NetWare® 6.5 vs. Win2003

Organizations that are on track to keep current with new IT technology and hold the line on current and future costs will find it enlightening to evaluate Win2003 feasibility in five general areas: business continuity, open source support, Web services, virtual office capabilities, and total cost of ownership. This paper examines each of these areas and the NetWare advantages over Win2003 in each category.

At a high level, Win2003 and NetWare 6.5 fundamentally differ in the approach to creation of network computing solutions. NetWare provides the foundation and framework for a holistic solution to the problems of managing network resources and users—Novell® solutions build on strengths of openness, standards support and a strong foundation of scalability and reliability. Win2003 continues as a patchwork of point solutions that, at the GUI level, paint a picture of feature-rich completeness but underneath are a loosely linked collection of aged workstation technologies with new interfaces, names, and patched on server components. Windows is still focused on end-user, GUI-based applications—office applications, games, personal productivity—while network services are an add-on.

Novell advanced directory technology combined with historically superior file and print methods and now comprehensive open source capabilities and Web services technologies, provide a foundation for revolutionary new capabilities that are not matched by Microsoft, even in the latest version. In addition, the strong performance design of NetWare continues to produce superior results in the areas of scalability and reliability.

NetWare 6.5 provides a comprehensive set of business continuity services that eclipse those available in Win2003 and provide a necessary layer of protection during planned maintenance, reorganization and expansion as well as during unforeseen emergencies and disasters. NetWare 6.5 maintains advantages in the following areas.

Although open source AMP technologies run on Windows, Microsoft does not support them. The Windows solution to Web-based applications is IIS, SQL Server and a VB development environment. A major disadvantage is that solutions developed using these technologies only work in a Windows environment. A database is not included with Win2003 and additional expense is incurred to obtain one.

Novell provides technical support for open source technologies included with NetWare 6.5 which gives organizations a higher level of confidence when deploying mission-critical applications. Novell's MySQL offering includes a commercial license which gives developers the ability to create proprietary MySQL applications without open source license requirements. The commercially licensed version of MySQL means there are no user limitations and no open source requirements to make the application's source code open and available. This gives developers freedom to create powerful commercial applications with the MySQL database for no additional license cost.

J2EE features that are not found in .NET include state management and persistence services. State management in J2EE simplifies coding and results in more rapid development. Entity bean characteristics (persistence) make it easier to create and maintain components that are reusable, require less logic and are database independent. Other J2EE advantages include programmatic transactions and custom tags.

Novell's exteNd technologies included with NetWare 6.5 provide several additional features that simplify development and decrease time to market. The exteNd Workbench™ provides enhanced J2EE component and Web-service creation wizards, visual designers, archive-based projects and one button deployment to J2EE application servers. exteNd Workbench is a J2EE-oriented IDE that providers can use to create, deploy, and maintain Web Services based on the JAX-RPC standard (Java API for XML-Remote Procedure Call). JAX-RPC enables Java technology developers to create SOAP-based interoperable and portable web services and deploy them on any J2EE-compatible server. Workbench can also be used to develop Java-based Web service consumers that comply with JAX-RPC.

Microsoft does not provide virtual office services with Win2003. To some extent, the concept of virtual office services runs contrary to Microsoft's product strategy where every client is Windows-based whether it be Windows XP, CE or some variation. The client is a major source of revenue whereas in a virtual office environment, the client is any browser that supports open standards.

NetWare 6.5 includes a full-featured virtual office environment that provides users with access and collaboration tools using a standard Web server. With NetWare virtual office features, users can access files, collaborate with colleagues in virtual teams, print, e-mail, locate resources and services, and self-manage their virtual office environments. Win2003's only offerings in this fast growing category are limited Internet printing and file sharing. Portal capabilities for virtual office and self-support are not available in Win2003.

