Novell Corporate Restructure

David Heath
Tuesday, 15 December 2009 03:10

IT Industry - Market

In a move to support the recently announced Intelligent Workload Management, Novell is to restructure its four main business units into two.

In an announcement overnight (Australian time) Novell has stated that "Effective January 1, 2010, Novell will consolidate operations from four business units down to two."  This is to better focus the company on the emerging Intelligent Workload Management (IWM) strategy. 

"The changes are designed to streamline the organization and provide a clear focus on markets that leverage Novell's strengths to capture future opportunities for growth."

The new Security, Management and Operating Platforms business unit, led by Jim Ebzery will be constructed from the current Identity and Security Management (ISM), Systems and Resource Management (SRM) and Open Platform Solutions (OPS) business units.

Senior vice president, Global Services, Colleen O'Keefe will add the Collaboration Solutions unit to her brief.

"This reorganization is designed to transform Novell into a more focused, integrated and agile global company that will quickly capture a leadership position in the Intelligent Workload Management market," said Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO, Novell. "Consolidating into two business units will accelerate the ability of our talented executive team to execute on our IWM strategy while continuing to drive new opportunities in the collaboration market. The new Global Alliances organization will help make sure we develop our growing network of strategic partners as we seek to gain leadership in the markets we serve."

As part of the restructure, current CTO Jeff Jaffe, will leave Novell effective February 1, 2010.  Roger Levy, who most recently has served as senior vice president of Strategic Development, will also be leaving Novell.

This is a major move by Novell – they have once again attempted to execute a rapid left-turn.  The last big left turn was the integration of Suse Linux into the core of the company, which probably met with, at best, mixed success. 

This looks like a much stronger play into the corporate world, addressing the interests of a variety of CxOs.  Interesting times ahead.