Novell has added new platform-support and list-server functionality to the Novell Internet Messaging System (NIMS), which is tailored for service providers.
NIMS 2.5 includes support for Linux and Solaris platforms, both of which are well entrenched and popular in the service provider arena as well as NetWare.
Novell officials have stressed that service providers will be a vital market for the company's Net services products.
"It's becoming more and more a full-flavoured messaging solution, including all the things you would expect for that type of environment," Pedersen said. "With the [NIMS] 2.1 announcement we did in November, it brought NIMS on par and a little bit ahead of the other, traditional Internet messaging systems. With the features we've added in [NIMS 2.5], we're distancing ourselves from our competitors."Pedersen noted that NIMS 2.5 also contains a list server, which he said ASPs consider a "significant advantage" as an addition to their value-added services. Version 2.5 also supports server-side messaging rules that can be coordinated through Novell's eDirectory to streamline e-mail messages.
"The rules engine provides you all the capabilities you traditionally associate with a more corporate-type messaging environment where you can have automatic rules that sit on the server and forward your messages to your phone or send auto responses or file messages in folders," Pedersen explained.
NIMS' personalisation and scalability features - Pedersen said NIMS will be able to run 500,000 on a four-cluster NetWare server environment - have been showcased at Novell's MyRealBox.com messaging site, but the product will now be tailored for use in portals as well.
