Novell Vibe Cloud Puts Out Some Good Vibrations with New SaaS Social Networking Service

Event Summary

April 5, 2011 -- Novell announced the general availability of Novell Vibe Cloud, a secure, real-time, Web-based social collaboration platform for the enterprise. Novell Vibe Cloud is offered as an online service and comes in two editions – basic, with all the functionality needed to demonstrate proof-of-value, and enterprise, which offers additional security features, management controls and premium support. Novell also announced the Novell Vibe Enterprise Social Getworking Program to help enterprises quickly deploy and gain value with the enterprise edition of Novell Vibe Cloud.

Quick Take

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on Novell's global release of Novell Vibe Cloud, because this move puts the company back in the race amid software-as-a-service (SaaS) hungry foes such as IBM, Microsoft, Google and Jive. Novell Vibe Cloud's unique, real-time feature set coupled with its attention to security, privacy and governance concerns, offset to a degree the service's high price tag and immaturity as a 1.0 product, giving Novell a solid boost forward for its entire collaboration portfolio.

• Vendor Importance: Very high to Novell, because the company needed to reaffirm its ability to deliver new, innovative products even while it awaits the finalization of its acquisition by Attachmate. The release of Novell Vibe Cloud also puts Novell into a unique position opposite larger rivals such as IBM and Microsoft, creating for Novell an opportunity to deliver messaging, social networking/collaboration and productivity tools via both cloud and premises.

• Market Impact: Moderate on the collaboration platform marketplace as a whole, because Novell is entering a race - a race to the cloud - that has already been run by both large and small rivals alike. This leaves Novell playing catch up within an already saturated market that has seen significant downward pricing pressure over the last 12 months. Still, with no interdependencies with Novell's other products, a browser-only client footprint and a focus on creating secure cross-company collaboration channels, Novell Vibe Cloud is well positioned to disrupt smaller players and those still struggling to tackle the cloud.

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