I’ve been a loyal and happy Novell engineer for many many years (like
most here I’d imagine).
While there has been many changes and retreats the last several years,
at least we always had the core to fall back on.
My concern is that with the latest press release from Micro Focus:
Novell (as a brand) is going away.
Is it just me or does the latest press release seem to say everything is
going to be re branded as Micro Focus?
“The product portfolios of Micro Focus, Borland, NetIQ, Attachmate and
Novell will be brought together under the one portfolio of Micro Focus.
Each product will have a defined strategy created and managed by a
global product group.”
So that means the Novell brand is going away?
On one hand, they bought it = they can do anything they want. For the
price I’m sure they want to build their own brand.
On the other hand, I’ve been a loyal Novell engineer for decades… I
have no interest in being a Micro Focus engineer. I don’t know who they
are, I don’t know what they’re about, I don’t know how steadfast they
are with the product, if they will increase engineering or decrease it.
I don’t know if they will milk what’s left of Novell products until they
cease to exist.
The Attachmate ownership was a disaster (IMO), the only thing that saved
Novell was the outstanding Dev teams that really put a lot of work (and
heart) into OES and GW.
I have just started a new software development business and was happily
looking forward to making it a proper Novell shop. Now I have to
hesitate, because if the “Big Red N” is going away… I’ll slip away
with it and have to make the nasty choice of being a Red Hat shop (which
I have avoided up until now).
I’ve been a loyal and happy Novell engineer for many many years (like
most here I’d imagine).
While there has been many changes and retreats the last several years,
at least we always had the core to fall back on.
My concern is that with the latest press release from Micro Focus:
Novell (as a brand) is going away.
Is it just me or does the latest press release seem to say everything is
going to be re branded as Micro Focus?
“The product portfolios of Micro Focus, Borland, NetIQ, Attachmate and
Novell will be brought together under the one portfolio of Micro Focus.
Each product will have a defined strategy created and managed by a
global product group.”
So that means the Novell brand is going away?
On one hand, they bought it = they can do anything they want. For the
price I’m sure they want to build their own brand.
On the other hand, I’ve been a loyal Novell engineer for decades… I
have no interest in being a Micro Focus engineer. I don’t know who they
are, I don’t know what they’re about, I don’t know how steadfast they
are with the product, if they will increase engineering or decrease it.
I don’t know if they will milk what’s left of Novell products until they
cease to exist.
The Attachmate ownership was a disaster (IMO), the only thing that saved
Novell was the outstanding Dev teams that really put a lot of work (and
heart) into OES and GW.
I have just started a new software development business and was happily
looking forward to making it a proper Novell shop. Now I have to
hesitate, because if the “Big Red N” is going away… I’ll slip away
with it and have to make the nasty choice of being a Red Hat shop (which
I have avoided up until now).[/color]
It sounds to me like things are going to be rebranded. Whether that
is a good thing or not, only time can tell. While I like the Novell
brand, some people don’t, so maybe a branding change will breathe some
new life into marketing. But at this point, I’m not concerned because
the people I deal with at Novell are still there and taking care of me
and the roadmaps look good. I’m going to keep plugging away and see
how it all pans out.
That’s a great attitude to have (that’s how I felt with the Attachmate
takeover) “wait and see”.
I also agree the road maps for OES and GW are excellent.
I have a couple months until I’m forced to make a decision… but I
don’t think it’ll be easy one.
One of the complaints I heard over and over under The Attachmate Group
was that it was hard to do business because there were separate
companies. The Micro Focus executive team heard that too and decided
to unify things to make it easier for customers to do business:
[quote]
"To ensure a clear path through the work we are making the following
changes to the way we organise the business:
The product portfolios of Micro Focus, Borland, NetIQ, Attachmate and
Novell will be brought together under the one portfolio of Micro Focus.
Each product will have a defined strategy created and managed by a
global product group.
In addition to the Micro Focus portfolio, we will have a second,
dedicated portfolio focused on SUSE. The Linux market and open source
community have unique characteristics and this focus is essential to
our commitment to deliver innovative solutions built on SUSE’s
technology heritage and track record of delivery.
Finally, we will be simplifying the branding and packaging of our
portfolios. As an example, we will combine our leading host
connectivity solutions of Reflection and Rumba into one set of Micro
Focus branded solutions offering the best of both technologies. A
similar approach of simplification and alignment will be taken
systematically, resulting in one company operating two product
portfolios, namely Micro Focus and SUSE."[/quote]
On Tue, 28 Apr 2015 19:46:01 +0000, mathew35 wrote:
[color=blue]
That’s a great attitude to have (that’s how I felt with the Attachmate
takeover) “wait and see”.
I also agree the road maps for OES and GW are excellent.
I have a couple months until I’m forced to make a decision… but I
don’t think it’ll be easy one.[/color]
Something to bear in mind - in the eyes of many, many IT decision makers,
“Novell” meant “NetWare”, which means “Legacy”. I can’t count the number
of times I have corrected people over the past 25 years when they’ve said
“We have a Novell server”. Yep, it’s been that long - I installed my
first NetWare 2.15 server back in late 1989 or early 1990.
So lots of really cool technologies that Novell and NetIQ have continued
to develop in the identity space have been ignored because people with
the power to make decisions continued to believe “Novell = NetWare”.
The thing to focus on isn’t the brand, it’s the technology. And Micro
Focus has some pretty cool technology in its portfolio - whether it’s
called “Novell,” “NetIQ,” “SUSE,” “Borland,” or “Attachmate,” the
products are what they are. While I didn’t agree with the decision to
rebrand “NetWare” to “IntranetWare” (remember that?), I think this
rebranding decision is a smart move, and it has the potential to really
help fans of the products reintroduce the technologies without the
“Legacy” thinking and the baggage that goes with the brand.