Directory services lead Novell out of the mire

1999-11-24

The turnaround in Novell’s fortunes can now be said to be completed. In a year the share price has doubled, the growth rates for directory-based products have doubled and the company profits have virtually doubled. The company has clear strategy, popular products and a fast-growing consultancy arm. All change for Novell, who many were consigning to the junk heap of IT history only a few years ago.

It seems still recent that Novell were bullishly acquiring companies and products such as Tuxedo, WordPerfect and UnixWare (Novell’s name) in their drive to compete directly with Microsoft. Within a year it became clear that the strategy was failing and measures were taken including the sell-off of all the products that the company had been so feverishly collecting. Drastic action was necessary as the share price fell like a stone and the company was derided for a lack of focus or coherence. The company decided to fix their sights on NetWare and its directory service product NDS.

With NDS, Novell has set its sights on being the directory of the Web. Recent announcements concerning the open source release of parts of NDS will most likely be targeted at supporting this ambition. The company has been remarkably successful so far, down to its own marketing success and, it has to be said, Microsoft’s incapability of bringing its much-touted Active Directory to market. Originally presented in 1997, AD will now form part of Windows 2000 which will not be released until February of next year.

Companies rise, and so can they fall. Over the next few years Novell still faces an uphill struggle before it can truly say it is at the top of the directory pile. Microsoft will undoubtedly attempt to steal the company’s flag once Windows 2000 has been released, and this is a threat which Novell will be taking most seriously. Even so, there is still a huge market for directory services which, based on current performance, the company stands every chance of capturing.

(First published 24 November 1999)