InformationWeek

Novell Counting On NetWare 4.1

The networking giant believes the latest iteration of its operating system will make users forget earlier versions and stave off Microsoft's NT Server

By Caryn Gillooly

NetWare 4.1 may be the most important product Novell Inc. has ever released. Many analysts and users believe the very future of the networking giant is riding on the success of the latest iteration of its network operating system, especially since the first versions of NetWare 4.x were not up to snuff and Microsoft Corp. is coming on strong with its Windows NT Server. "If NetWare 4.1 is not perfect, Nove ll has a serious problem," says Steve Lopez, information systems manager at the National Board of Medical Examiners, a NetWare 4.x user in Philadelphia that publishes medical exams.

Lucky for Novell, most early users say NetWare 4.1 is good enough to move the company forward. "NetWare 4.1 is all it's cracked up to be," says Robbin McCubbin, a network planning analyst at National Grocers Consolidated, a NetWare 4.02 user in Weston, Ontario, who has seen the newest version.

New Additions
The most publicized improvements are the MergeTree and NetSynch utilities that let users manipulate directory trees and integrate the NetWare 3.x and 4.x environments. Novell also has added better wide-area networking (WAN) support through a new routing protocol called the NetWare Link State Protocol (NLSP), which is designed to more efficiently send NetWare data over WANs.

Don Kemper, senior project manager at U.S. Bancorp, a NetWare 4.1 test site in Portland, Ore., says it would be impossible to implement the network he's installing without NetWare 4.1's WAN capabilities. "We're putting NetWare 4.1 servers in more than 400 remote branch offices and centrally managing them using NetWare 4.1 as well," he says. "We couldn't do this with NetWare 4.02."

NetWare 4.1 also includes several other features: built-in messaging capabilities that tie into the NetWare Directory Service; support for OS/2 that lets customers run NetWare servers on OS/2-based machines; support for Macintoshes; and a much simpler installation procedure. Novell has also cut the price by 25% and has repositioned NetWare 4.1 as a product for all users, no matter how large or small their network.

Many analysts predict NetWare 4.1 will slow NT Server's momentum. "NetWare 4.1 will definitely stall users' migration to NT," says John DePietro, LAN internetworking analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass.

Netware or NT?
U.S. Bancorp's Kemper agrees. "There are people who will go to NT just because it's Microsoft. In fact, we've got it under evaluation here," he says. "But we see NT as more of an applications server than a network operating system. There are a lot of things in NetWare 4.1 that you just can't get in NT."

That wasn't true with the early versions of NetWare 4.x. Users were disappointed with the software, which Novell had promoted as an enterprise product that would let customers build their first enterprisewide NetWare networks. But NetWare 4.0, 4.01, and 4.02 didn't have the capabilities customers needed to deliver on those promises.

One of the primary problems was that early versions of NetWare 4 could not be integrated with existing networks of 3.11 and 3.12 customers--which still make up as much as 70% of Novell's installed base. Also, Novell didn't provide the tools needed to manipulate the highly touted global directory services. Finally, the product lacked the enterprise protocol support needed to build enterprise networks. Last month, Novell shaved 25% off the price of NetWar e 4; it now costs the same as the more popular and more stable NetWare 3.12.

Novell says it has learned from its mistakes: The new version of NetWare will provide the features and functions that customers need at a price they're willing to pay.

Novell's future depends on whether the company gets it right this time.

Comments on this story?