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Novell Directory-Enabled Services Solve Critical Software Distribution, NT Integration Problems for Customers Novell Application Launcher and Novell Administrator for Windows NT Available Free for Download from World Wide Web PROVO, UT -- September 9, 1997 -- As part of its continued leadership in directory-enabled network services, Novell, Inc. today announced that the new Novell Application Launcher™ 2.01 and Novell® Administrator for Windows NT 2.0c will continue to be available to customers free of charge. Novell Application Launcher 2.01 offers customers the most efficient software distribution and management services in the industry today. Novell Administrator for NT 2.0c greatly reduces the extensive administration efforts needed to maintain NT domains. Both solutions help customers reduce the cost of maintaining their networks and applications by leveraging the power of Novell Directory Services™ to automate administration tasks. "Thanks to these NDS services, networks just got a lot easier," said Michael Simpson, director of marketing, Network Services Group. "No longer will IT managers and systems administrators need to touch their workstations to manage and upgrade software or struggle with NT server domains. These services offload to the network tasks that historically required armies of administrators and hundreds of hours of effort." Industry studies show that companies spend a significant percentage of their annual budgets managing their network and systems environments*. NDS-based solutions from Novell, such as the Novell Application Launcher and Novell Administrator for Windows NT, lower the cost of IT by minimizing the time companies spend maintaining their networked systems. Novell Directory Services provides the key to Novell's powerful yet easy-to-use administration and management solution by enabling IS managers to centrally administer all network users, applications, servers, and services. "The combination of Novell Application Launcher and Novell Administrator for Windows NT will save us an enormous amount of grief. We have easily added NT to our IntranetWare environment and will perform all of our software distribution through a centralized, logical method enabled by NDS, said Tadd Moore, Systems Engineer at Citicorp. "If we'd gone with Microsoft's products we would have spent at least $150,000 more on hardware and software licenses to implement SMS. And that $150,000 doesn't include soft costs like training and time spent implementing the products. The fact that Novell's NDS-based products support both IntranetWare and NT has been a godsend." Novell Application Launcher The Novell Application Launcher (NAL) 2.01 reduces the cost of software management by using NDS to automatically perform software distribution and updates. NAL also provides users with location independent access to their applications. NAL enables IS managers to perform enterprise-wide software distribution from a central location removing the requirement to visit and physically install software at each desktop. By basing software distribution on NDS, each application can be distributed to one user or an entire group of users based on the user's identity and role in the company. NAL is an intuitive windows GUI interface that does not require IS managers to buy additional equipment or write tedious distribution scripts to perform effective software management. Because NAL leverages specific user information stored in NDS, a user installation requiring individual customization work is done automatically. For example: in a Netscape Navigator installation the IS manager doesn't have to type in the user's SMTP e-mail address because the address is automatically pulled from NDS by NAL for the installation. Using NAL, IS managers can choose to either push applications automatically onto the user's desktop or make the application installation available so the users can pull the software to their desktop at their convenience. Eliminating the time-intensive task of manual distribution also increases business productivity because users can continue working while new applications are added to their systems. A GUI interface enables users to view the network applications available to them. Network applications are managed through NDS and so are automatically linked to each user. This allows the applications to follow users around the network, meaning that no matter where users log in, they always have access to the network applications they need. NAL diagnoses and fixes software configuration problems automatically. If a user can't run one of his or her applications, he or she can simply click the "verify" option of the application icon and NAL automatically checks the application configuration against the reference configuration stored in NDS. If the application configuration doesn't match because of a missing or corrupted file, NAL automatically updates the user's desktop with the correct files. This capability can greatly reduce the number of help desk calls made due to application failure. Novell Administrator for Windows NT The new Novell Administrator for Windows NT 2.0c provides the IS manager a single point of administration for supporting users and groups in mixed IntranetWare™/NetWare® and Windows NT server environments. It allows the IS manager to directly administer users and groups in server domains through NDS. Novell Administrator for Windows NT does this by synchronizing Windows NT users with NDS. NDS then acts as the master repository or "directory" for all administration, ensuring that users get secure access to network resources regardless of where and in what environment those resources are stored. The new version of the product is streamlined to run 30 percent faster than the original released product. The Novell Administrator for Windows NT is also now available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese to better serve international customer needs. Pricing and Availability Novell Application Launcher 2.01 and Novell Administrator for Windows NT 2.0c products can be downloaded free of charge from Novell's World Wide Web site immediately (http://www.novell.com/novellsw/brands.html). Users may also call 1-800-453-1267 for more information. These products were originally offered free for a limited time only. Now, while both products will serve as foundations for chargeable services in the future, the Novell Administrator for Windows NT 2.0c and the base functionality of the Novell Application Launcher (including all functions in version 2.01) will be free of charge to customers continually. About Novell 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, as well as the network computing industry's most comprehensive education and technical support programs. Information about Novell and its complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com. *Sources: Giga Information Group, 1997; GartnerGroup, 1996 Novell is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. Novell Application Launcher, Novell Directory Services, and NDS are trademarks of Novell, Inc. All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Press Contacts:
Trudy Edelson |
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