Specifically, the Avnet Partner Solutions unit of the company, which is based in San Antonio and which pushes IBM server, storage, and software products, has inked a deal with Novell to offer Novell’s complete Linux server stack on IBM’s eServer family of servers.
The deal includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 as well as the forthcoming Open Enterprise Server, which offers both Linux and NetWare functionality in a single platform. By partnering with Novell, Avnet’s downstream partners will now have access to Novell’s PartnerNet programs for a full year at no cost, which includes presales and technical resources to help partners figure out Linux and the solutions they can sell based on it.
Avnet is also offering its own training and demand-generation campaigns, and is, like many players in the market, interested in pushing Linux on IBM’s eServers as an alternative to Unix on RISC iron from Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.
