One of the ways Novell plans on innovating is to help put more of an enterprise spin on Linux and provide better support for both customers and ISVs. Support is a critical issue to enterprise CIOs, who aren't likely to bet the farm on Linux in terms of mission-critical apps without the backing of a major vendor. To achieve his goals, Messman has reduced the number of overall products on Novell's dance card from 161 down to 64, deepened its channel program to cover Linux offerings and increased the payouts for demand generation to its partners. Along the way, NetWare is taking a back seat to Linux. It is both an opportunity and a challenge. "We have to migrate that NetWare base to Linux," Messman says.
That migration work presents a great opportunity for existing Novell partners, who should focus on tuning their Linux skills, according to Gartner analyst Mary Hubley. "Novell has deep pockets and they will support SuSE Linux really well," Hubley says. "This will be really attractive to VARs who have experience with Novell's background."
Critical Mass
Novell joins a formidable cast of heavy-hitter infrastructure companies, led by IBM, that have pushed Linux as a lower-cost alternative to Windows and Unix for both the enterprise and SMB space. To date, IBM claims more than 6,300 Linux engagements and 15,000 new Linux applications written by ISV partners. Through various discount programs, it incents ISVs to write Linux apps. Meanwhile, commercial Linux pioneer Red Hat is turning a profit and garnering accolades for its rigorous certification program. HP, Oracle and Sun Microsystems are all putting skin into the Linux game on the systems side of things.
What's new to note is the growth in applications support for Linux, which is quietly becoming one of many proof points that the OS is evolving from an edge-of-network novelty to a can't-ignore server environment for business software. As the number of ISVs porting or outright building their apps to Linux rises, their solution-provider partners and integrators would be wise to put Linux deployment skills training on their to-do lists. Done right, you can make some money in the open-source universe by appealing to more customers,as long as you navigate some technical and business challenges and partner wisely.
"You've got a mix of applications, proven results of open source coming from the maturity of the operating system, and a vast body of people looking at Linux as a way to save money, space and have more control over source code," says Jeffrey J. Hewitt, principal analyst at Dataquest. "Linux isn't stealing share yet, but there is quite a bit of replacement happening out there."
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