Novell to scrap Managewise tool

Novell plans to stop selling its system management tool, Managewise, and will instead encourage users to migrate to its new Zenworks for Server 2 product that incorporates Managewise features.

Rick Cox, Novell's Zenworks for Servers product manager, said Managewise will continue to be sold as a standalone tool for some time, but this will eventually "dwindle down" as customers move to Zenworks. No specific timescales were given.

Available now, Zenworks for Servers 2 replaces version 1, which was launched just seven months ago. The latest version includes support for software and data distribution to Microsoft NT and Windows 2000 servers across the internet, extranets and internal networks.

Customers would still need to buy Novell Netware for the distribution server, but native NT support is expected in the next major release, said Cox. He declined to comment on when that would be available.

Building native support for non-Netware platforms is part of Novell's 'one net strategy' to port its products to environments including Linux, Tru64 Unix, Solaris and NT.

The Managewise functions embedded in Zenworks for Servers 2 include the ability to monitor network resources, analyse network traffic, and keep track of network inventory and uptime.

According to the latest figures from researcher IDC, a typical 100-user site using Managewise could see a 49 per cent improvement in server maintenance and configuration resources, and a 36 per cent improvement to its desktop maintenance and configuration.