Novell, Virtual Iron And Virtualization On Linux

Novell and Virtual Iron Software announced today that Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 now supports Virtual Iron's data center virtualization and management platform.

Novell will be shipping a pre-configured kernel with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to allow use with Virtual Iron virtualization software. It will let users rapidly deploy and configure "enterprise-class computing workloads in their data centers," says Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer for Virtual Iron. "Companies are getting much more comfortable with running Linux in the data center as they move off of Solaris, HP-UX, or AIX, and they recognize they need the power of virtualization to help them manage increasing sever sprawl."

This move from Novell comes as Red Hat is focusing on integrating virtualization capabilities into their distributions. According to CTO Brian Stevens, Red Hat plans to integrate Xen into Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, expected to be released this year. Xen is free software, licensed under the GPL v2.

Novell was announced to support the Virtual Iron solution without affecting existing independent software vendor certifications on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.