NetWare 5 Strategy Brief

Novell

1998

How can you best integrate your LANs, WANs, network applications, intranets, and the Internet into a single network that is cost effective, reliable, easy to manage, and can grow as your needs grow?

You face a tremendous challenge-consolidating your complex and rapidly growing information network into a single, integrated environment. This involves linking a wide variety of heterogeneous resources and securely integrating them with the Internet. The resulting network must be based on open standards to best take you into the future. It must deliver the highest levels of reliability, performance, and security. It must accommodate your growing and changing needs, many of which you cannot possibly predict today, while leveraging your existing investments. It must give you the freedom to choose the best applications you need to run your business and the ability to tie these applications together into one simple network. And the network must be manageable, controllable, and cost effective.

• The leading directory service that provides centralized and unified management of your entire heterogeneous network - delivering an average 69 percent savings in management and administrative costs over servers that are not directory based.
• Open standards support, including pure IP, for fast, safe, and efficient integration between your business network and the Internet delivering up to 30 percent greater network bandwidth.
• The best platform for next generation, distributed network applications based on Java, Oracle8 and other advanced technologies delivering 2½ to 5 times faster Java execution than competing servers.
• Proven network reliability, scalability, performance, and security, backed by the largest support infrastructure in the world delivering up to 23 days a year more server uptime for your users and up to 1/9 the hardware costs as compared to running your network with application servers.

In all, NetWare 5 offers the highest Total Value Network, delivering the most business benefits at the lowest cost of ownership. It is truly open and standards-based, so it provides the best network foundation for the future. NetWare 5 enhances network and desktop management, consolidates protocols and operating systems, runs next-generation distributed applications, and delivers reliable networking services on your existing network infrastructure.

SUPERIOR MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL THROUGH NOVELL DIRECTORY SERVICES™

NetWare is tightly integrated with Novell Directory Services (NDS™) the leading and most advanced directory-based management service for your entire network. NDS pulls together multiple application servers (including NT Server), protocols, applications, and desktops to create a common management fabric across heterogeneous networks.

NetWare 5 expands on those management capabilities by offering you a broad set of new management tools to help take full advantage of the power of NDS.

• Domain Name Service (DNS)/Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) integration with NDS ensures easy management of your IP world.
• Catalog services enable the creation of a catalog of information stored in NDS to give users contextless login capabilities and to increase performance by speeding access to frequently used data held in NDS.
• WAN Traffic Manager acts as an intelligent supervisor of data going out onto WAN links providing you control of moving NDS data over wide area networks.
• NDS for NT (sold separately) enables you to manage applications, users, and security for NT Application Servers and Microsoft BackOffice, all through NDS.
• The Z.E.N.works application launcher lets administrators distribute, update, and manage client applications from anywhere on the network.
• The Z.E.N.works workstation manager reduces staffing, training, hardware, and software costs by eliminating the need for NT domains in NT Workstation environments.
• Z.E.N.works remote control (sold separately) allows administrators and support personnel to control workstations remotely, eliminating expensive travel time to touch client workstations for installation, troubleshooting, or repair.
• The NetWare 5 Java GUI install feature permits companies to use scripted installs to automate the installation of solutions across the organization.
• ConsoleOne, the next generation of NWAdmin, provides a single GUI management infrastructure for both ManageWise and NetWare-based administration. Because ConsoleOne is implemented in Java, administrators can use it to manage servers from any computer on the network.

With NDS and these powerful new management tools, NetWare 5 can significantly increase user productivity and save you an average of 69 percent on your network management and administration cost over application servers that are not directory based. 

THE FLEXIBILITY OF OPEN INTERNET STANDARDS

NetWare 5 combines the stability and infrastructure of your business network with the open standards of the Internet. It enables you to implement TCP/IP, the standard protocol of the Internet, without additional routing overhead. The NetWare 5 multiprotocol router supports Frame Relay, x.25, and ISDN, enabling you to implement a standards-based, wide area network (WAN) connection between your local area network (LAN) and your internet service provider, and between the segments of your corporate intranet.

With NetWare 5, you can access the Internet and integrate Internet technologies into your network without jeopardizing control, security, or performance. It delivers tools and services that offer pure IP connectivity and management, and wide area network support. It also includes the industry-standard Netscape browser and the Netscape FastTrack Server for NetWare, a high performing web server based on open standards and integrated with NDS.

Best of all, through NDS, you can manage your entire network, including Internet services and technologies, from a central location.

EASY MIGRATION TO PURE IP
If you choose to migrate to a pure TCP/IP environment, NetWare 5 provides the tools and services that allow you to make the transition smoothly. It gives you full control over the degree and rate of migration to IP, so you can migrate to IP at the pace that is best for your organization.

Compatibility Mode enables you to run IPX™-dependent applications in an IP-only environment. So you can move to TCP/IP while preserving your investment in IPX applications. The Compatibility Mode includes the Migration Agent, which seamlessly links IP and IPX network segments. This agent makes all routes and services from a pure IP segment of the network available to the IPX side of the network, and vice versa. As a result, you can migrate to a pure IP network in logical sections. Compatibility Mode also gives you the freedom to choose and maintain the protocol that is best for each segment of the network.

In all, NetWare 5 provides the safest path for fast and efficient integration between your current network infrastructure and the Internet while giving you up to 30 percent more network bandwidth.

