Novell CEO: Virtualization, Cloud Require Intelligent Workload Management
At the BrainShare conference today, Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian addressed the elephant in the room — Elliott Associates’ unsolicited $2 billion takeover bid for Novell. Then, Hovsepian and Chief Marketing Officer/Channel Chief John Dragoon put the spotlight on Novell’s broader strategy — Intelligent Workload Management (IWM) to enable cloud and virtualized applications — and a new partnership with VerizonBusiness. Here are the top 12 highlights from the keynote.
They included…
1. What’s On Your Mind?: Hovsepian conceded that there’s an elephant in the room … Elliott Associates’ unsolicited $2 billion takeover bid, which Novell rejected on March 20. Hovsepian reassured attendees that it’s business as usual at Novell, while the company’s board considers a range of options to increase shareholder value.
2. Can’t Do It Alone: Partners now drive over 75 percent of Novell’s Business, said Hovsepian.
3. More Than SUSE Linux: During the 45-minute keynote from Hovsepian and Dragoon, SUSE Linux received some key mentions but it wasn’t the central thrust of the morning. Smart move, considering Novell has to promote itself as far more than a Linux provider. Much of the morning briefing focused on Novell’s Intelligent Workload Management (IWM).
4. Virtualization and the Cloud: That’s only half of the equation, asserted Hovsepian. He said identity management (related to security) is the other half of the equation. And Novell’s Intelligent Workload Management (IWM) strategy is the next natural step beyond virtualization and cloud computing, Hovsepian added.
5. Getting More Social — With Pulse: Novell wants to support tools that are social like FaceBook and as fast as Twitter. The tools need to provide anywhere/anytime access to critical information, with the ability to create and share information more freely. To get into the social media market, Novell needs to allow individuals to store information securely, share information securely, and follow individuals, topics and people across multiple devices, according to Hovsepian.
Translation: Hovsepian was setting the stage for Pulse, a social media platform that’s been getting some buzz lately. Each BrainShare attendee will receive a preview account and five invitations to bring buddies onto the system.
6. Cloud Is Just Getting Started: Only 2 percent of workloads are in the cloud, and only 16 percent are virtualized. Those figures will rise to 20% and 45% by 2015, according to IDC. For those trends to occur, CIOs will want their security concerns addressed, asserted Hovsepian. No coincidence, Novell is pitching identity and security management for that need.
But there’s a bigger story here, focused on Novell’s Intelligent Workload Management (IWM) effort. IWM has four components:
- Build: This requires a customized operating system… surely a nod toward SUSE Linux and the software appliance strategy.
- Secure: This requires security and compliance management, a nod toward Novell’s Identity and Access Management offerings — and Novell Identity Manager 4. Separately, Novell Cloud Security Service enforces security settings with a SaaS or cloud provider. And Novell Cloud Manager provides automated workload provisioning to public and private clouds. Watch for a close working relationship with Verizon Business in the cloud.
- Manage: This requires resource management
- Measure: Service Management
The VAR Guy will ask Hovsepian for more details on those final two bullets later today.
7. Who’s Here?: After canceling the 2009 BrainShare because of the poor economy, Dragoon was quick to note that BrainShare 2010 has a critical mass of attendees. More than 2,500 partners, customers and guests are attending BrainShare. And more than 500 attendees are first-time attendees. Also, there are roughly 45 sponsors and exhibitors are on hand. After a five year absence, Dragoon added, BrainShare EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) returns in EMEA this May 2010.
8. Back to Novell’s Roots: BrainShare is a technical conference for technical people, according to Dragoon. Most of the content here reflects that assertion.
9. Three Legs to Novell’s Strategy: Enterprise Linux Servers, Identity and Access Management, Virtualization and Workload management will dominate many of the technical sessions at the event.
10. Key New Developments: Dragoon pointed to eight emerging developments from Novell for partners and customers to check out … including SUSE Studio, Novell Identity Manager 4, Novell Cloud Manager, and Novell Pulse.
11. Free Stuff: SUSE Linux on the desktop received some free publicity. Watch for more details later today involving the MSI Netbook/MeeGo and the HP Mini 5101 with SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.
12. Happy Anniversary: IBM is celebrating 10 years of Linux on the mainframe, and Dragoon was quick to note SUSE Linux has been working with IBM in the mainframe from the very start.
What’s the bottom line? Lots of information here at BrainShare for partners to digest. The VAR Guy will be speaking directly with Hovsepian and Dragoon later today for more color commentary.
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With only 2500 attendees, including 500 first-timers, this is one half the number of people who typically attend BrainShare. I was there in 2008 and I believe there were 5000+ in attendance. As much as I have enjoyed previous BrainShare events, including extended evenings at Squatters Pub Brewery, I think BrainShare, which used to cost Novell in the neighborhood of $10M, is an expensive and time-consuming way to bring a corporate message and technical conference event to an audience.
Just in case Mr. Dragoon of Novell did not notice, the country is still in the grips of the Great Recession and many Novell partners have seen substantial declines in their business revenues. What does Novell have to offer them when they can’t afford to pay $2500 to $3000 to be in Salt Lake City for a week at BrainShare?
I think the whole format of what constitutes BrainShare should have been re-designed over the hiatus as a virtual BrainShare instead of producing the retro event Novell claims its attendees demanded. Well, I don’t blame Novell for giving people (customers and partners) what they want, but from the numbers being reported for BrainShare 2010 a lot fewer of them were willing to show up for it.
Tim: You raise some valid points about (A) BrainShare being smaller and (B) many partners lacking the budget to attend.
Still, The VAR Guy thinks bringing back BrainShare was a wise move. Many partners were genuinely impressed when Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian rolled out the Intelligent Workload Management strategy at the conference. Is there some marketing spin in IWM? Sure. But communicating a strategy face-to-face is more valuable than communicating it over a webcast.
Plus, face-to-face conferences attract partners that have skin in the game. Anyone who attended BrainShare is surely serious about going to market with Novell.
Finally, most of the major IT companies (Cisco, Microsoft, HP, Oracle, Juniper and so on) continue to host large, face-to-face customer and partner conferences. So it’s not fair to single Novell out for that practice.
Still, The VAR Guy appreciates your decision to post a comment and share your thoughts. Plenty of VARs have been frustrated with Novell over the years. The VAR Guy will be watching to see if BrainShare helps to restore some confidence in Novell.
-TVG
I guess we disagree on the value of the in-person BrainShare conference going forward. All the companies you mentioned, who also have face-to-face conferences for partners and customers, are many times the size of Novell on an annual revenue and profit basis.
I think a “live” virtual conference would be a showcase for how Novell chooses to communicate with its partners and customers around the world in the 21st century.
Novell could charge a nominal fee for attending a virtual BrainShare conference and reach many times the number of “brains” they reach by herding 2500 people from session-to-session at the Salt Lake City Convention Center. Plus, you can still distribute swag to the attendees but you will have to bring your own beer.
I’m skeptical that BrainShare, as currently constituted, is capable of restoring confidence in Novell. Novell can only do that by actually delivering on what they say they will do. Standing before 2500 people and putting on a great multi-media stage show is not what they need to do IMHO.
Tim: We agree to disagree on the Novell BrainShare face-to-face debate. But that’s the beauty of social media: Your opinion is appreciated. The VAR Guy thanks you for weighing in on the conversation.
Side note: I think even Novell would agree with you in terms of the multi-media stage show. Once the bright lights of BrainShare are turned off, Novell needs to prove it can execute in the market.
-TVG