Q&A for Dec 10 HP/Novell Announcement Final version - 12/9/91 General Questions ----------------- 1. Q: What is being announced today? A: The joint strategic relationship announced today has several components, the main one being plans to develop a version of NetWare to run on PA-RISC. The second component is an agreement in which HP will distribute Novell products through the direct and reseller channels. 5 additional joint projects being announced are: - HP NewWave elements applied to NetWare - NetWare for the HP9000 running on HP-UX (Portable NetWare) - Network Printing - Worldwide support - Electronic messaging and directory services 2. Q: Which company will sell/support what products as a result of this announcement? Will Novell resell any HP products? Will HP resell any Novell products? A: Today, we are announcing the formation of a relationship between our two companies. As an on-going part of the relationship, both companies will investigate which of each others products are complementary to each other's product lines. Today's announcement includes HP's intention to offer, thru its dealer channel and direct sales forces, selected Novell products including NetWare and other related products. Any Novell products sold by HP will also be supported by HP through our worldwide customer support organization. Details on products, pricing and availability will be announced early next year. 3. Q: What are the financial implications of this announcement? Is any money changing hands between HP and Novell? A: It is our policy not to comment on financial questions. DEC & IBM --------- Q. What is the difference between the HP/Novell announcement today and the IBM/Novell announcement this last February? A. HP can not speak for IBM or Novell, however we see four key areas that this announcement differs from IBM. First, HP has a long history working with Novell, so it should be noted that this is not an announcement of the start of a relationship but the culmination of several years of working together and many projects already completed. These include; network printing, mass storage, Vectra certification, EtherTwist product family compatibility, marketing programs, service and support unequaled and NetWare support on our HP 3000 and HP 9000 business systems and servers. These are just a few examples of our past relationship with Novell. Another key differentiator is PA-RISC. Novell will port NetWare to run nativly on the HP PA-RISC chip. This will be the first native, non-Intel version of NetWare. All of the recent NetWare announcements, including the IBM announcement, has been for the Portable NetWare product which runs as an application on top of another operating system like Unix or MPE. Regarding Portable NetWare, HP supports Portable NetWare across all its platforms. IBM has only announced Portable NetWare on the RS6000, and that will not be available until Spring 1992. IBM has not announced an AS/400 solution. However, this announcement is not just a history lesson but also a framework for future work as well. We are highlighting the plans we have for integrating Novell's leadership in Network Operating Systems and HP's leadership in enterprise wide solutions. The focus of these discussions are on projects such as network management, ease of use thru NewWave and NetLS, and integration of electronic messaging and directories thru MHS, X.400 and X.500. Both history and future direction discussions are also highlighted by product announcements of NetWare distribution, NetWare for the HP9000 and expanding the service and support of Novell products currently available. Q. What is the difference between the HP/Novell announcement today and the recent DEC/Microsoft announcement? A. Again it must be noted that HP cannot speak for DEC or Microsoft however, after reviewing what has appeared in the press, it looks like the bulk of the announcement revolves around DEC's support for Windows based client software. This support would be focused on DEC's Pathworks and proprietary networking products. NetWare questions ----------------- 4. Q: What is "Portable NetWare" and "Native NetWare"? A: The term "NetWare" usually refers to Novell's product that runs directly on the Intel 30x86 processors without using another operating system like DOS. In addition, Novell has created "Portable" NetWare which can be ported to run on top of other operating systems like UNIX or MPE/XL. This provides the basic network services of NetWare without giving up the other system functions and applications which rely on UNIX or MPE/XL. NetWare on PA-RISC will operate the same as NetWare on the x86 platform in that no other operating system will be required like HP-UX or MPE/XL. The main benefits are expected to be increased performance and increased number of users per server. 5. Q: Does this announcement mean that HP-UX and MPE/XL will no longer be necessary? No - There are a wealth of mission critical applications, development tools, utilities, etc. which have been built on top of these operating systems since their inception. While some of these capabilities may be ported to run directly on NetWare over time, a majority will continue to utilize the traditional operating environments. 