Novell News

If you’re looking for more information on virtualization, we aren’t letting you down. Novell just launched “Virtualization from Novell. Built to Innovate.” As the site says, “Only Novell gives you the ability to virtualize Linux, Windows and NetWare on one common Linux platform with complete support for all three operating systems.”

And like you’d expect from any self-respecting microsite, it has white papers, customer case studies and video interviews with technical gurus. Check it out.

The 2007 Digital ID World (DIDW) conference just wrapped up in San Francisco. This was my first DIDW and if you have never been, this is the event where all the “identorati” (who’s who of the identity management world) gather to discuss the latest industry trends. Presenters included identity management gurus Phil Becker from Digital ID World, Jamie Lewis from the Burton Group, Doc Searles from Linux Journal and Kim Cameron from Microsoft.

As a leader in identity management solutions Novell was well-represented on the DIDW schedule with a feature presentation by Vice President of Product Management Nick Nikols and Honeywell Convergence Leader Beth Thomas discussing the convergence of physical and logical security, Distinguished Engineer and Bandit Project Leader Dale Olds taking part in an identity interoperability partners panel (along with Gemalto, Ping Identity and Microsoft) and Novell customers, Scripps Networks and Gundersen Lutheran, providing a user perspective on the topics of authentication as risk management and assigning identities to enterprise assets.

At the Novell booth, we demonstrated Novell Access Manager, Novell Identity Manager and Novell SecureLogin (Identity Manager and SecureLogin were both recently positioned as leaders in two Gartner Magic Quadrants: one for user provisioning and the other for enterprise single sign-on). We also showcased our new Bandit Cards website where visitors can download the Bandit Project’s Linux and Macintosh DigitalMe information card selectors, obtain digital identity cards known as Bandit Cards, learn more about information card technology, listen to a podcast with Burton Analyst Bob Blakely and Bandit Project Leader Dale Olds, and more importantly, sign up to get free (very cool) Bandit t-shirts and enter to win an iPhone. This website is part of the Bandit Project’s newly launched “Control Your Identity” campaign.

Novell physical security partner Honeywell, this week launched its new SmartPlus product, an IT and security convergence platform designed to manage and authenticate user credentials within a single solution. SmartPlus, which is powered by Novell Identity Manager, is a modular solution designed to expand easily as the security needs of an organization grows. By converging physical security and IT applications, SmartPlus increases security, improves business processes and maximizes workflow efficiencies.

Novell Distinguished Engineer and Bandit Project Leader Dale Olds recently posted on his blog about the availability of an identity selector package for Mac. The Bandit Project is an open source identity project sponsored by Novell that is working with community partners (including the Eclipse Higgins Project) to develop a framework that simplifies the creation of identity-enabled applications. Bandit believes that using open source will lead to a more transparent and consistent approach to managing digital identity information.

A few months ago, the Bandit Project announced that a Linux package for its DigitalMe information card selector was available. Information card selectors help users manage digital identity cards used in Web transactions. Now a Mac package is available.

Dale explains this better than I could, so check out his posting here. While you are there, also read his posting on the one true identity system that he wants and is helping to create.

Proving that the need for centralized and automated user provisioning knows no borders, Novell Identity Manager continues to be deployed in venues far and wide. Recent successful customer deployments include APACS in the United Kingdom, University of Cape Town in South Africa and University of Adelaine in Australia.

APACS has implemented Identity Manager to synchronize user information and group membership across three core systems. University of Adelaide is using Identity Manager to synchronizes identities and passwords across several directories. University of Cape Town has deployed Identity Manager to enable automatic role-based provisioning of user accounts and physical access rights for its large and fast-changing user community.

Stay tuned to find out where in the world, Identity Manager will be deployed next…

From John Haberland, Novell product manager for identity and security

As a frequent show attendee I’ll be the first one to say that each show has its own unique personality and feel, but the fact that the InfoSecurity New York show was held concurrently with the ISC East show sets it apart. Why? The ISC East show is focused around physical security solutions like physical access control, biometrics, fire control, alarms and monitoring, CCTV, etc., while InfoSecurity, of which Novell was a Silver Sponsor, plays much more in IT security solutions such as logical access control, email security, intrusion detection, LAN/WAN security, firewall, network security and more.

