Novell Lines Up XML-Based NetMail Server, Hawthorne GroupWise In 2002

Novell

The four-year-old standard-based Novell Internet Messaging Server, known as NIMS, will be renamed Novell NetMail and pushed heavily through the channel as a key messaging solution for the small-business market, said Richard Bliss, manager of Novell's Collaboration Product Marketing.

Next month, Novell plans an upgrade of that server, Novell NetMail 3.1, that adds support for Windows to complement its existing NetWare, Solaris and Linux support. Novell plans to build in XML support and add a SOAP layer to enable the messaging server for Web services, but the time frame for that is not yet clear, Bliss added.

The Provo, Utah, company also plans two major upgrades of GroupWise over the next two years that fulfill the company's XML-based and Internet standards vision. The first upgrade, code-named Hawthorne and due to ship in December, will add basic contact management features and possibly XML support.

Novell is hoping to integrate basic XML support and SOAP functionality into that release, but the timeline is unclear.

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The follow-on version of GroupWise, due in 2002 and code-named Sequoia, will be a completely rewritten and modularized platform that allows customers to pick and choose the collaboration services they want. Novell executives said that release will also support XML, SOAP and all Internet and Web service standards.

Bliss acknowledged that the company has planned an XML Web service based on GroupWise but declined to specify when that would be available to channel partners, developers and customers.

Novell's collaboration executives said the next-generation NetMail, NetMessenger and GroupWise releases--and XML-based collaboration Web services of the future--will stir up plenty of business for solution providers and service providers in the meantime. "Channel partners will host these services themselves," said Bliss. "They want to deliver a hosted Web service that they can manage for customers themselves."

Novell's instant messaging solution will also be renamed Novell netMessaging, he added.