Novell News

If you live in Ohio, you may want to check out the Ohio LinuxFest tomorrow in Columbus. There’s quite a speaker lineup, including Novell’s Ted Haeger talking about desktop innovation at Novell. Plus vendor exhibits, the conference party and all the cool things you’ve come to expect from a good Linux get-together.

For fans of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (a group that seems to be steadily growing), you might be interested in a white paper from Omni Technology Solutions about “multiplied” SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop strategy.

According to the white paper, modern PCs spend most of the day idle, and the Multiplied Linux Desktop strategy allows organizations to leverage this unused computing power and connect up to 10 full-featured workstations to a single, shared SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 computer. Interesting … check it out.

On Friday, Novell issued a Microsoft workaround for a zero day exploit in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to its Novell ZENworks Patch Management users. The patch fixes an IE vulnerability to remote code execution via an error in the Microsoft Windows implementation of the Vector Markup Language.

Novell acted fast to issue this temporary workaround and to inform customers of the vulnerability, because the code to exploit the IE flaw was publicly posted and attacks were becoming widespread. This quick response and having an automated patch management process in place helps customers to secure and protect their networks and devices from this and other potentially dangerous vulnerabilities.

You can find more information about VML vulnerability (925568) here.

If you’re a Novell Open Enterprise Server customer, here’s some good news. Novell is simplifying the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server entitlement for Novell Open Enterprise Server customers, discontinuing the calculation model of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server entitlements and replacing it with a simple needs-based model. Before, customers would get a limited number of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server servers based on their Open Enterprise Server user counts. Now, they can deploy as many SUSE Linux Enterprise Server servers as they need to run “workgroup” services.

Customers who have purchased Open Enterprise Server and have been using their SUSE Linux Enterprise Server entitlement for applications or services other than “workgroup” will have an opportunity to register these servers and continue to use them for the workloads they do today.

Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation, has shipped an enhanced version of the Teradata database running on Linux, specifically the 64-bit version of SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell. With the 64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system, Teradata now delivers the same enterprise-class data warehouse scalability, availability and manageability as it does with Windows or Teradata’s own UNIX operating system, UNIX MP-RAS.

Overstock.com has seen early success with the solution. Jack Garzella, vice president of enterprise data warehouse, reporting and analytics for Overstock.com, said, “SUSE Linux Enterprise is a key component of Overstock.com’s architecture and we’re pleased to be able to run it on Teradata’s hardware with the Teradata database.”

We’re seeing more of these developments as Linux offers more choice to partners and customers, and Novell offers the best enterprise-class Linux.

From Nancy Hicks, product marketing manager for identity and security:

The EMEA Gartner IT Security Summit winds down today, after playing host to a full house of IT security professionals for the last 3 days in – believe it or not – sunny and warm London (I brought my umbrella, but it’s still in my suitcase). Events like these provide a unique opportunity for both attendees and sponsors to get Gartner’s thoughts on where the security marketplace is headed and hold frank discussions on the challenges customers face today – and what we are doing to help them.

Novell was a sponsor and participated in the event in conjunction with our partner SecureWave, a leading provider of policy-based end point security. We’ve been showcasing Sentinel and SecureWave’s Sanctuary product, and there was a good deal of discussion about ways to integrate the two products and enhance the capabilities and benefits of both.

Another hot topic of discussion was how identity and access management integrates with security information and event management and attendees we’re especially happy to hear about Sentinel 5.1.3’s integration with Novell’s IAM suite. Seems like everyone is looking for the magic bullet – that one solution that will address all of their operational challenges while simultaneously cutting costs and providing better security. From the conversations I’ve had and those I’m overhearing, it seemed that a lot of the delegates think we’re headed in the right direction.

It’s been a great event and we’ve got a busy fall ahead. Look for us next week at IT Security World in San Francisco, and at other security-focused events throughout the autumn and winter. For now, cheerio from London!

There’s more good news on the high‑performance computing front. Wombat Financial Software announced the breaking of the 100 microsecond barrier on an open platform by leveraging Voltaire’s high‑performance, low‑latency InfiniBand switches and software, the new SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time server from Novell, and the new Dual‑Core Intel Xeon processor 5100 series. Capital markets customers demand low‑latency, high‑performance solutions for their market data needs, so the four companies designed a performance test meant to replicate the real‑world demands of securities trading operations.

Statistics from OneStat show Mozilla’s Firefox slowly gaining market share on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer still holds 83% of the market on the web, with Firefox up to 13%. We clearly have a bunch of trendsetters visiting Novell’s site, though. According to our own data for Novell.com, some 65% of vistors to Novell’s website use Mozilla Browsers, 33% are on Internet Explorer and remaining browsers make up the final 2%.

The Gartner IT and Software Asset Management Summit is happening this week in Lake Buena Vista, FL. The three day summit will discuss best practices and present case studies designed to help beginners and veterans implement and manage comprehensive IT asset management programs for their organizations.Novell’s Steve DuScheid, who leads the ZENworks Asset Management product team, is at the event and will be giving a talk around what differentiates Novell’s offering from others out there. If you’re at the show, you can catch it at 1:30 p.m. Monday. Then stick around for a case study presentation by Lockheed Martin that will discuss how the aerospace manufacturer uses Novell ZENworks Asset Management to track assets, establish and manage compliance, and reduce costs. After the presentations, stop by Novell’s booth (#7) to learn more about how ZENworks Asset Management helps companies get control of IT assets.

There’s a great review out in SC Magazine for Identity Manager 3, the core of Novell’s identity and security management offerings. Its conclusion: “This is a very impressive product that should be high on the shortlist of any business looking for identity management. Full marks to Novell for tying this all together in a manner that really does make sense for contemporary organisations.” And one of my favorite phrases I’ve ever seen in a review: “This is what IT should be like.”