Additional Customer Momentum Around the Microsoft-Novell Agreement

The Novell and Microsoft partnership on creating, marketing and supporting joint solutions to enhance product interoperability, expand the virtualization capabilities is experiencing additional customer momentum, according to Microsoft. The Redmond Company revealed via a press release that Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse and AIG Technologies are among the first institutions to access the benefits of the Microsoft and Novell agreement.

"Customers have been very clear that they want Windows and Linux to work better together in mixed-source environments," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. "We are pleased that customers such as Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and AIG Technologies have moved so quickly to act on the value of the interoperability commitments and intellectual property benefits of our collaboration with Novell."

"Deutsche Bank's, Credit Suisse's and AIG Technologies' decisions to deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise, following so closely on the heels of our announcement with Microsoft, are powerful, early proof points of the value of our joint collaboration, and we expect more success stories like this over the coming quarters," said Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell. "By solving a real customer problem, taking the complexity out of the customers' hands and addressing it ourselves, we create a compelling incentive for customers to deploy Linux. This shows that SUSE Linux Enterprise is, in fact, absolutely ready for the datacenter."

Via the agreement between Microsoft and Novell, the two companies will increase the interoperability level of their respective systems, while keeping the customer's platform choices opened.

"For us, interoperability is key," said Tom Sanzone, chief information officer at Credit Suisse. "We see both Windows and SUSE Linux as strategic platforms going forward, and we're very pleased to see Microsoft and Novell, who support these platforms, step up and work on interoperability. This is a great model because it provides a bridge to connect the open source and proprietary software to benefit customers. We commend the two companies for taking this step."

"It's critical that our technology offerings be forward-looking, integrated and positioned to support our mission of delivering high value at market price," said Mark Popolano, global chief information officer for AIG. "Microsoft and Novell's commitment to working together to deliver interoperability and IP assurance helps us achieve that mission. Our goal of engaging in this pilot program is to explore how we can become a more flexible organization."