaining 15% that did not operate the first test were analyzed and successfully retested. Developers whose products were successfully tested at PlugFest were encouraged to submit their products for Novell Labs testing and certification. "Our first PlugFest was a very successful event for IntranetWare and Novell," said Jan Jentz, senior director of partner marketing. "An overwhelming majority of those who attended indicated they felt it was a worthwhile event. Many attendees said they would like to see this happen every year so we will certainly consider doing it again." In addition to hands-on, plug-and-play testing of products on the latest version of IntranetWare, PlugFest featured 13 developer seminars ranging form NetWare bus interface/auto detection to SMP programming guidelines/installation issues. Founded in 1983, Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) is the world's leading provider of network software. The company offers a wide range of network solutions for distributed network, Internet, intranet and small-business markets. Novell education and technical support programs are the most comprehensive in the network computing industry. Information about Novell's complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com.
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