6. Q: Will NetWare on PA-RISC be available on all HP PA-RISC platforms? Will the price or licensing options be any different between these platforms? A: All PA-RISC systems share a common instruction set. The differences between the platforms has to do with the backplane, I/O structure, and features such as integrated video in a workstation, or auto power-fail restart in multi-user systems. While the decision is not final we will probably focus on a single platform family for the first release. Since NetWare on PA-RISC is targeted at installations supporting hundreds of users, platform features that support this environment need to be carefully considered. As for pricing, just like any vendor, pricing for different platforms will be based on the performance for the platform. 7. Q: Does HP currently sell "Portable" NetWare? A: Yes, in 1991 HP started selling NetWare for the HP 3000. From the initial announcement of the Portable NetWare program HP has been a partner with Novell. Of course today we are also announcing HP's offering of NetWare for the HP 9000. NetWare for the HP9000 is available today from a third party, Innovus Inc. This product is sold by Innovus but supported by HP. 8 Q. What effect does this announcement have on the HP/Innovus installed base? A: There is no impact to the installed base of Innovus customers. HP currently supports NetWare from Innovus through normal HP support channels. HP will continue to support the Innovus installed base after the release of NetWare for the HP 9000 from HP. Software updates will come directly from HP. Once HP releases NetWare for the HP 9000, Innovus will discontinue direct marketing and selling of their NetWare products. Prior to the release of HP's NetWare for the HP 9000 product, customers will be encouraged to purchase the product directly from Innovus. 9. Q: Will NetWare on PA-RISC alleviate the need for "Portable" NetWare on PA-RISC platforms? When would we recommend "Portable" NetWare over NetWare on PA-RISC? A: No, NetWare for the HP 3000 or HP 9000 provides valuable APIs for the development of Client/Server applications such as PeopleSoft or FourthShift and as a basic for database servers as in our ALLBASE PC API product. NetWare is also used to provide network printer support for our systems and network backup. Running "Portable" NetWare allows a system to continue to support the mission critical applications which have been built on HP-UX or MPE/XL in addition to providing the NetWare features. The choice of NetWare for the HP 3000/9000, PC based NetWare or NetWare for PA-RISC is dependent on user needs. If a customer needs a high-performance file server, NetWare for PA-RISC or a PC based version of NetWare is the most appropriate. However, if the customer wants to integrate applications running on their host with various clients NetWare for the HP 3000/9000 is the most appropriate. Remember these are very complimentary products and will probably be used together in most customer installations. 10. Q: When would a customer choose NetWare for PA-RISC over PC based NetWare? A: NetWare on PA-RISC will provide a higher end growth path for an environment which would like to maximize the number of users per server without sacrificing performance. The Scalability of PA-RISC provides a much broader range of performance and the high end PA-RISC models offer may times the performance of today's PC platforms. 11. Q: What are the performance advantages of NetWare on PA-RISC over "Portable" NetWare? A: Depends on what your are looking for. If you want the fastest file and print server, NetWare on PA-RISC or PC platforms are your best choice because of higher performance. If you want integration of host applications or for use in client/server or database server environments NetWare is not as much the issue as the operating system supporting the applications. In this case you need an operating system that can provide the data integrity and performance you would expect in a commercial OLTP environment. 12. Q: What will be the product structure of the NetWare on PA-RISC product? What will it cost? When will it be available? Will the NetWare API be sold separately? A: Pricing, availability, and bundling are questions that we cannot answer today. Our plans are for the low-end of the PA-RISC product to overlap with the high-end of the x86 product and continue up from there. Of course pricing will need to match the features and performance of the hardware and the NetWare product will need to be priced according to the number of users supported. 13. Q: Will NetWare on PA-RISC also support the Mac, TCP/IP, and NFS NLMs? A: As part of the development of the project we will be creating the environment (New compilers, linkers, etc...) to create NLMs. Since we are still early in our investigations it is hard to make commitments that all the NLMs available today for Intel platforms will be available for PA-RISC. However, remember this is an enterprise wide solution so some features such as Macintosh support, TCP/IP and the like will need to be addressed somehow. 14. Q: Will there be additional features available with NetWare on PA-RISC that are not part of the current NetWare product? A: Other than some obvious changes like support for more than 250 clients and some of the features of our multi-user platforms we have not made the final choices on what features will be in the product. However, as you can image when you are working on a program as exciting as this you have to be careful not to get carried away with features. We need to be careful to provide at least the features available in today's native product. 15. Q: Will this announcement result in increased communication capability between the HP and IBM systems because of IBMs relationship with Novell? A: HP and IBM will be selling the same NetWare product component and therefore will have full interoperability at this level. HP plans to maintain this interoperability while adding value in the areas of wide area networking, network management and peripherals and client-server business critical applications as well as enhancing client environments with NewWave features. 