Novell News

A few weeks ago Novell and more than 50 members of the open source community formed Open Source for America, a coalition to help promote the use of open source in government. This week Novell Open Audio host, Erin Quill, sat down to talk with several OSA members including Red Hat, SUN, Ingres, JasperSoft and Mercury Federal. Want to know: Why open source? Why the U.S. Federal Government? Aren’t there security concerns? What’s the benefit? Why should the community get involved? Then Take a listen to this four-part podcast series for answers and let us know what you think:

Part 1: In this episode, Erin Quill interviews Roger Burkhardt (Ingres) and Tom Rabon (Red Hat). Hear what prompted the creation of Open Source for America and why it is important for the community to get involved.

Part 2: In this episode, Brian Gentile (JasperSoft) and John Scott (Mercury Federal) present their thoughts behind how Open Source for America’s member community can best work with and assist the Federal Government as advocates.

Part 3: In this episode, Bill Vass (Sun) and Paul Smith (Red Hat) discuss software security concerns and ways the US Federal Government can benefit from open source software.

Part 4: In this episode, Simon Phipps (Sun) and Michael Tiemann (Red Hat & OSI) discuss the history of free and open source software, what the “freedoms” in the Free Software Definition really mean, and how Governments can benefit from free and open source software.

This week Novell announced a combined technical and business program designed to help ISVs quickly shorten sales cycles and extend applications to the cloud. The SUSE Appliance Program was well received by the press here, here and analyst communities. Forrester’s James Staten’s Tweet summed analysts’ reactions up well: “Novell is helping ISVs turn their software into virtual appliances.Enterprise vendors, what are you waiting for?” We also received tremendous support from the first ISVs to join the Program — you can see their video testimonials here.

Most gratifyingly, since we made the announcement, we have had more than 3,200 account requests for our free online tool for building appliances. That’s about one request a minute! All this enthusiasm reinforces Novell’s dedication to helping our partners easily build, manage and sell software appliances.

We’re looking to see you there, so get started today here.

Organizations have invested millions in their security and compliance management programs. Unfortunately, many still don’t have the ability to ensure their systems are secure from breach and compliant with legal mandates. Duplicate compliance controls, security data sitting in dormant log files, and lack of an integrated security and compliance management strategy result in people manually updating spreadsheets that are often out of date before the final audit report even is printed.

Today we announced a comprehensive log management solution that expands the functionality offered in Novell’s security information and event management solutions. Novell Sentinel Log Manager simplifies fulfillment of audit requirements and improves security by streamlining the management of ever-increasing volumes of raw event data used for risk investigations and compliance reporting.

Randy Hardin, lead systems engineer at University of Dayton I.T., was part the beta test group for Sentinel Log Manager. A long time Novell customer, Hardin appreciates the interoperability capabilities Novell delivers. Challenged with finding an efficient way to demonstrate PCI DSS compliance, Hardin is looking to Novell Sentinel solutions to connect the university’s wide array of systems in order to collect data in real-time that can easily be searched and validated so he can report with confidence that the university is compliant at all times. Learn more about Novell Sentinel Log Manager here.

Novell has released a new version of its Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11. The Tool helps enterprises manage their SUSE Linux Enterprise updates while conforming with corporate firewall policy and regulatory compliance requirements. Integrated and synchronized with Novell Customer Center, the Subscription Management Tool is always updated, acts as a repository for all subscription information and delivers the benefits of centralized management.

Unlike comparable tools from other OS vendors, the fully supported Subscription Management Tool is included free with every SUSE Linux Enterprise subscription. Besides its well-known capabilities like inside-the-firewall security, reduced bandwidth use while updating systems and automated and accurate systems entitlement tracking, the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 features patch staging, central deployment of packages and support of “sneakernet” configurations. Also, it can now be hosted on a  System z server and is integrated with the new supportability infrastructure of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.

For more information and to download the Tool, go here.

Last week the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), an industry organization devoted to systems management standards, announced a Configuration Management Database Federation (CMDBf) standard that makes it easier to share information between configuration management databases (CMDBs) and other management data repositories (MDRs). The new standard is the first technology to provide a cross-vendor, standardized solution for federating system management data. As a vendor of business service management solutions, Novell is a board member of DMTF along with other leading IT vendors including CA, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and VMware.

According to Alan Murray, vice president of product management at Novell, “Today’s data centers are heterogeneous environments with multiple masters and stakeholders, but in order for any organization to make decisions or analyze business performance these mixed environments need to work together simply and seamlessly. Novell is a strong supporter of the Configuration Management Database Federation standard, because it facilities the interoperability of data from multiple points of view. With a comprehensive view of the entire IT environment, administrators can utilize configuration data to streamline management tasks resolve issues and most importantly effectively manage the components in their IT infrastructure.”

