Novell Readies Remote Office Network Services Software

Novell on Wednesday said it will soon start shipping Nterprise Branch Office 2, a software appliance that lets a company's central IT staff provide network services to remote office locations.

Nterprise Branch Office 2, which works on Linux-, Windows-, and NetWare-based networks, gives branch office users access to services such as file and print sharing, and automatically backs up data in remote offices to the organization's primary data center using the Internet to eliminate the need to deploy wide area networks (WANs) or virtual private networks (VPNs), said Novell.

Other new features in v. 2 include enhanced disaster recovery and password management, support for the Novell GroupWise post office agent for local e-mail, and a Novell ZENworks-supported configuration for distributing applications to remote office users.

The software appliance will be available Friday, January 9, through Novell's channel partners at a suggested price of $2,500 per server; each server can support up to 250 users.