Novell sells more than 11 million licenses of NetWare 5 during its first year

Novell has announced an extremely successful first year for NetWare 5, one of the best-selling and most award-winning products in the company`s history with more than $300 million (about R1.8-billion) in sales and more than 11 million users during its first year on the market.

The introduction of NetWare 5 last year has helped Novell maintain its leading share of the server operating system market in 1999 with 80 million users. When surveyed, 80 percent of this installed base have indicated their intentions to migrate to the standards-based, pure Internet Protocol that underlies NetWare 5.

According to Novell managing director Richard Beytagh, Novell has established the foundation for directory-enabled networks and applications with Novell Directory Services (NDS). "Customers have fueled Novell`s business growth and expansion as they have migrated toward directory-based networks with NetWare 5 and beyond with NDS for Windows NT, Sun Solaris, Linux and other directory-based solutions from Novell."

"We`re extremely pleased with the success of NetWare 5 and the reception it has received from customers. NetWare 5 sales exceeded even our own internal projections. The market has clearly seen the benefits of using directory-enabled NetWare 5 to manage and control their networks, integrate diverse platforms and resources, and deploy new applications and e-business activities that capture the full benefits of heterogeneous networks and the Internet," he adds.

The $10-billion (R60-billion) ecosystem of customers, developers, resellers, distributors and certified professionals that depend on Novell and its directory-enabled network software have clearly benefited from NetWare 5. Novell has also unveiled a new Web site that showcases several customers that have moved to NetWare 5 and the benefits they`ve seen. Many of these customers have upgraded to NetWare 5 from NetWare 3 and 4, Windows NT, OS/2 and other network operating systems. See why customers are moving to NetWare 5 by visiting http://www.novell.com/showcase/netware5.html.