When we talk about building and distributing software and virtual appliances, many assume it’s a complicated or difficult process. In truth, appliances are just the opposite – they’re all about doing things simpler and easier. In this short video, Matt Richards, Senior Program Manager for the SUSE Appliance Program at Novell, shows just how easy it is to build an appliance using SUSE Studio, a new, free, web-based tool that builds complete software appliances in a matter of minutes.

Last month Novell released GeekoBuilder 1.0 and since that time we’ve seen lots of great Geekos built. We didn’t want to the fun to end, so our team has added new options to create even more avatars. Go here to check out the new clothing options, backgrounds and accessories. While you’re there don’t forget to visit the gallery for inspiration as well as to vote on your favorite Geeko creations.

And, when you’re done you can download your avatar using Cafe Press and Zazzle or share the fun with friends through a host of social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook.

Managing user access, data storage and compliance are critical issues for most organizations. Currently, enterprise organizations that wish to do business in the cloud are offered limited, predesigned security features that are packaged as a part of a cloud provider’s service agreement. Cloud and SaaS providers are beginning to see that security is the #1 barrier to cloud adoption and are looking for ways to offer tailored security features that will lead to better success selling to larger enterprises.

With more than 15 years in the identity and access management industry, Novell understands that “cookie-cutter” security offerings inhibit the promise of flexibility, automation and scalability cloud computing offers. Cloud computing will not be successful if enterprise organizations are forced to sacrifice security policies in order to conduct business in the cloud. Cloud assets used by an enterprise must be treated as an extension of the data center. This includes the ability to seamlessly manage security policies, enforce regulatory compliance and conduct prudent business practices in the cloud.

This week we announced Novell Cloud Security Service, a solution that will help Cloud Providers and SaaS vendors assure their offerings meet the unique and strict security and compliance standards required by global businesses. This assurance is backed by more than 60 cloud-related patents and patent applications as well as Novell’s strong reputation for developing interoperable technologies that work harmoniously in mixed IT environments.  You can read more about this news in eWeek, Computerworld and Network World.

The Novell Cloud Security Service is currently in a limited private beta with select customers, including PivotLink. Both organizations will preview capabilities of Novell Cloud Security Service during an industry-wide interoperability demonstration at Burton Group Catalyst Conference, Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.  Visit www.novell.com/cloud for information. Be sure to check back next week to receive a recap of the interop demo via podcast from Novell’s cloud security experts.

Novell, along with 70 companies, academic institutions, and other organizations including Red Hat and Oracle, have just announced a coalition to promote the use of open source by the federal government. The organization, known as Open Source for America, will be dedicated to serving as a centralized advocate to encourage broader U.S. Federal Government support of and participation in free and open source software.

Back in March John Dragoon, Novell CMO, wrote An Open-Source Presidency for Forbes.com advocating for open source adoption by the government. And, Novell government customers, like the United States Postal Service, Federal Bureau of Prisons and NASA, are all seeing the benefits that high-quality, low-cost and secure open source software provides.

Stay tuned for more to come from this group.

Today Microsoft made a major announcement that has surprised many in the open source world: it has submitted device driver code to the Linux Community under the the GNU General Public License (version 2). The drivers will be available to the Linux Community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. This is the first time Microsoft has made such a submission and is a radical departure from their previously expressed views on GPL.

Novell played a major role in making this happen. Novell Fellow Greg Kroah-Hartman, who leads the Linux Kernel Device Driver project, approached Microsoft and helped guide them though the submission process. From his recent blog post:

There are two major aspects of what (Microsoft) did here:

They released the code under the GPLv2 and publicly stated that this is a valid license for companies to release code under. They will be continuing to contribute under this license, as they work to clean up the code, and add new features and fix bugs as time goes on. This is a huge step forward for Microsoft from what they have previously stated in the past.
They publicly stated that the proper license to release a Linux kernel driver is under the GPLv2, To quote from the notes they sent out to a number of press members:

Q: Why release the code?

A: Because we have utilized Linux code, Microsoft has an obligation to open source the device drivers. This is the process outlined by the Linux community.

Q: Why open source the code?

A: Because this is a requirement of the community, and critical in ensuring that as the Linux Kernel evolves, and as Hyper-V evolves, that the Hyper-V Linux Device Drivers evolve as well.

Under the umbrella of our 2006 partnership and agreement with Microsoft, Novell has worked hard to bridge the divide between Linux and Windows. The major impetus for the agreement was customer demands for interoperability, and our technical collaborations at our joint lab in Cambridge, MA have delivered solutions covering virtualization, management, document exchange – and device drivers. Today’s announcement is further vindication of our partnership and is great news for Linux, open source and especially for customers.