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SALT LAKE CITY—In his first keynote speech as Novell president and CEO at his companys annual BrainShare conference here, Ron Hovsepian presented his vision for the company, while explaining its controversial deal with Microsoft.
Hovsepian started off by sketching the current market trends, including virtualization, which gives developers the opportunity to not have to rewrite their applications. Commoditization, he said, is another enabling trend.
“But simplification is the most important trend, with interoperability and standards and automation all at the heart of simplification,” he said.
On the opportunity front are lowering cost, mitigating risk and managing complexity, said Hovsepian, who then addressed how Novell plans to help customers address all this with its two-pronged strategy.
“The first prong of the strategy involves delivering enterprisewise Linux to customers, with a desktop-to-data center offering that positions customers with a platform for growth and innovation,” he said.
The second prong of Novells strategy focuses on enterprise management services, which includes supporting open-source and mixed environments; working with others to allow integrated, interoperable solutions; and providing simplified management, he said.
“But we are not going to try and be everything to everyone. We will work with our partners to provide the most comprehensive solutions and services possible. We have to enhance our business model in terms of how we serve you, our customers, as well as in terms of how we deliver products and services through the broad ecosystem, which is critical, as is specialization,” he said.
The recent deal with Microsoft is an ecosystem change for Novell, and “this deal was done for one reason—the customer. This was all about driving customers to make their lives easier, and about interoperability. This is a customer-driven move, and we will remain customer-focused,” he said.
On the product announcement front, Hovsepian announced the public beta for Novell Open Enterprise 2, which brings virtualized NetWare and domain services for Windows, as well as full 64-bit application support.
GroupWise has also been enhanced, with Novell teaming to allow messaging and videoconferencing within that environment, Hovsepian said. In addition, he announced Novell Identity Manager 3.5, with its tighter integration for authentication and single-sign-on capabilities.
Also announced was Sentinel 6 from Novell, Novell ZENworks Configuration Management and Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management, as well as Service Pack 1 for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 and the SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client.