For many of us our work environments have suddenly changed from the office to home and our collaboration with colleagues, partners and customers from predominately in person to virtual. With those changes in mind I want to give you news of the top features and themes you can expect to see from the Enterprise Messaging Suite and GroupWise in 2020: a lot of them targeted to improve the new collaboration norm we all face.
One of the most significant changes that will benefit you and your employees as you continue to work remotely has already happened. Earlier this year we announced that TeamWorks is now a part of Filr Advanced. Previously TeamWorks was an individual product that was only available in the Enterprise Messaging suite. We quickly recognised the need for teams to work and collaborate remotely and TeamWorks is perfect for that. For more information check out the article above on TeamWorks and Filr Advanced.
In addition to adding TeamWorks to Filr Advanced, in the 18.3 release of Enterprise Messaging & GroupWise we plan to add Filr Advanced to the Enterprise Messaging Suite. Not only will Enterprise Messaging customers get to continue to take advantage of TeamWorks, but soon you will also get to take advantage of all the great features of Filr Advanced. Just like TeamWorks, Filr Advanced will be an entitlement to Enterprise Messaging customers with active maintenance. If you are ready to get started now with Filr Advanced and TeamWorks there is even more good news, you can currently download an extended trial of Filr Advanced with TeamWorks and the trial is good through to the end of September 2020. Please visit the Micro Focus business continuity offers page, scroll to the "Secure Remote Workers' Documents and Files" section and sign up. You will get access to Filr, TeamWorks and an extended license.
Now let’s talk about the rest of the plans for the next release of Enterprise Messaging & GroupWise and what you can expect from 18.3. I want to focus on four major themes for this release, in addition to the changes with Filr Advanced and TeamWorks.
GroupWise Web
I hope you are already using the new GroupWise Web client. It continues to be a major focus for the 18.3 and subsequent releases. There are two main features you will see coming in GroupWise Web in the 18.3 timeframe.
- Proxy Support: The first is proxy support. The goal here is to provide a feature compatible proxy to that of the existing WebAccess “Classic” version. This is the major feature that was missing from the initial release. This is currently planned for the 18.3 release, and it might possibly be available earlier. We hope to be able to provide this in a Tech Preview build in the late July time frame. Once we officially ship and support a version of GroupWise Web with proxy, we will discontinue development and support of the WebAccess “Classic” version.
- Advanced Authentication: The second major feature we plan to introduce to GroupWise Web is Advanced Authentication. This is planned for other components as well. We plan to integrate with NetIQ Advanced Authentication from Micro Focus and provide you with the light version that allows for 5 additional forms of Advanced Authentication.
It is planned to extend these authentication options to GroupWise Administration, and the GroupWise Windows client as well as GroupWise Web for the 18.3 release.
When we get closer to release, we will provide a public beta so you can try out this feature set prior to the actual release and give us feedback.
Consolidated Administration Experience
This has been a theme for the last couple of releases and continues to be in this release. We have been working to move the features from the stand-alone GroupWise Mailbox Management product into GroupWise Administration. Several features have already been moved into GroupWise Administration and with 18.3 we plan to complete that work. Once the features are available in GroupWise Administration, we will retire the stand-alone version of Mailbox Management. The main features still left to be integrated include:
-
Address Book Management
-
Category Management
GroupWise Mailbox Management will remain a separate product with a separate license. This means that even though the features are integrated into GroupWise administration you must either purchase a separate license or have Enterprise Messaging to use them.
Docker
GroupWise Web was the first component of GroupWise to release in Docker containers. The goal is to eventually have all the GroupWise back-end components containerised. In the 18.3 release the plan is to have the MTA, POA and DVA available in containers. This should greatly improve your ability to upgrade, patch and manage your GroupWise system.
I know the first question on your mind at this time is going to be, when will this be available? While it is still a little too early to give you an exact ship date, the target is the Fall of 2020. Just like last year's 18.2 release, think of this as late October / early November release.