So having guys shopping for fireman equipment next to those shopping for identity management solutions (Novell was demonstrating Novell Identity Manager) seems kind of strange right? Not quite as it appears. Reed Exhibitions (the operator of both shows) may see something in their crystal ball.

An executive for Reed Exhibitions stopped by our booth with one of his EMEA staff and asked us if we though a show about the convergence of logical (i.e., IT) and physical security would make any sense in EMEA. Some of the folks he had spoken to had say no.

We quickly explained the convergence of physical and logical security is a strong growth area. We explained how Honeywell was integrating Novell Identity Manager into their access control security platform to help organizations better safeguard their physical and logical assets.

So the Reed executive was quite glad to hear that there are enterprise software companies that are aware of and propelling the convergence of logical/IT and physical security.

OpenOffice.org’s annual conference kicks off this week in Barcelona. As a big supporter of OpenOffice.org – we’re the second largest contributor to OpenOffice.org after Sun – Novell will be there in full force. We’re a Premium sponsor, and Michael Meeks, Novell’s OpenOffice.org lead and a significant code contributor to OpenOffice.org, will attend, as will Guy Lunardi, one of Novell’s top desktop guys, and Alan Clark, who heads up our standardization efforts. Novell is presenting five technical sessions, ranging from VBMacro issues to dealing with Word and Office OpenXML challenges. New this year at the conference is the ODF Camp, which is sponsored by the OASIS ODF Adoption Technical Committee. The ODF Camp is meant to be a focused workshop for ODF and XML developers interested in identifying and resolving differences among key implementations of the ODF. Though co-located with the OpenOfficer.org conference, the camp is intended to draw participants from multiple word processor implementations.

Novell will have a display table set up at the gig, so, if you’re there, please stop by, and, for any media attending, we’d be happy to hook you up to speak with one of our guys at the event.

Novell’s European Support Center, the nexus of Novell’s technical support operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has just achieved certification under the prestigious Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Support and Field standards. This means Novell’s European Support Center joins its U.S. and Indian support centers in gaining SCP certification. Achieving certification under the SCP Standards requires comprehensive on-site audits to confirm that companies meet the requirements of over 100 business elements essential to delivering top quality service and support. SCP Standards measure factors such as corporate commitment and strategy, customer satisfaction, performance metrics, research and development interface, and other strategic areas of the service and support operation. Certified companies must continue to demonstrate their commitment to excellence and high performance standards through annual re-certification audits.

The SCP standards are designed to improve the quality and effectiveness of support, field service and professional service operations. A consortium of leading technology companies, along with Service Strategies Corporation, created the internationally recognized standards, which define best practices quantify performance levels, and establish a foundation to continuously improve business processes. Novell has worked hard over the last several years to globalize its support processes and render more consistent the customer experience around the world. One of the key advanced this year has been to integrate business process documentation into a single, global document repository. Processes that differed across geographies have been aligned to the extent possible, supporting an increasingly consistent look and feel for customers across Novell’s worldwide support centers.

This latest certification for Novell’s support capabilities gives customers further confidence that, wherever they operate globally, they will get the technical support they need to ensure they’re maximizing the value of their Novell investments. This is particularly important in the Linux arena, where services like technical support are key differentiators between competing distributions.

Next week, AMD plans to provide an open source information and development package supporting the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series as well as ATI Radeon X1000 series of graphics processing units on Linux desktops. The initial release includes source code and hardware specifications to engage the open source community for collaboration on 2D graphics drivers.

This is great news for Linux users, and AMD partnered with Novell’s Linux engineering team to develop the release. Novell will facilitate its contribution to the open source community. As Nat Friedman said, “Our ultimate goal is complete, high-quality open source drivers for all video hardware.”

The effort to bring Microsoft Silverlight to Linux is moving forward with new speed, as Microsoft and Novell have agreed to work together to make this happen. This builds on work started by Miguel de Icaza and the community within the Mono project. Mono, for those who don’t know, is an open source project designed to let applications built for the .NET environment run on multiple platforms, including Linux. Silverlight was designed by Microsoft for delivering rich internet applications on Windows and Mac. Moonlight will expand this to Linux, giving Linux user more choices for consuming Web content. Novell is demoing the latest rev of Moonlight this week at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam.

You can get more detail, and keep track of Moonlight’s path, here.