16. Q: Will there be additional interoperability between HP systems and Novell as a result of this announcement? A: See Answer # 15. Distribution questions ---------------------- 17. Q: Why has HP chosen to distribute an already well distributed NOS? A: The main reason HP has chosen to distribute NetWare is to provide better integration between the NOS and other associated LAN products. We feel that this provides the opportunity to strengthen the design of NetWare complementary products and emphasize interoperability between HP and Novell. 18. Q: How does HP's agreement to resell NetWare differ from the agreement with IBM? Will HP be adding any value? A: Novells product component will be the same whether purchased from IBM, Novell, or HP. HP expects to add substantial value to NetWare by improving the ease of use and installation, extending and improving administration and management tasks, and optimizing overall system performance. IBM's agreement with Novell appears to include a wider range of products, including communication products and NetWare upgrades. HP's agreement only covers NetWare and related products but may expand depending on customer needs and demands. 19. Q: Through what channels will HP market the Novell products? A: Novell products will be available through HP's Authorized Dealer Channel, with focus on those dealers that sell and support HP's Vectra PC product line for network solutions. These dealers have expressed a commitment to networking and network products, and have the expertise and resources to meet the high expectations for service and support of networking solutions that customers have come to expect from HP and its dealer network. The "portable" NetWare products for the HP 3000 and HP 9000 system will be marketed through the direct sales channels as an add-on to an existing system or as a component in an HP solution sale. 20. Q: Will HP's decision to market NetWare through the direct channel create any channel conflict? A: Many of our major accounts prefer to have "one-stop-shopping" whenever possible. HP is offering these customers the ability to make a single, volume purchase of NetWare as part of a total solution from HP. We believe that this will complement the products/services offered by our resellers and allow customers to chose the alternative which best fits their needs. 21. Q: Will this agreement take business away from existing NetWare distributors? A: Our feeling is that this will have minimal effect on existing resellers as as HP will only take orders from selected large customers. 22. Q: Does HP have any plans to distribute DR-DOS in the future? A: There are no plans to distribute DR-DOS at this time. 23. Q: Will HP be providing support for NetWare on the x86 platform? A: HP currently supports NetWare networks as part of it's worldwide multivendor network support program. As a result of this agreement, HP will directly support Novell products as they become available from HP. LAN Manager/NetWare questions ----------------------------- 24. Q: Does this announcement signal a shift in HP's strategic direction for PC networking (away from Microsoft)? A: HP is continuing to make investments in providing LAN Manager based solutions. With this announcement, HP now supports the top PC LAN network operating systems in the marketplace across HP's mini computer and workstation platforms. 25. Q: What is HP's relationship with Microsoft? A: HP did the initial implementation of LAN Manager on a UNIX platform. This version and a follow-on upgrade release were delivered to Microsoft for licensing to the rest of the industry. HP has an OEM relationship with Microsoft which means that HP licenses the core LAN Manager technology from Microsoft and completes the port to the HP-UX Platform. This allows HP to minimize it's investment in core LAN Manager technology and maximize investment in adding value to this core technology. From a support standpoint, HP currently offers support programs for both LAN Manager and LAN Manager/X networks. 26. Q: HP recently announced that it will not continue to sell a NOS for the INTEL platform - why are we reversing this decision? A: HP's announcement to discontinue to sell a NOS for the Intel platform was specific to the single copy/low volume sales in which resellers are much better equipped to sell. This announcement differs in that HP will be selling the PC NOS in a pre-configured form on HP Vectra systems to selected large end users under a volume commitment. 27. Q: Could this announcement result in HP reconsidering it's decision not to sell LAN Manager? A: No - see question #26. 28. Q: Will HP continue to offer LAN Manager on the HP-UX platform? A: Yes, HP is committed to providing LAN Manager-based solutions to its customers. HP currently has a large LAN Manager/X installed base, and is fully committed to providing these and future customers with LanManager on HP's minicomputer and workstation platforms. HP offering NetWare provides customers a choice. 