Novell Launches the 'Platform for the Open Enterprise' at BrainShare 2006

Global customer conference highlights gains across the enterprise IT infrastructure in Linux, open source, security, identity and resource management for the open enterprise

SALT LAKE CITY (BrainShare® 2006)-March 17, 2006-Today at BrainShare 2006, Novell launched the Platform for the Open Enterprise, an architecture of software and services from Novell and its partners built to help customers benefit from open source and open-standards based computing. As a key component of its new platform strategy, Novell today unveiled SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10 – the core of the platform for the open enterprise – as well as enhancements to its security, identity and collaboration offerings. Novell also announced a significant expansion of its partnership with Dell, expansion of its Market Start program, and roadmaps for key product lines. With these new announcements and the expansion of the company's strategy of providing open source and open standards-based solutions, customers now more than ever will benefit from choice, lower costs and a more productive IT infrastructure to help them grow their business.

“Open source and open standards-based computing have accelerated rapidly over the last year, and BrainShare 2006 is the the best place in the industry to see both how far we've come and what's next on the horizon,” said Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of Novell. “The BrainShare theme of 'Open for Growth' emphasizes what this progress is all about: freeing up organizations to leverage technology in ways that improve their business. With today's launch of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, we are the only software company providing a real platform for the open enterprise.”

With a more than 20-year history, BrainShare remains one of the premier conferences for customers to learn about new technologies and network with colleagues in the industry. Novell's emergence as a leader in open source and open standards in the last few years has transformed the event into the largest user conference focused on open enterprise computing. Among other news at the conference, Novell is announcing (see separate press releases for greater detail):

• SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 – The core of the new platform for the open enterprise, SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 raises the bar for enterprise Linux computing, with powerful performance, virtualization and management enhancements. In conjunction with the recently announced SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 provides organizations a complete platform infrastructure for today's most demanding computing tasks.
• Novell-Dell solution to manage Linux – Novell® ZENworks® 7 Linux Management – Dell™ Edition, an exclusive offering, delivers a wide range of integrated hardware and software management capabilities for Dell PowerEdge™ servers running Linux. Expected to be available in April, Novell ZENworks 7 Linux Management – Dell Edition allows customers to deploy, manage and maintain hardware, operating systems and applications from a single, intuitive console.
• Security and identity management innovation – New features in Novell's identity management family of solutions focus on helping organizations more effectively automate user provisioning, simplify single sign-on and manage shared network resources, helping customers enhance security and better automate business processes to deliver bottom-line savings.

Innovative enhancements to collaboration technology and integration. Included in this are:

• Wireless GroupWise® integration – With new solutions through cooperation with Intellisync and Research in Motion, GroupWise users gain access to the best and broadest mobile support in the industry.
• Workgroup productivity - Novell's new Open Workgroup Suite includes server and desktop platforms with complete management tools, e-mail and collaboration, and office productivity software, giving customers trusted products for infrastructure and productivity to meet their IT requirements at a lower cost.
• Open Enterprise Server Roadmap - Novell today announced long-term plans for Novell Open Enterprise Server, including the next two versions of the product. Novell also announced it will support NetWare® as long as customers want to run it. Customers can leverage their NetWare investments while gaining new options with Linux to run their advanced services and applications, with little or no disruption to their current IT environments.
• A dramatic expansion of Novell's Market Start program - Leading open source vendors Alfresco, Black Duck, EnterpriseDB, SpikeSource and Novacoast have joined the program, which promotes innovation and accelerates open source adoption worldwide by letting enterprise open source companies leverage Novell's global sales and marketing channels.

Novell is also holding its annual partner summit, with more than 400 participants from the global ecosystem of Novell's software, hardware, channel and training partners. The partner pavilion at BrainShare hosts more than 50 different partner demonstration stations, highlighting the rapid growth in third-party support for SUSE Linux-based solutions over the last year. Platinum sponsors at BrainShare 2006 include AMD, BlackBerry, Dell, GWAVA, HP, IBM, Messaging Architects, Oracle and Syncsort.

For more news and information on BrainShare 2006, visit http://www.novell.com/brainsharepresskit.

About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers Software for the Open Enterprise™. With more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell helps customers manage, simplify, secure and integrate their technology environments by leveraging best-of-breed, open standards-based software. With over 20 years of experience, more than 5,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers around the world, Novell helps customers gain control over their IT operating environment while reducing cost. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com.

Novell, NetWare, GroupWise, SUSE and ZENworks are registered trademarks, BrainShare is a registered service mark, and Software for the Open Enterprise is a trademark of Novell, Inc., in the United States and other countries. *Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.