Novell to Expand Linux Management Solutions

Novell today announced it is working with Microsoft Corp. to develop advanced Linux* management solutions that will allow customers to simplify the management of mixed IT environments. Building on their existing technical collaboration agreement, Microsoft and Novell will work with industry standards and open source components to standardize management capabilities. The joint effort, which leverages Novell's market-leading expertise in open source Linux management, is designed to maximize the value of a customer's IT infrastructure investment.

“Customers today are looking for solutions that enable them to manage heterogeneous IT environments, and Microsoft is pleased to extend our System Center suite to offer management for Linux distributions, like SUSE Linux Enterprise,” said Brad Anderson, general manager of the Management and Services Division at Microsoft. “Microsoft is both using and intending to contribute enhancements to the OpenPegasus Project's Common Information Model Object Manager (CIMOM) and delivering to the open source community interoperable providers, which collect management data and make it accessible to management services.”

As part of the collaboration, Novell, with its expertise in Linux system management, will work with Microsoft to enhance the System Center Operations Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions, which Microsoft announced today at the Microsoft Management Summit 2008. This extension of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager utilizes industry standards such as WS-Management and open source software to deliver Linux and UNIX* management. Leveraging its collaboration with Microsoft, industry standards and open source software, Novell intends to develop an advanced Linux management pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007. In addition, Novell plans to utilize the open source interoperable providers to extend the Linux management capabilities of its Novell® ZENworks® systems management products. These management solutions will allow SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server to be the best-managed Linux distribution.

“Novell has previously outlined in its Systems and Resource Management blueprint that it intends to support in its ZENworks solutions the use of open source and open standards to simplify and standardize systems management.” said Joe Wagner, senior vice president and general manager for Novell Systems and Resource Management. “By working together to extend Linux management for System Center Operations Manager, Microsoft and Novell are building on this standards-based, open source foundation to provide superior management for mixed IT environments. The collaboration will give customers flexibility with a unique combination of heterogeneous IT management software.”

More information about the Microsoft and Novell collaboration can be found at www.moreinterop.com. For more information on systems and resource management from Novell, visit www.novell.com/zenworks.