NetWare and Linux operating system seller Novell has been trying to expand into other markets since the late 1980s, and it has reorganized so many times it is hard to keep track. Today, the company did it again, saying that effective January 1, it would be consolidating from four different business units down to two.

With today's reorganization, Novell's Open Platform Solutions (OPS) unit - which is where its SUSE Linux and Open Enterprise Server NetWare-SLES hybrid lives - are being combined with the Identity and Security Management (ISM) unit and the Systems and Resource Management (SRM) unit to create the Security, Management, and Operating Platform (SMOP) business.

Jim Ebzery, who has been running the ISM unit as senior vide president and general manager, is now holding those same titles at the SMOP business unit. Markus Rex, the long-time top Linux techie at SUSE and then Novell and currently the acting general manager of the OPS unit, will continue to be general manager of the open products at Novell, but will report to Ebzery.

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