Dean Lythgoe, Director Engineering GroupWise at Novell, posted some information about the availability of the new Datasynchronizer within his Novell blog.....

As many of you know, we have been working for some time on Novell Data Synchronizer, our upcoming mobility and data synchronization solution. We recognize the critical nature of this technology—and the eagerness with which many of you are anticipating it.
To that end, we'd like to announce that we are planning a product launch in the fall, with a public beta beginning in July.

 

In the meantime, remember that you can take advantage of the Novell Data Synchronizer Mobility Pack open technology preview available here. The technology preview continues to be highly successful, satisfying many customer's expectations for product functionality and quality.
Please also note that the initial release of Novell Data Synchronizer will include not only the Novell Data Synchronizer Mobility Pack (which consists of the Novell Data Synchronizer engine, the GroupWise Connector and the Mobility Connector), but connectors for Microsoft SharePoint, SugarCRM and salesforce.com. These third-party connectors will demonstrate the central role Novell Data Synchronizer plays in linking data among workgroup products, mobile devices and enterprise applications.

 

We look forward to delivering a robust product that meets your data synchronization and mobility needs, provides a platform for custom development, and adds significant value to your GroupWise 8 investment. Watch for additional details in Cool Solutions as we approach the launch of this exciting new product.

 

Now my own engineering commentary.

 

We have several items on our final release criteria. The majority of these items we have already met. However, with the fact that this technology is new and that it will be used extensively throughout our customer environments, we believe that we need to provide for more 'bake' time with this solution to ensure quality and reliability.

 

The two main areas of additional attention have to do with using the product/technology in production environments for a period of time without major incident. Of course, Novell itself is one of those organizations. We have been using and continue to expand our internal roll out of Mobility. Initial sync times are still a concern, but overall feature set and reliability have steadily improved over the last few weeks.

 

We have also enlisted a few of our customers in helping us determine product readiness. These customers have agreed to roll out into production environments with production data, load and demands. They will be ramping up to a stress number of devices to help us measure performance and provide 'Best Practices'.

 

Another significant contributor to this schedule change has to do with GroupWise 8.0.2. We need this product to get released and rolled out into customer environments and for our customers to feel comfortable with the support pack. The GroupWise schedule for 8.0.2 is still on target. The end of this month continues to be our target, - give or take a day or two. Everything is marching according to plan with 8.0.2. As of this morning, we had 6 issues we were actively managing. GroupWise 8.0.2 has been in Public Beta for a few weeks now. Please see previous blog posts for details.

 

Releasing GroupWise 8.0.2 within a few weeks will allow a broader adoption and foundation for Mobility to follow suit with its Public Beta and final bake period.

 

The Technology Preview was updated today. Please download the update and check it out. I feel confident in the plan for the Mobility public beta and we will go from there.

 

Let me know what you think...