29. Q: Will there be an upgrade program from LAN Manager to NetWare? A: We want to stress that HP is not asking customers to upgrade or switch from one NOS to another. Customers have and will continue to choose the NOS which best fits their needs. HP offers solutions supporting the leading NOS's including Lan Manager and NetWare. HP is well known for protecting the customers investment in technology and we are currently evaluating customer demand in this area. 30. Q: Does HP also plan to make native Microsoft NT 3.0 available on the PA-RISC platform? A: NetWare for PA-RISC is a network Operating System which runs on the network servers. NT is a client operating system which could be compatible with NetWare servers. I have not heard any announcement with regard to that capability as yet. 31. Q: HP's relationships with Microsoft and 3COM are not generally regarded as highly successful. Why is HP trying the same thing with Novell? A: HP's relationships with Microsoft and 3COM were business opportunities that HP viewed as important to pursue. The main objective in both relationships was to provide superior PC integration solutions to our customers. That objective was met in both cases and our customers were migrated to evolving products as the market changed. Novell has an industry leading technology which, together with HP's strength in systems, will provide superior solutions to both of our customers. 32. Q: Is HP planning any announcements with or support of Banyan? A: HP has no announcement to make relative to Banyan at this time. 33. Q: Will any third parties (like Pacer Software) play any part in the HP/Novell relationship? A: Third party applications and services and the ability to interoperate with them are very important to HP. Novell has a strong record of support by third party application developers and HP intends to continue that trend. Support questions ----------------- 34. Q: Does this announcement have any impact on HP's support of Novell Products? A: HP has supported and will continue to support NetWare based networks. HP network support is available for all major PC platforms and for NetWare, LAN Manager and 3Com network operating systems. Additional HP support services will be available as HP begins to distribute Novell products. Support for NetWare XL for the HP 3000 is not effected by today's announcement. 35. Q: How will customers benefit from the changes to HP's support relationship with Novell? A: As part of today's agreement, HP and Novell have agreed to continue to work together to integrate and coordinate support for mutual customers. Specifics include expanded training and backup support for each support organization. The company-to-company communication links and the processes used to work with mutual customers will be enhanced and be more closely integrated. 36. Q: How will this announcement effect the Technical Support Alliance between HP and Novell? A: The Technical Support Alliance is very effective and of great value to both HP and Novell and our customers. HP and Novell are committed to expanding the effectiveness and breadth of the existing Technical Support Alliance and will work together to integrate this program with all of HP's NetWare support offerings. Other questions --------------- 37. Q: Does Novell have any plans to license or endorse other HP technologies like HP NewWave or HP OpenView? A: There are no specific plans to license these technologies to Novell at the present time. However, we are jointly evaluating ways to better address local and wide area network management requirements through coexistence and interoperability between NetWare, OpenView and NewWave. 38. Q: What impact will this announcement have on the network management direction of the two companies? A: The intent of this announcement is to create a closer coupling between HP OpenView and the NetWare system management capabilities resulting in an extremely powerful platform for managing multivendor NetWare based enterprise networks. We think that this announcement will take network administration and management to a plateau not yet seen in the industry - creating in effect a "system management" console for the enterprise network. 39. Q: How does this announcement differ from others that Novell has made or is rumored to be making with other computer vendors? A: First of all, we have no comment on Novell's future plans. This announcement is significantly different from anything else Novell has done to date for two main reasons. First this is truly a joint announcement (notice the letterhead on the press release) - a rarity according to Novell. Second, the announcement is the first statement that NetWare will be available in native mode on a RISC platform. 40. Q: What do you mean by "NewWave elements applied to NetWare"? A: Elements of HP NewWave manager and Network Licensing System (NetLS) will be applied to NetWare to provide increased functionality to Novell networking solutions. These elements will reside in NewWave. At this time, there are no plans for Novell to license NewWave. 41. Q: When could we expect to see additional network printing products? Will they be sold by HP or Novell and what functionality will these products provide? A: Our objective has always been to provide our users the power of high value output devices, with the ease of use of their personal printer. We currently have top notch products that provide high performance and ease of use for Laserjet printers in the NetWare environment. We will continue to work closely with Novell and offer products designed around the evolving needs of our customers. Specifics on products will be available at a future date. 42. Q: Does Novell or HP plan to license any of the other vendors X.400, X.500, or messaging products? A: The focus of our working together on messaging solutions is interoperability and integration of each vendors solution. Licensing is one of the many alternatives in implementation which will be investigated. Questions and answers supplied by Novell ---------------------------------------- 1 Q: How will this announcement benefit customers? A: Both HP and Novell have a large existing installed base of customers, a sizable number of which use a mix of both vendors' products. This announcement commits both companies to grow the interoperability between the two vendor's suite of products for the benefit of current and future customers. Additionally, both companies bring emerging technologies to the table and as such will seek to use these technologies to grow the distributed computing marketplace. 