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Will you be upgrading to BES 5.0.1 for GroupWise?
27 votes | 0 comments
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| Author: |
geek49203 |
| Dated: |
Thursday, August 03 2006 @ 12:09 AM EDT |
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3,126 times |
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 (REVISED 8/3/2006 12:16 PM to correct MS licensing information)
The history of IT is littered with the wreckage of companies that stopped doing business with small accounts. At one time, Novell was one such company.
Novell finally recognized the error of its ways, and at BrainShare 2003, announced that it was "seeding the market" with a free 5-user copy of Small Business Suite, called "Starter Pack". At Brainshare 2005, Novell released the Linux Small Business Suite, which received huge press coverage and a number of public kudos for the product. Finally, Novell had given itself a way to expand market share that didn't involve a bidding war with Microsoft, a war that it wasn't likely to win.
While neither the Netware nor the Linux versions of SBS were perfect, they did offer great value. For around $100 per seat, the customer got their server OS, BorderManager GroupWise and most of ZEN. The Netware version was limited to 5 servers and one, 2-node cluster, but few if any SBS-sized clients ever bumped into that limit. Smaller offices could be reasonably run on one server. Best of all, the purchase of SBS entitled the client to 5 support incidents (later time-bombed to 90 days) which insured that the installing partner could get the install done right.
Microsoft was unable to counter the Starter Pack offer. Their product (Small Business Server 2003) has severe licensing problems that make it unpalatable to many businesses, such as the disabling of Terminal Services, the inability to run the components on more than one server (imagine running SQL Server, shared FAX, Exchange and Sharepoint, all on one box!), as well as a very expensive upgrade once the 75-user is hit. Worse yet, the configuration won’t let an office get close to the 75-user limit as the server becomes overloaded. MS-SBS, to my mind, has no response at all to ZEN.
In other words, Novell had a clear winner, was offering promotions that Microsoft couldn’t counter, and was providing for its future as it took care of the small business market.
All of that came to a screeching halt on July 31 2006, when Novell killed the SBS in favor of the Open Workgroup Suite (OWS). Depending on which version you select, you get either Linux-only or Linux and Netware OES (albeit without the 5-server or cluster limits), full ZEN, and GroupWise. The support contract entitles the client to receive all updates to products within the suite, which is also a much-needed enhancement.
By the admission of Novell management, OWS was not designed as a replacement for SBS. OWS lacks the install wizards of SBS. Indeed, Novell has dismantled its former SBS product team that would’ve otherwise modified OWS for the SBS market.
OWS is much more expensive, as much as $150 plus $80 per year per seat for support. OWS doesn’t come with the complimentary support calls. OWS does eliminate some restrictions of the old SBS, but few if any SBS customers ever encountered those restrictions, or had any need for ZEN for Servers, etc. Novell will allow customers who are upgrading from previous editions of SBS to keep their BorderManager licenses, but BorderManager is not a part of OWS.
Sadly, SBS customers who need more licenses will need to buy the most costly OWS option, the $150 per user NW+Linux option, as well as augment any pre-existing Upgrade Protection with the $80 per seat per year support option.
Even more telling are the marketing materials for OWS. Novell compares the cost of a 250-user OWS network (with support) with a corresponding Windows Server 2003 install with Enterprise support. Sadly, for most SBS-sized clients, “Enterprise” is that ship on Star Trek, and under no circumstances would they consider a costly Enterprise support agreement – after all, isn’t that what their local computer shop is supposed to do?
The net effect is that small businesses that have run Novell products for years are faced with much higher costs for the products they’ve run for years, certainly much higher than competing products from other vendors. Partners that service small business are faced with a sales job to keep their Novell customers using Novell products, while facing a Novell corporate structure that has no concern for either the customers or the partners.
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Friday, September 03 2010 @ 02:38 AM EDT