Novell to Acquire Managed Objects

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions

1. Who is Managed Objects™? What is their mission?
2. At a strategic level, why is this announcement important?
3. How does Managed Objects fit with Novell's strategy?
4. Do you intend to support existing Managed Objects customers? Is this a focus for Novell to develop new opportunities in the BSM market?
5. What is the current Managed Objects product portfolio?
6. When will Novell provide a joint product roadmap?
7. Are there plans to discontinue any Managed Objects or Novell products?
8. How will the product portfolios be integrated over time?
9. Will Managed Objects be integrated into Novell and if so which parts and into which business unit(s)?
10. What benefits can customers expect from the combination of Managed Objects and Novell?
11. Do Novell and Managed Objects have any existing joint customers?
12. How will Managed Objects products be supported?
13. When will the acquisition transaction close?
14. What were the terms of the acquisition?
15. What will happen to MO management and staff?
16. How do I find out more?

Answers

1. Who is Managed Objects? What is their mission?

   Managed Objects is best known as a supplier of Business Service Management (BSM) solutions. Managed Objects products help customers by integrating existing IT management investments into a real-time model of the IT enterprise. The company's customers realize measurable improvements in IT service quality, cost savings and increased IT responsiveness.

   A privately-held company headquartered in McLean, Va., Managed Objects has industry leading customers including AIB, Customs Border Patrol, CSC, Credit Suisse, DISA, JPMorgan Chase, Petro China, Progress Energy and Verizon.

2. At a strategic level, why is this announcement important?

   Novell has a very strong position in the data center, with its management, virtualization and workload products and also with our unique technology-agnostic approach.

   The Managed Objects products complement and extend Novell's existing workload management and virtualization solutions by adding flexible service modeling, leading Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB) technology, advanced analytics and unique Web 2.0-based visualization technology. Customers can extract IT configuration and workload information in near real-time into a robust CMDB, model how the IT configuration provides business services, and then generate role-based dashboards that show real-time health of the services IT delivers to the business. By providing a single view of data center workloads across any physical or virtual environment, system administrators can understand and respond to issues in a business context reactively, pro-actively, or automatically.

3. How does Managed Objects fit with Novell's strategy?

   Managed Objects enhances Novell's IT management strategy with key IT management capabilities and strengthens Novell as the data center vendor of choice in a mixed-source environment. Managed Objects provides key capabilities in service management, a federated CMDB and unified Web 2.0 visualization that compliments Novell's existing product line in work load management, portability, virtualization and essential metadata repositories.

4. Do you intend to support existing Managed Objects customers? Is this a focus for Novell to develop new opportunities in the BSM market?

   We absolutely intend to support and grow existing Managed Objects customers, and we've already visited most key customers to brief them on the acquisition and reassure them of our continued support. We will be opportunistic in pursuing new BSM opportunities as they arise. Our strategy, like Managed Objects, is to complement the major BSM players and integrate well with them. Our strengths around visualization, change management, and workload management are unique, as is our technology-agnostic approach and ability to span the physical and virtual worlds.

5. What is the current Managed Objects product portfolio?

   Manage Objects has a strong portfolio that includes the following:

