On the future of GroupWise

I've written quite a bit about Novell GroupWise recently and in the past, wondering whether Novell is focusing sufficient resources on the platform. I had a very good conversation with several Novell marketing people last week about my views and came away with three observations.

First, I think many of my comments were either misunderstood or I stated them poorly. GroupWise is a very solid messaging platform that has a low cost of ownership and is quite easy to manage -- my comments probably did not convey that message appropriately. My past observations -- based on comments I've received from a large number of independent sources -- have focused more on Novell's marketing efforts around GroupWise, not on the platform itself.

Second, Novell really does seem quite committed to the GroupWise platform. In addition to Novell's stated commitment to GroupWise through at least 2015, I also got the impression that the emotional commitment to the platform is also present. While GroupWise arguably does not contribute a huge proportion of Novell's revenues, it still provides enough revenue and profit to make it worthwhile to continue developing the platform for many years to come.

Third, even with market share in the 7% range, GroupWise could continue to survive quite nicely. The Mac, for example, has survived for many years with market share below 5% and continues to have a strong base of users and developers. Our research still shows that many shops are leaving GroupWise for Exchange, but GroupWise continues to maintain enough market share to make it a viable platform.