Novell Tech Summit 2012 – Day 2

Ok, here we go – now we get down to the nitty-gritty! Here are my notes for today:

First up, Jason Blackett, ZENworks Product Manager with the ZCM roadmap.

Current version is 11.2.1. Maintenance Updates (MU’s) on a monthly basis, system updates every three months (11.2.1, 11.2.2, etc); 11.3 scheduled for late 2013.

Major themes for upcoming releases:

2013

• Windows 8 support (with 11.2.3 in Feb. 13); “basic” functionality, as in “what works in W7 should still work in W8”
• Updated reporting

2014

• Multi-zone management
• Audit / Security compliance
• User self-service
• Desktop virtualization

ZCM 11.3 (2014)

• Full Windows 8 support
• Audit and security compliance (track changes to bundles, policies; who’s doing remote control; track client activity)
• Multi-zone!
• Enhanced software discovery and inventory
• Improved role-based administration

ZENworks Mobile Management “Sundance”

• iOS 6 enhancements
• Support for LDAP groups and folders (assign policies to LDAP groups)
• Enhanced GW Mobility improvements (click on a user in ZMM, bring up Datasync page directly!)
• Improved reporting
• Usability, logging improvements (eg. view devices by user)

Next up, Dean Lythgoe, Product Manager for the Collaboration side of things. Dean basically went over the roadmap for GroupWise, Datasync & Vibe, which has already been published in a very unique way on Novell’s web site at http://www.novell.com/php5/groupwise.

Finally, Glen Davis, Product Manager for OES.

• Filr – technology preview by December, beta in early 2013, release in April 2013. (I know, everyone thought it would be released before the end of 2012, and everyone is really anxious for this, but this is a huge project and a lot of resources have been allocated to getting this out! I’m convinced it’ll be well worth the wait!)
• Mobile iPrint – early 2013
• iPrint appliance – April 2013

And that was just the morning!

In the afternoon, David Condrey went over Novell Storage Manager 3.1 and Novell File Reporter 2.0. These are not products that we’ve talked about very much with customers, but he certainly piqued my curiosity and we will definitely take a closer look at these pieces.

Lastly, Christina Chamberlain, a.k.a. “The ZAM Queen” (one of my favorite people at Novell!), gave us an excellent introduction to license management with ZENworks Asset Management. Every time I see this product, I can’t help but think, “Why doesn’t every organization have this to manage their licensing? It’s awesome!”