Microsoft and Novell Experience Increased Demand From Customers Seeking to Maximize IT Investments Through Greater Interoperability.

As organizations of all shapes and sizes are making every possible effort to deliver greater value to their business and customers, IT managers are being required to increase the efficiency of their operational infrastructure, systems and processes. As a result, a greater number of companies are signing on for the interoperability and IP peace of mind solutions offered by Novell Inc. and Microsoft Corp. through their business, legal and technical collaboration agreement.

In just the past six months, the two companies have signed more than 100 new customers, which is double the rate in the first two years of their relationship. In total, since their November 2006 collaboration agreement, the two companies have sold more than $200 million in certificates for Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server support and maintenance to more than 300 customers. The latest customers to sign on include companies in a broad range of industries and geographies, such as Boise Inc., Idaho Power Company, Honeywell Aerospace, La Poste, Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G), SC Johnson, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sky TV and St. Jude Medical Center.

Microsoft and Novell have made a number of investments to help customers derive the greatest possible value from their IT investments, including Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Subscription with Expanded Support. This package provides technical support for customers’ existing Linux deployments — including Red Hat Enterprise Linux —while the organization transitions to Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, gaining significant cost savings and enabling the benefits of interoperability. There has been strong initial customer interest in the program since it launched in November 2008, and more than ten percent of new customers in the past six months have signed on for this support package.

The Interoperability Lab has already tackled projects spanning a wide range of customer-focused interoperability concerns, and continues to make progress through programs encompassing virtualization, systems management, server workload validation and rich media support. One such example is the development of Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, which, when it is released later this month, will extend the monitoring capabilities within Microsoft System Center Operations Manager R2 across seven SUSE Linux Enterprise services and enable customers to monitor both their Linux and Windows system environments through one console.

More details about these technical programs and solution demonstrations can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Jun09/06-11NovellMsftInterop.mspx.
Additional information about the Microsoft and Novell agreement, customer migrations, and the work being performed within their joint Interoperability Lab can also be found at http://www.moreinterop.com