THE BEST PLATFORM FOR DEVELOPING & DEPLOYING NEXT GENERATION DISTRIBUTED NETWORK APPLICATIONS

NetWare 5 offers the most robust and scalable support available for the applications you need to run your business whether they are Novell applications, third-party applications, or popular databases and whether they are written in Java, scripting languages, or C/C++. Because it supports open standards and open protocols, NetWare 5 gives you the freedom to implement server-based applications that integrate best-of-breed solutions at all levels of the network. You choose the components that are the most cost effective for your needs.

NetWare 5 combines a scalable kernel with the best Java development and deployment environment and the world’s leading database to provide the best network server platform on which to run Oracle8 database applications, NLM applications, and Java solutions. NetWare 5 includes a 5-user version of Oracle8 in the box and offers high-performance file I/O, a proven directory, best-of-breed security, and rich network services. NetWare 5 also includes memory protection, multiprocessing, and other advanced features that enhance the reliability and performance of running applications. In fact, Java-based applications run 2-1/2 to 5 times faster on NetWare than on competing operating systems. In addition, NetWare provides simple application management and deployment, so you can reduce network management costs.

The Novell Open Solutions Architecture™, which embraces open developer tools and standard programming interfaces, simplifies the development and deployment of manageable, network-aware applications. It allows developers to build server-based solutions for the network using C/C++ kernel interfaces, Java interfaces, and scripting interfaces that fully expose the rich network services of NetWare 5. These interfaces meet the diverse needs of a wide range of developers from in-house developers writing web-based solutions to independent software vendors (ISVs) building next generation Internet products. With Open Solutions Architecture, developers can develop and deploy world-class, cross-platform enterprise applications rapidly and efficiently.

UNMATCHED RELIABILITY, SCALABILITY, PERFORMANCE, AND SECURITY

NetWare 5 has been developed with the benefit of Novell’s more than 15 years experience with networking technology. Today, NetWare is used on more than 4 million servers and 81 million workstations worldwide. Built on the proven NetWare foundation, NetWare 5 is the most reliable, highest performing, most scalable, and most secure network on the market. When you run your network with NetWare, as opposed to application servers, your users will have the advantage of up to 23 days a year more server uptime, and you will enjoy significantly lower server hardware costs.

When it comes to networks, NetWare is far superior to application servers that have been adapted from the desktop operating environment. The NetWare file, print, management, directory, security, and web services are all optimized for industrial strength networking and application support.

PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY
NetWare 5 raises the bar on network and application performance and reliability by offering a host of new features, including:

• Novell Storage Services (NSS), Novell’s next-generation storage access system, which provides the largest storage capacity in the world and faster volume remounts and error recovery (three-terabyte volume remounts in five seconds) of any file system.
• Novell Distributed Print Services, Novell’s next generation intelligent print services, which simplifies printing for network users, administrators, and IS managers and increases performance and reliability of network printing.
• Advanced memory protection technology to minimize disruption to network operation if an application fails.
• Virtual memory to provide better use of physical memory and better reliability.
• Kernel preemption to ensure fast responsiveness to mission critical applications.
• A new multiprocessing kernel for high performance and scalability.
• The BorderManager FastCache (sold separately) to speed web page access.
• The ability to run distributed applications, enabling applications and data to be placed nearer to users for faster performance over limited bandwidth WAN links.

With NetWare 5, your users will get up to 10 times faster Internet performance, and access to the network services they need quickly without interruptions due to server downtime. This high reliability and fast performance translate directly into higher user productivity.

SCALABILITY
NetWare has always been recognized for its scalability. NetWare 5 continues in that tradition, supporting far more users per server-up to nine times more-than other network or application servers. Qualcomm, Inc., for example, has more than 4,000 concurrent users running on a single NetWare server, and Blue Cross of Western PA has more than 2,700 users running on a single NetWare Intel-based server. The new NetWare 5 storage service (NSS) raises the bar on file scalability allowing for billions of volumes and directories, up to 8 terabyte file size, and 64-bit addressing, while maintaining a very small memory footprint.

SECURITY
NetWare 5 also continues in the NetWare tradition of strong security and authentication. NetWare security is vastly superior to that of any other network or application server at all levels of the network-at the desktop, across the wire, and at the servers, including web servers. Plus, by controlling server access rights through NDS, Novell makes it possible to maintain a consistent, universally applied security policy across the entire network.

NETWARE 5, THE BEST SOLUTION FOR YOUR NETWORKING NEEDS

NetWare 5 is the only network that lets you meet today's networking challenge while leveraging the investment in your network infrastructure-including hardware, software, training, and support. It provides the only networking environment that allows you to manage your entire, heterogeneous network from a centralized point of control. Its open, standards-based architecture positions you to take advantage of exciting new and best-of-breed technologies, those available now as well as those on the horizon. With its superior performance, proven reliability, unmatched security, open and standards-based architecture, and rich array of network services, NetWare 5 is the best platform for developing and running network applications. And it is highly scalable, so it can grow as your needs grow.

Best of all, NetWare 5 delivers the most benefits to your users while giving more than 60% percent lower cost of ownership. In all, NetWare 5 is the number one network for Internet-enabled businesses-delivering the highest Total Value Network.

Copyright 1998