   • CMDB360: Managed Objects have developed its own Configuration Management Database (CMDB) that conforms to the generally held view of what a federated CMDB should be, namely that data is only held in one place and the CMDB holds pointers to the original data sources.
   • myCMDB: A new and innovative development (currently in beta) is Managed Objects myCMDB, which uses Web 2.0 technology to enable a wider audience to view, and eventually change, the Configuration Items (CIs) held within a CMDB. Maintenance and accuracy of the CIs in a CMDB represents a major challenge for all organisations; it is acknowledged that end-users are the most knowledgeable source of information on their devices, but accessing this pool of knowledge requires a solution that can enable non-technical people to comment on technology. myCMDB is Managed Objects approach to presenting this information in a style that end-users are comfortable with using the concept of local communities, aka Facebook, that only have invited members.
   • Application Impact Management: Application Impact Management (AIM) consolidates essential IT management data, key performance indicators (KPIs), and business metrics into a role-based single-pane-of-glass dashboard. By using integrated analytics like impact and root cause analysis, IT operations can monitor and manage their complete end-to-end environment in real-time, and according to Managed Objects reduce IT outages by 50% to 70%.
   • Service Level Management: Service Level Management (SLM) enables organisations to measure and report on its quality of service received from IT in terms that are meaningful to the business users. SLM works with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in real-time or historically, and by using sophisticated predictive algorithms it can alert organisations to potential breaches of SLAs before they happen.
   • Service Catalog: Managed Objects' Service Catalog provides a centralized description for each service and supports each service through the review, approval and provisioning workflow. It tracks actions taken on each service, which enables IT management, Operations, Project Managers, CIOs and Customers the ability to approve, disapprove, subscribe and unsubscribe to a service. The tracking information maintained in the Service Catalog serves as an audit trail that allows governance of service.
   • Service Contract Management: Managed Objects Service Contract Management (SCM) provides an automated approach to the problems of managing the entire SLA lifecycle process—from service contract composition, management, and maintenance, to Operational Level Agreements (OLA) creation, monitoring, and reporting.
   • Dashboard Visualization: The visualization layer uses the JSR168 standard for portlets to enable the information to be displayed in multiple different ways. It is role-based and is consistent with organization's LDAP policy, if it uses one. The information can be presented in many different ways and from either a business or technical perspective. Data can be exported to any Business Intelligence tool if so desired.
   
   
6. When will Novell provide a joint product roadmap?

   We will provide more details when the deal closes. The acquisition of Managed Objects does not disrupt currently planned deliverables for Novell.

7. Are there plans to discontinue any Managed Objects or Novell products?

   No. Managed Objects products will be integrated with and enhance Novell's IT management offerings. No Novell products will be discontinued as a result of the acquisition.

8. How will the product portfolios be integrated over time?

   A key capability Managed Objects offers ease of integration—as such Managed Objects will help provide that unified namespace and visualization; the integration will be immediate. An integrated product roadmap will emerge later in 2009 highlighting the entire suite of data center and IT management products.

9. Will Managed Objects be integrated into Novell and if so which parts and into which business unit(s)?

   Managed Objects will be integrated with Novell's Systems and Resource Management business unit.

10. What benefits can customers expect from the combination of Managed Objects and Novell?

    With Managed Objects, Novell adds flexible service modeling, advanced analytics and Web 2.0-based dashboarding technology to its portfolio of IT management tools which in essence allow Novell to bring business intelligence to the datacenter and virtualization management markets. Managed Objects' customers will gain access to the resources of a global IT management vendor that spans from the datacenter to the desktop. Further the integration of virtualization into the BSM fabric by way of Novell's virtualization management lifecycle products will provide a tie into workflow management, identity management and collaboration tools.

11. Do Novell and Managed Objects have any existing joint customers?

    Yes, Novell and Managed Objects do share common customers; however there is not product overlap, so any common customer will benefit from a more holistic approach to making IT work as one.

    Sample common customers include: Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Ericsson, and GE.

12. How will Managed Objects products be supported?

    Managed Objects support offerings will continue unchanged with global 7/24 support from its McLean, Virginia-based facility. A primary focus will be ensuring customers continue to get excellent support and that we can continue to integrate and innovate with the MO products.

13. When will the acquisition transaction close?

    The acquisition is expected to close during Novell's first fiscal quarter 2009, which runs from November, 2008 to January, 2009, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

14. What were the terms of the acquisition?

    This information will not be publicly disclosed.

15. What will happen to MO management and staff?

    We have just completed the definitive agreement. We will be working with the MO management team, as well as sales, professional services and engineering to determine how we'll integrate staff as a result of the acquisition. It's too early to give details right now, but a primary focus will be ensuring customers continue to get excellent support and that we can continue to integrate and innovate with the MO products.

16. How do I find out more?

    Additional details regarding this announcement will be available at www.novell.com/managedobjects and www.Managed Objects.com/novell.

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