The cost advantages of NetWare compared to Windows are summarized as follows:

Architecture—Win2003 is Windows NT/2000 with modifications and follows the historical Microsoft tradition of superficially updating features and interfaces while leaving the same fundamental desktop operating system architecture in place. The Windows architecture is a patchwork of solutions that are tied to the operating system. This leads to difficulties in managing users, storage, access and in creating secure and fault tolerant solutions. "Still, the new OS uses the same core NT architecture, and the same object-centric model for controlling access to files, printers and other network resources through access control lists (ACLs)." (source: April 2003, Unwrapping Win2003, Information Security)

In contrast, the architecture in NetWare is based on a high-performance, efficient protocol engine and a holistic architecture that allows a myriad of services (such as J2EE, AMP, eDirectory, XML, Web-based standards services, etc.) to operate independently, yet be integrated for comprehensive security and management. The architecture in NetWare provides better security and higher performance which leads to long-term reliability and high scalability.

Security—The much touted security enhancements of Win2003 are mainly fixes to sloppy coding inherited from earlier versions. According to Information Security, Win2003 "security holes were mainly fixed by cleaning up sloppy coding of 3.51 and turning off services that by default were turned on. It has many more services disabled by default, including the most dangerous—World Wide Web Publishing Service, which makes the system into a Web server and exposes it to frequently discovered HTTP-related exploits. Win2003 has more security controls activated, but still leaves password policy, lockout policy and auditing either disabled or relaxed. Most of the new features don't do much to prevent the exploits that have plagued the Windows OS family over the years."

The architecture in NetWare again provides excellent security—NetWare specific viruses of the same class as Windows viruses are nonexistent. In 2002, Novell released only 4 security alerts while Microsoft released 64 during the same period.

Maturity—Announcement of a new feature doesn't necessarily indicate that the feature is functional or ready for prime time. The following list of new features announced with Win2003 have long been available and are proven under intense loads in earlier versions of NetWare.

• Journaling file system—Available since NetWare 5
• SAN Boot—Available since NetWare 5
• Partitioning and Abstraction—Available since NetWare 3
• Flexible Volume Mounting (comes only with Win2003 Datacenter and Enterprise versions)—Available since NetWare 5

Desktop Philosophy—A major portion of Microsoft's business is the desktop and a significant strategy element is controlling the client. Server and service backends are created and designed to take advantage of and entrench the Microsoft client whether it is Windows in any of its variations or Internet Explorer. This leads to applications and development environments that are more closed and optimally work only with a Microsoft client.

Novell solutions have traditionally been client agnostic. Good support for Macintosh and other client formats such as NFS and CIFS plus an open application service environment enables users to access resources no matter what client they are using. With the NetWare 6.5 release, there is generally no need for any type of specialized client beyond a standard Web browser. Backend applications and Web services support Web access; mail, file and printer access is via the Web; and all management of the network and network resources can be done using a browser.

The strategy of free and open access simplifies the development process, provides greater freedom and mobility for users, and overall reduces the cost of service implementation and maintenance. The benefits are greater self-service and integration among stakeholders whether they are employees, customers, partners, suppliers or administrators.

In addition, NetWare 6.5 includes reliable and scalable file and storage capabilities. NetWare storage on the whole is more accommodating, more flexible and easy to manage. Windows requires more effort, reconfiguration and change. Administration and management of vast storage quantities is easily accomplished through eDirectory and iManager. NetWare 6.5 continues in the tradition of earlier versions to provide centralized and secure management of heterogeneous resources. Disparate systems, including Windows domains and Active Directory, are commonly managed and information is shared using industry standard XML and Novell's DirXML Starter Pack.

Services included with NetWare provide safe and solid business continuity solutions that provide high availability during routine maintenance or unforeseen disasters. Nterprise Branch Office and Novell iFolder provide automatic synchronization and replication services while iPrint enables distributed and remote printing.

For any organization, NetWare 6.5 is a clear choice for getting state-of-the-art technology and services with a minimum of integration effort and expense. Win2003, masked by expensive marketing, is a makeover of earlier versions with a new Web server and some security fixes. Companies that compare the two products for practical application, use and administration will find NetWare 6.5 delivers a superior solution.