Aside from the more easily copied firewall and VPN access point services, Novell designed the proxy services to retrieve web data with a server-to-server connection rather than a client-to-server connection as all of the prior proxy servers on the market had done.
This retrieval method along with NetWare's fast file IO and other proprietary code made BorderManager's proxy engine one of the fastest in existence.
First released in March 2005, OES completes the separation of the services traditionally associated with NetWare, i.e. file and print.
The desire to deliver a functional equivalent could not be done by a full software code port as much of the cache engine was sold as part of the Volera Excelerator and Novell holds a great desire to use or create open-source software for basic services such as this.
"[5] They also announced "extended BorderManager General Support for two years (through March 7, 2012)" to give customers "adequate time to make the move."