By Marc Potter Let's just make this little announcement to make it official. Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Novell solutions are cross platform, and even run on Microsoft networks!! Don't be embarrassed if you didn't know. Lots of people don't know that most Novell solutions are cross platform. In fact Novell has solutions that run on all major platforms including; Novell, Microsoft, Linux, Unix, and Apple. Most are even best in class, most notably, Novell Identity Manager, Novell Zenworks Suite, and Novell GroupWise. These Novell solutions go far beyond the previous file and print services, and give real heavy duty returns on investment and productivity. These alternatives allow your company to again be the proverbial "dog that wags the tail", and not the other way around. You may recall that in a past life, Novell dominated the networking world. Basically networks and Novell were synonymous. Later, Microsoft became the perceived de facto standard completely dominating the landscape much the same way Novell did previously. More recently, CIO's have mistakenly positioned the two companies in the OR category, as in Microsoft OR Novell. We would like to change that to the AND category, meaning you can run Microsoft AND Novell for the benefits of both. According to several third party publications, Novell has won many awards for their multi-platform software solutions. Most recently, Info world Magazine recognized Identity manager as best overall Identity Management solution among giants like Microsoft, IBM, Sun and others (1). E-Week gave top honors to Novell Open Enterprise Server, and Linux Enterprise 9 (2). Var Business Magazine awarded Novell Zenworks with the top tech innovators award (3). Lets throw Linux into the mix. Once again if you didn't know Novell now owns SuSe Linux, don't be too embarrassed. Linux now has Novell to give support and credibility to Open Source. A Linux strategy makes sense in areas where you don't need to run Microsoft servers like web servers, etc. Linux desktop is really starting to make a splash in the Enterprise as a viable option, and there are Linux desktop configurations that will run Microsoft applications such as Internet Explorer, and MS Office. In fact, Open Office is a viable alternative to MS Office Pro that comes bundled with Novell Linux Desktop, and is compatible with MS Office file extensions. Let's face it, Microsoft, and other platforms will continue to dominate certain solution sets, but Novell with its new directive of open solutions has started to shake things up and give real industry leading alternatives that run on Microsoft backbones. Online Sources: (1) www.infoworld.com (2) www.eweek.com (3) www.varbusiness.com About Marvin Huffaker Consulting Marvin Huffaker Consulting is located in Phoenix, Arizona and specializes in Professional Novell Solutions and Support. We focus on NetWare, GroupWise, ZENworks, and Identity Management technologies. We can plan, design, implement, and support these solutions for you. Our contact information can be found here.