Novell CTO Outlines Strategy For Adaptive IT Infrastructure

Jeff Jaffe, Novell's CTO and EVP of business units, outlined the company's technical vision at this week's BrainShare 2008 conference in Salt Lake City, codenamed The Fossa Project. Jaffe explained that a fossa is an agile, cat-like animal native to Madagascar with no known predators. Fossa, he mentioned, also serves well as an acronym for "Free and Open Source Software with Agility."

The Fossa strategy, with its focus on agile IT infrastructure, is the result of three months of meetings of Novell's top management, Jaffe said. IT managers and CIOs have been crying out for a nimble, adaptable infrastructure that can be modified according to the speed in which technology changes and integration becomes more necessary. "At the core, our technical vision is the concept of agility," he said. "If you talk to any CIO today, IT infrastructure is anything but agile, but that is the Holy Grail."

Jaffe positioned Novell as the company in the best position to reverse the concept of rigidity, and dismissed the notion that agile infrastructure is an oxymoron. "Enterprise computing will change, and Novell will be at the center of it," he said. "The CIO wants infinite flexibility. That is Novell's vision for the future."

He said there is finally a match between the needs of agile infrastructure and what is available in the storehouse, like high capacity computing, policy engines, orchestration (sophisticated algorithms) and the convergence of telecom and IT. "There has been an explosion of collaboration paradigms, evidenced by voice, email, vmail, Twitters, blogs, and the popular sites and products that bring them together," he said.

Novell's vision, and Fossa's aim, is one of interoperability and usability. "The agile company is continually able to reorganize its digital resources," he said. "Fossa facilitates collaboration and enhances the ability of businesses to handle mergers and acquisitions."

Jaffe was clear in stating Novell needs the help of the open source community and its partners in order to make the Fossa vision a reality, but he was less than understated when underscoring the importance of Novell's vision. "Novell has a unique roll given our experience in open source, partnerships, and interoperability," he said. "We will transform the IT landscape with the Fossa project."