Novell Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have
announced that Dell Inc. has come on board their team as a systems
provider
to provide
customers with more
interoperability and
intellectual property (IP) assurance. The agreement states that
Dell will buy SUSE Linux Enterprise Server certificates from Microsoft
in order to migrate current Linux users to SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server. Rick Becker, vice president of solutions at Dell
Product Group said in a statement, "We''re focused on delivering
solutions that help simplify customers'' IT operations." "Our
customers have told us they want interoperability and expect technology
vendors to work better together. Dell is the first major systems
provider to align with Microsoft and Novell in this collaboration, and
we intend to lead in this space. This move is a huge success for the
industry and, more specifically, for customers who haven''t purchased
Linux through Dell and who want to migrate to SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server for the IP assurance and interoperability benefits." "The
Microsoft-Novell agreement was a result of our customers demanding more
of our industry in interoperability and IP protection," said Susan
Hauser, general manager of strategic partnerships and licensing at
Microsoft. "Customer response to our agreement with Novell has been
overwhelmingly positive. Dell has recognized this demand, and it is the
first mover in its space to provide these benefits to its customers." Last
year, Novell and Microsoft had agreed to several agreements to
collaborate, market and support new solutions to improve
interoperability and to offer new visualization capacities. Some
of the firms reaping benefits of the initiative are AIG Technologies
Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse, HSBC and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.