An interesting case came up recently that I wanted to share with you. A customer that we have been working with for years received the order to migrate away from a Novell infrastructure to Microsoft. Here’s a rundown on the situation:
- Industry: manufacturing
- # of users: 140
- # of sites: 4
- Financial situation: like a lot of manufacturing companies, has had a tough time through the economic crisis; they changed ownership a little over a year ago; they are based in Canada, with a lot of exports to the US, so the exchange has not helped in the past 2 years since the CAD got stronger against the USD.
Current infrastructure
- Novell Open Enterprise Server, a mix of 1 & 2, running on Linux
- GroupWise 7.x
- ZENworks 7.x
So they reached out to a Microsoft Partner and received this quote:
| Qty | Description | Price | Extension |
| 1 | Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise – License | $3,150.00 | $3,150.00 |
| 3 | Windows 2008 STD R2 Server License | $970.00 | $2,910.00 |
| 130 | Windows 2008 STD R2 Server – User Cals | $45.00 | $5,850.00 |
| 1 | MS Exchange 2010 Server Standard | $945.00 | $945.00 |
| 130 | MS Exchange 2010 Server – User Cals | $91.00 | $11,830.00 |
| 130 | Microsoft Office 200 Standard – Client | $500.00 | $65,000.00 |
| 1 | Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3-1 | $775.00 | $775.00 |
| 1 | Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Client ML | $56.00 | $56.00 |
| 1 | Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Std Server | $209.00 | $209.00 |
| 1 | Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Ent Server | $575.00 | $575.00 |
| TOTAL: | $91,300.00 |
It should be noted that this quote is for licenses only (CAD), there are no professional services included! This customer does not have the inside skills to handle this type of migration, so they will have to hire consultants to help them do the work.
When they called us up and told us about this quote, I was curious to see what it would look like if they stayed with Novell.
Here’s the scoop:
| Qty | Description | Price | Extension |
| 28 | Novell Open Workgroup Suite – Small Business Edition 2.5 5-User License + 1- Year Priority Maintenance | $595.00 | $16,660.00 |
Yep – that’s it! Just ONE line-item, at a fraction of the price!
So what does the customer get with Novell Open Workgroup Suite – Small Business Edition (NOWS SBE)? Let’s see:
- Supports up to 200 users
- Up to 5 physical servers
- Unlimited number of virtual servers
- Open Enterprise Server, which includes:
- eDirectory
- Directory Services for Windows, presents eDirectory as an Active Directory domain to allow applications and users to authenticate against an AD structure
- iPrint, a web-based print management system which allows users to install their own printers
- NetStorage, gives access to all the mapped drives you normally have when connected to the network through a web browser, securely, from anywhere
- iFolder, allows users to synchronize local folders to the server so their data is backed up (ever lose a laptop?); works from anywhere that you have Internet connection. Think DropBox for the enterprise, only secure.
- iManager, to manage your eDirectory, your services and your servers; again, web-based so it can be accessed from anywhere.
- GroupWise, still the most reliable and safest messaging platform around
- ZENworks, simply the best way to manage endpoints! Deploy and manage Windows XP/Vista/7/Server, applications, inventory, remote control & diagnostics, and full reporting.
- Novell Vibe, an incredible collaboration tool that empowers your users to work together using workspaces – blogs, wikis, files, tasks, calendars, etc. Web-based, secure, and even with a mobile interface!
- LibreOffice, the evolution of OpenOffice, is a complete productivity suite that is 90% compatible with Microsoft Office. Considering that most users only use 10-15% of the capabilities of MS-Office, this suite is sufficient for the large majority of users.
Additionally, the migration costs would be a fraction of migrating to Microsoft technologies, as it would simply be a question of migrating data to new servers. The underlying infrastructure would remain the same.
NOWS SBE would be a perfect fit for this customer, and given the numbers, I fail to see what a customer like this has to gain from moving to Microsoft – more money for less features is generally NOT what customers want! At this point, the customer is re-evaluating the decision to move to Microsoft.
Thoughts?
