Novell UK Boosts Consulting Power, Eyes Leaner Linux

Novell has announced that it has acquired Salmon, a British IT services company, in a deal that will link Salmon with Cambridge Technology Partners, another Novell acquisition.

The company also revealed some efforts that it will be making through its earlier acquisition of SuSE Linux. It noted that Novell is developing a slimmed-down version of the product that will make desktop deployments easier to support.

The two major moves could give Novell more clout in the UK, especially in the consulting arena. "This will allow us to build more consulting expertise around Linux," Novell UK country manager Steve Brown told LinuxInsider. "Obviously, with the acquisition of SuSE earlier this year, we want to build on that," he said.

Faster and Lighter

The desire to produce a trimmer SuSE Linux version stems from the belief that the OS is in danger of becoming too top heavy, Brown said. The latest version, SuSE Linux 9.1 Professional, comes with 3,000 packages and seven Web browsers.

Novell is working toward creating a version that has a smaller footprint and supports only one browser. The company noted that this would make it easier to standardize Linux deployments within a single enterprise.

Also a focus for the version is simplifying set up, in order to reduce the amount of set-up questions coming in to Novell support lines.

Pairing Up

The use of Salmon will help Novell keep up with consulting demand surrounding Linux, in general, and SuSE, specifically.

Brown noted that Novell will first work on integration at the client level and then move on to broadening what the Salmon and Novell team can offer.

"Eventually, we'll be able to expand Salmon's use," he said. "We'll also have more leadership and advancements in our sales cycles."

Given the amount of attention that Linux-focused companies are putting on services, Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio said she is not surprised at Novell's moves. She told LinuxInsider that companies have realized that the money to be made in Linux is not from the initial buy-in, but from what happens past that point.

"Revenue is going to come from service, support and deployment," she said. "That's why there's so much happening with services."

Swimming Upstream

Initial reaction from Salmon clients has been very positive, Simon Ball, the company's commercial director, said. He told LinuxInsider that his phone has been "ringing off the hook" with clients asking about additional services that might stem from the partnership.

"I think this gives us an opportunity to accelerate what we've already been doing, and put it on a bigger platform," he said. "We think we'll be pushing the boundaries of e-commerce."

One major initiative for the two companies is to deliver significant identity management capabilities, as well as leveraging Linux more fully.

Ball said: "Clients have asked us in the past about identity management and how they can integrate Linux into their environments. We have the answers to those questions now."

Wait and See

She noted that Novell's acquisition of Cambridge Technology Partners has not "set the world on fire."

"Any of these high-tech mergers and acquisitions are always suspect," DiDio said. "The list of failures is longer than the list of successes."

Also potentially problematic for Novell is its focus on slimming down SuSE Linux at a time when it is trying to establish more services in the UK. "Even companies like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have a hard time when they try to pursue many different strategies at the same time," DiDio said.

Yet another area to watch will be how Novell manages to build out its services while not sparking ire from IBM and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ). Recently, Novell has been chummy with the two companies, but that could change if they start competing more heavily for the same customers.

"It could get dicey," DiDio said, adding: "All these companies cooperate, but at some points they're in competition. Now they're throwing Salmon into the mix, to try and challenge these very established players. That raises a lot of questions, but we'll just have to see how it plays out."