Capgemini and Novell Enter Broad Mixed-Source Partnership

Capgemini and Novell today announced a broad partnership that will deliver new solutions to enterprise customers using a combination of open source and proprietary software. Under terms of the agreement, Capgemini will enhance its open source consulting practice with Novell capabilities, specifically centered on the deployment of IT solutions using SUSE® Linux Enterprise from Novell® along with mixed-source applications and management tools. As a result, customers can deploy a Linux* platform across their entire desktop-to-data center infrastructures with the confidence that comes from working with a global consulting leader.

"We are pleased to enter into this partnership with Novell," said Paul Hermelin, Capgemini CEO. "Every day we hear from more customers that open source is becoming a critical part of their IT strategy as they seek choice and value. Capgemini prides itself on its ability to help customers identify and deploy mission-critical technologies that will help them improve their IT infrastructure effectiveness, and this partnership with Novell is critical to fulfilling these needs. Novell, through its SUSE Linux Enterprise platform and ZENworks management suite, is a key vendor offering a complete solution."

With this partnership, Capgemini's customers gain fully supported mixed-source solutions built on open source and proprietary software that Capgemini will help build, deploy and maintain. The Capgemini Open Source practice will help customers define enterprise open source governance and select the right open source packages and solutions to deploy on top of a flexible, fully supported Novell platform that delivers optimized performance. World-class enterprise solutions for servers and desktops will be delivered, along with data center virtualization and management capabilities. In addition, Novell open source solutions will be supported via Capgemini's open source Support Service Center (OSSPartner) offering. Novell plans to provide Level 3 support to Capgemini.

"Among the global leaders in systems integration, Capgemini continues to lead and innovate in the consulting industry," said Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell. "With today's announcement, Capgemini makes a strong commitment to build the best solution for their customers with a flexible combination of open source and proprietary software. We're thrilled to be working with Capgemini to deliver true mixed-source solutions to help customers lower cost, reduce complexity and mitigate risk on their desktops and in their data centers."

Three Areas of Focus

Capgemini and Novell will work together to build solutions in three areas:

• Integrated development tools and application stacks. Novell will provide SUSE Linux Enterprise plus proprietary systems management solutions and development tools to enable Capgemini to design, develop, deploy and maintain business applications based on mixed-source solutions integrated with Capgemini's middleware and Web application frameworks. As a result, customers will benefit from more rapid and cost-efficient application development, deployment and maintenance.
• End-user solution deployments based on the Linux desktop. To help customers identify key opportunities for Linux desktops and then implement those migrations, Capgemini will enhance its consulting practice with capabilities based on the deployment of Novell's award-winning SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, which includes an office productivity suite, integrated search engine and complete Microsoft* Windows* interoperability.
• Data center virtualization and management. Capgemini will offer customers solutions based on Novell ZENworks® Orchestrator to help customers optimize their virtualized data centers using ITIL-based tools that automate the deployment, use and management of both physical and virtual IT resources based on business policies.