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 Channel Futures

Open Source


CIOs: Finally Falling for Novell Again?

  • Written by The VAR Guy 1
  • August 28, 2008
Lots of open source fans booed when Novell jumped into bed with Microsoft. But perhaps sleeping with Microsoft really is good for Novell's health. Anecdotal evidence is starting to suggest that CIOs (chief information officers) actually like seeing Novell and Microsoft arm in arm.

Novell SUSE Linux Connects With CIOsLots of open source fans booed when Novell jumped into bed with Microsoft. But perhaps sleeping with Microsoft really is good for Novell’s health. Anecdotal evidence is starting to suggest that CIOs (chief information officers) actually like seeing Novell and Microsoft arm in arm.

Sure, Novell just announced a quarterly loss. And the company needs to strengthen its channel partner program with new management. But Matt Asay over at Cnet notes that Novell’s quarterly Linux revenue grew 30 percent year over year, far faster than the overall market growth rate for Linux.

Some skepics will claim that Novell’s growing Linux sales are nothing more than a shell game involving product coupons from Microsoft. But that’s not the case, notes Asay.

So what’s going on here? Perhaps it has something to do with CIOs starting to rediscover Novell … for the first time since the 1990s NetWare boom went bust.

Fast forward to the present day. You’re a CIO and you want to consolidate and virtualize your data centers around Windows Server and Linux. You already know Microsoft pretty darn well. And before you have time to speed dial Red Hat for some advice, Steve Ballmer brings another pengiun into the room: Novell SUSE Linux.

Next, you turn to IBM for advice. And they play Switzerland, remaining vendor neutral during your thought process: Whether you want Red Hat or Novell SUSE Linux, Big Blue stands ready to assist. Then you check in with SAP and you discover they have the hots for Novell, too.

Hmmm. There’s Ballmer back at your front door, pounding again with a special deal on Windows Server and Novell SUSE Linux. He’ll do anything to keep Red Hat out of the game.

Lessons Learned

Lots of open source fans — including The VAR Guy — berated Novell for climbing into bed with Microsoft. But so far, CIOs seem to like the strange bedfellows.

Time to weep for Red Hat? Not quite. The company continues to grow at a healthy pace, and Red Hat’s JBoss middleware strategy seems to be a far more profitable business than traditional Linux sales. Oh, and don’t forget: CIOs seem to vote for Red Hat over and over again in an annual survey about software that provides business value.

Remember, despite Microsoft’s objections, there’s room in the enterprise for more than one Linux.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Leadership Open Source

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5 comments

  1. Avatar Roy Schestowitz August 29, 2008 @ 6:59 pm
    Reply

    Novell’s losses widened, the company admits cooking the books and I spot many spinner that parrot Novell’s twist on debt write-off.

  2. Avatar The VAR GUy August 29, 2008 @ 7:13 pm
    Reply

    Roy: Where did NOVL admit to cooking its books? Stock is up this week, which suggests investors aren’t feeling any panic. Tech companies that cook their books (years ago: Informix, Computer Associates, etc.) usually see their stocks plummet amid SEC inquiries…

    Strange for The VAR Guy to spend so much time defending NOVL these days. The company still has its flaws, but cooking the books is one allegation that The VAR Guy hasn’t heard.

  3. Avatar Tom T August 29, 2008 @ 8:48 pm
    Reply

    I must disagree with your criteria for booing. Linux supporters should not stop booing Novell because “sleeping with Microsoft really is good for Novell’s health” or because some/many “CIOs seem to like the strange bedfellows.”

    Should we stop the booing because it’s good to have two major players (Red Hat and Novell) in the enterprise universe instead of just one? Generally, the two-major-player scenario looks better than a solitary major player. But including MS in the mix makes me wary.

    My impression is that, in order to be competitive with Red Hat, Novell made a deal with people who in a U.S. court of law “proved, time and time again, to be inaccurate, misleading, evasive, and transparently false. … a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that lesser entities must respect… a company whose senior management is not averse to offering specious testimony to support spurious defenses to claims of its wrongdoing.” [quote excerpts are from U.S. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson]

    Actually, if there is anyone around in open source that needs booing, it is probably Novell.

  4. Avatar Roy Schestowitz August 30, 2008 @ 9:03 am
    Reply

    VAR Guy,

    Novell’s history of fraud is well-documented, e.g. here:

    http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0198-225344/Novell-fraud-lawsuit-settled-for.html

    Novell’s more recent admission:

    http://boycottnovell.com/2007/12/08/novell-massages-figures/

    I will write a post about it later today to elucidate further.

  5. Avatar Chris September 2, 2008 @ 12:59 am
    Reply

    A few thoughts, one I love JBoss, if you haven’t used it, you’re missing out. Two, to hell with Novell. Sell-outs. 3)If you haven’t used RHEL 4 or 5 you’re missing out. Moved our enterprise from Windows to Linux and have never looked back.

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