2 Q: Which technologies are you referring to? A: HP is a prominent player in the UNIX and RISC marketplaces, Novell is a prominent player in the Networking marketplace. Novell's NetWare for UNIX on HP platforms is already a powerful story, and both parties will seek to improve that solution environment. In terms of RISC, HP and Novell will work together to develop a standard based solution incorporating native file and print services into the RISC environment. The announcement date for the delivery of such a product will be made this summer. 3 Q: Will this be a Novell/HP only RISC solution? A: No. HP as a leader in this technology is taking a leadership role in providing a technology that will benefit a wide range of customers. While HP will be among the first to offer Native NetWare on the RISC chip, this technology will be licensable to other vendors in the future. 4 Q: What other areas will HP and Novell be focusing on in terms of developing technologies? A: HP with it's excellence in hardware engineering and manufacturing will be working with Novell to deliver better performing, NetWare across it's entire product platform. This will include file servers (both Intel and RISC based), mass storage devices, printers, hubs, bridges, routers, cd-rom, interface adapters, tape back-up units and the like. HP and Novell will be seeking to first better interoperate, and subsequently to improve the areas of Network Management, messaging, and directory services. 5. Q: How does this announcement affect HP's participation in OSF? A: No effect what so ever. This announcement is designed to benefit customers here and now. Additionally, it is designed to grow the networking marketplace in the future, the direction of which will also be customer driven. The participation by either company in existing standards and/or relationships is either not effected or enhanced at worst case. 6. Q: Novell currently ships "red-box" through the in-direct channel, IBM ships "blue-box" through the in-direct channel, and now we have NetWare from HP through essentially the same channel. Are they all the same product, and if so, what is the strategy here? A: First, each product is exactly the same. What will be different from one version or the next will be determined by what types of value added utilities are included with each particular version. The customer can be assured of complete interoperability. Customers have demanded a tighter relationship with both vendors as well as the dealer channel. They have also demanded an expanded capability on the part of the dealers. These agreements allow HP and IBM to grow their respective dealers (often the same dealers) according to their own programs and according to their own strategy. It is Novell's belief that both the dealer and the customer will benefit by the increase of focus from HP and IBM on offering a comprehensive networking strategy that incorporates NetWare on every platform and then grows the channel to deliver those solutions. 7. Q: What impact will the recent announcement with Sequent have on the HP/Novell relationship? A: Novell does not foresee that there will be any impact on the Sequent relationship. While we can not speak for our partners, the HP/Novell announcement is viewed as complementary to all of our other partners. 8. Q: Are there any plans to make NetWare available directly on the Sequent platform other than the announced licensing on NetWare for UNIX? A: The announced relationship between Sequent and Novell involves the licensing of NetWare for UNIX. Speculation outside of the announcement regarding other products or future directions would be inappropriate. 9. Q: What is the status of NetWare/1000? What effect does the HP/Novell announcement have on this product program? A: A 1000 user version of NetWare 3.11 is not an announced product. Novell is currently testing an Intel based product in-house and at a limited number of customer sites. When and if Novell is satisfied that it is ready for broader distribution, a product announcement may be made with all of the product details. Consequently, the HP/Novell announcement does not effect the product program for the 1000 user version of NetWare on an Intel based platform. However, when and if a 1000 user version of NetWare is announced, HP will be given the opportunity to evaluate the product. Regarding a 1000 user version of NetWare for UNIX, Sequent announced 1000 connections to their Sequent Server using Novell's IPX/SPX transport protocols. This connection allows 1000 PCs to connect to relational databases running on the Sequent computer using IPX protocols. It is currently not possible to have 1000 concurrent NetWare users utilizing the NetWare file, print, or utility features on a Sequent or any other NetWare for UNIX partner's platform. Similar value-add opportunities are available to all of the NetWare for UNIX partners.