Novell's Early Access Release Program
Articles and Tips: tip
01 Feb 1997
In response to customer requests, Novell has rolled out an Early Access Release program to better communicate our technical direction and provide a first look at Novell's cutting-edge technologies. This program demonstrates our commitment to providing new technologies and updates in a timely fashion, and to including users, system managers, developers, and channel partners in our software development process.
Up-to-date information about the Early Access Release program can be found on the Web at http://develop.netpub.com/ear/. From here, you can find regularly updated information and press releases about the software products that Novell is working on. You can also order your free copy of the most recent Early Access Release CDS. Best of all, you can make suggestions about what you'd like the products to do for you. Naturally, Novell welcomes your feedback at any point in the development process, but now you can provide valuable feedback before products are released.
CD Set Now Available
As of this writing, the most recent Early Access Release is the December 96 version available as a set of three CDs. The first CD provides an update of earlier technologies, the second CD covers the IntranetWare/4.11 operating system, and the third CD contains Access Services components. Early Access Release showcases ten exciting new breakthrough technologies that are under development at Novell. These include the following (with the current phase of development indicated in parentheses):
Border Services (Pre-Alpha). Border Services introduce three sets of services: security services to tighten security through enhanced access control; proxy cache to accelerate browser speed by up to 10 times the present browsing capabilities; and virtual private network to provide a secure, economical, encrypted, private connection over the Internet.
Remote Access Services (Alpha). Remote Access Services provide remote dial-in and dial-out services for access to your corporate intranet, including the ability to provide telecommuting access via ISDN.
Internet Access Services (Alpha). These services provide customers with the ability to move to a full service intranet platform that allows seamless, secure, high-speed IP connections to the Internet without customers having to install a TCP/IP protocol stack on each client.
Novell ATM LAN Emulation (Alpha). This project offers users much higher network speeds than Ethernet, even using currently installed wiring and application software.
Advanced Routing Services (Alpha). These services provide support for scaling IPX networks with route aggregation. This includes address translation gateways for IPX and IP, which allow networks to be easily combined and secured.
Z File Services (Pre-Alpha). The Z File Services provide a high performance, scalable, portable, fast-restart storage system within which file and web services are provided. The classic NetWare file system is also fully supported.
Novell SDK for the JAVA Platform (Pre-Alpha). This SDK brings Java to IntranetWare through the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which can run any Java application, including those that use graphical interfaces.
Novell Distributed Print Services (Alpha). Novell's next generation of print services allows easier access to and simpler management of network printers.
IP (Pre-Alpha). The IP project pro-vides NCP running directly on TCP and UDP, WinSock 2 for NetWare supporting TCP, UDP, IPX and SPX, and Service Location Protocol. This project also includes the integration of DHCP and DNS into NDS. It is part of Novell's Open Communications Architecture.
Novell Replication Services (Beta). This provides an effective way of distributing and managing shared information across a network of geographically separated IntranetWare and NetWare 4 servers. The multi-user licenses that come with these programs are time-bombed to expire on 4/15/97.
By then the projects will have moved to their next phase of development and newer versions will be available for you to look at.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
Disclaimer
The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.