Novell unveils Linux Small Business Suite 9

Posted on 22 Mar 2005 at 10:27

Novell is hoping that local channel partners' woes with dealing with Microsoft products will quickly drive uptake of its new Linux Small Business Suite 9 (SBS 9), announced at the company's BrainShare conference in Salt Lake City.

Traditionally a Microsoft domain, the small business sector should be far from easy for open-source companies to crack. In-house skills are Microsoft; despite a notorious reputation for security, there's little momentum to improve it; and access to source code holds few attractions for many small businesses.

But Novell has a secret weapon: the channel. Brad Young, Novell's Director of Product Management, said that while the sector's in-house skills are Microsoft dominated, 'that expertise is relevant to the desktop, rather than at any server level'.

And so when virus outbreaks and other issues outside of that skill set hit small businesses they often use the channel as their outsourced technical support.

Novell's strategy is that SBS 9 will not only offer small businesses the financial efficiencies of Linux, but make the life of its channel partners that much easier with the security boons of Linux.

Testament to this is that, like Windows Server 2003, SBS 9 includes configuration wizards to quickly set up servers for different workloads. Where Novell differs is that this is essentially to allow the channel, rather than the end user, to prep the software.

Young estimated it would around an hour to set up SBS 9 this way.

He also said that Novell was committed to selling SBS 9 through the channel, supporting this with a range of marketing, training and support materials.

Novell will also be hoping to take advantage of the fallout when Microsoft ends support for the likes of NT4 and older versions of Exchange at the end of the year, which a number of small businesses still cling on to.

SBS 9 is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, with licences for up to three installations. This allows users to install web-facing applications on one, keeping them physically separate from data applications. This distinguishes the suite from Microsoft's small business offering which only includes a licence for a single server, so if that goes down, it takes all the applications with it.

As well as SLES 9, SBS 9 includes Novell's Groupwise collaboration software, eDirectory and iManager offering centralised management tools, and licences for up to 100 users to use Novell Linux Desktop. The suite allows the management of Windows clients as well, so businesses can keep their existing IT skills and choose how or whether to migrate off of Windows.

Although Novell will look to take market share from Microsoft in the main with SBS 9, it is also up against its own NetWare Small Business Suite 6.5.

Young wouldn't say which Novell would be pushing hardest, but that the NetWare product had more of Novell's Zenworks functionality. However, he also said that Novell was in the process of deciding whether to take SBS 9 down the same road it has done with OpenEnterprise Server (OES) and offer the product with both the NetWare and Linux kernels.

As OES does for the enterprise, a dual-kernel version of SBS 9 would offer small businesses a route to migrate off of NetWare and onto Novell's platform of choice: Linux.

SBS 9 will be available from the beginning of April for $475 per five new users, or $252 per five users upgrading from certain Novell products.

More information is available at http://www.novell.com/products/linuxsmallbiz.

Author: Matt Whipp