Novell Releases Small Business Suite 6.5

Small Business Suite 6.5, designed for small and midsize businesses, includes licenses for up to 100 users and is part of the Novell Nterprise product line. According to Chris Stone, Novell vice chairman, the package also will be part of the Novell Small Business Suite Starter Pack program, which allows qualified Novell resellers to deploy limited-license versions of the Novell Small Business Suite at no product cost to customers.

"Small-business owners need to be able to focus on running their businesses, not worry about their networks," Stone said. "For this, there's no other small-business networking solution on the market that can match [Small Business Suite 6.5]."

Small Business Suite 6.5 also includes "user licensing." Under that feature, customers pay for a license for each user who logs into the network, but they're not charged for printers, other servers or other devices that access the suite's software services.

The suite also incorporates simplified licensing and configuration wizards to make it easier for VARs to implement Novell networking solutions for customers. Robert Strasser, co-founder of ClearView Consulting, a Seattle-based Novell partner, cited those elements as among the best features of the new product.

"Our small-business customers have an extreme need for reliability and security, and the [Small Business Suite 6.5] gives them exactly that," Strasser said. "The value of the solution makes them happy, and overall it improves their business."

The product suite includes Novell NetWare 6.5, Novell GroupWise 6.5, Novell BorderManager 3.8, Novell ZENworks for Desktops 4, Novell Nterprise Branch Office 1.02 and open-source software such as Apache Web Server, Tomcat and MySQL.

Small Business Suite 6.5 will be available for partners to sell to customers starting Feb. 20. The retail list price is $475 for five new users and $252 for five upgrade users.