I think our relationship with business partners needs to be improved, said Richard Seibt, president of Novell EMEA and the former CEO of SuSE Linux, although he added that one of the advantages in being acquired by Novell has been an increase in Linux partnership activity. My expectation was that we would have a huge difference in ISV support, and that has happened, he said. Now they call us, and this is great because it’s all about applications.
The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company added a series of new partners to its roster at BrainShare, and expanded its agreement with IBM Corp to share Linux partners to cover the EMEA region. Under the new agreement, which already covers the Americas, ISV partners in IBM’s Leaders for Linux initiative can join Novell’s PartnerNet program, while Novell’s top-level partners can join the IBM initiative.
Meanwhile, Novell has also announced new Linux partnerships with Tarantella Inc, Software AG, Groupe Bull SA, Intershop Communications AG, and Scali AS. The deal with the server-based computing software specialist sees Novell’s SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 operating system being used as the basis for Tarantella’s new Secure Global Desktop Software Appliance.
Software AG has teamed up with Novell in an attempt to boost the adoption of Linux in the XML database software market, and is developing a software stack based on SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and its own Tamino XML Server and EntireX Mediator integration product.
Bull has agreed to offer SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 on its entire range of servers, including the Express5800 fault tolerant line, the Intel Corp Itanium 2-based NoveScale line and NovaScale Blade servers. The two companies have also entered into an engineering partnership to enhance Novell’s Linux, while Bull will supply level-1 and level-2 customer support for Bull users running SuSE Linux.
Novell has also teamed up with e-commerce software supplier Intershop to target Linux at European online retailers. Intershop is porting its Enfinity Suite 6 software to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 to take advantage of demand for a Linux version of e-commerce software.
On the high-performance cluster front, Novell has also strengthened its relationship with Scali and appointed the Linux clustering specialist to run the Novell High Performance Computing Center of Excellence at Scali’s facilities in Oslo, Noway.
The center will enable Novell Linux customers to test their applications with different high performance cluster hardware and software and will provide access to cluster planning and design services, proof of concept facilities, migration consulting, analysis and advice on porting and software maintenance.
