Microsoft-Novell Solutions Pave the Way to Private Cloud Deployment

At the end of 2006, Microsoft and Novell announced a historic agreement designed to bridge Windows and Linux in terms of interoperability. Over three years and 500 customers later, the two companies are working together to bring customers into the Cloud, promising a range of benefits that come with the move away from on-premise deployments, including cost reductions, streamlined scalability, enhanced security, management and data center agility.

“The collaboration between Microsoft and Novell is facilitating enterprise ability to embrace cloud computing by delivering virtualization, federated identity, and standards based systems management. These solutions will help enterprises virtualize, automate and move their IT workloads to the cloud,” revealed Mona Chadha on MoreInterop, the recently launched Microsoft and Novell blog.

The three pillars mentioned above that facilitate migration into the Cloud are already supported through work that Microsoft and Novell have been doing since they penned their alliance in November 2006. The duo already offer support for customers looking to virtualize Windows and Linux in heterogeneous environments.

According to Chadha, companies that are leveraging virtualized Windows and Linux in their environments are one step closer to the Cloud. “Why Virtualize? Well the benefits are simple: drive costs down through server consolidation, energy and space reduction, and application compatibility; increase IT efficiency through rapid provisioning and high availability; thereby enabling business agility,” Chadha said.

As far as Identity Federation goes, Microsoft and Novell are providing customers with Novell Access Manager and Active Directory Federated Service. The solutions offer secure access to both non-Windows and Windows directories, and can be used to secure a corporate IT framework. In addition, the two companies also made sure that companies have systems management tools tailored to mixed source environments.

“At the end of the day, lack of standardization and consolidation of management tools prevent IT staff from focusing on getting business done. To allow enterprises to manage their Windows and Linux environments through one pane of glass, Novell built Linux management packs that are plug-ins to Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager R2 2007,” Chadha added.

On Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at 2:05 p.m., Microsoft and Novell will hold the “From Collaboration to Interoperability to the Private Cloud: Future Proofing Your Heterogeneous Data Center with Microsoft and Novell” session at the GOV 2.0 Expo.