SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 is the highly reliable, scalable and secure server operating system that powers your physical and virtual workloads. It features the fastest Linux update stack and diskless server capabilities. It provides Green IT innovations and performance optimizations to run as a virtual guest on VMware, Xen and Hyper-V. In every way it sets the standard for enterprise-class server computing.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 delivers dozens of essential applications and seamless interoperability with your existing systems. What’s more, it gives users an easy-to-use and highly secure desktop experience. With application and multimedia enhancements, Green IT innovations and maximum interoperability with Microsoft Office and Exchange, it will help you reduce costs and increase productivity.

Two additional extensions for SLES 11 were also announced:

SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension provides proven, enterprise-class high availability clustering and data replication, at a much lower price than proprietary solutions.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension enables you to run .NET server applications on Linux, with the performance, scalability and hardware support of the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, including support for .NET applications on IBM System z.

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Users should benefit from Novell’s collaboration with Microsoft to run Windows virtualized on SUSE Linux Enterprise and vice versa. Systems should deploy faster through improvements to the YaST manager and configuration framework, including the YaST partitioner and AutoYaST.

Users wanting to test SLES 11 before the official release end of March can download alpha version from Novell’s sneak preview website.

With more than 1 million customers and an expanding presence in Europe, the insurance company needed to upgrade its core Web-serving platform to ensure it could handle a rapidly increasing number of customers. Quinn-direct Insurance chose Novell’s SLES over competitive Linux distributions due to the solution’s resilience, security and performance.

The company also cites a lower support burden for its IT personnel as a key driver for the deployment. All of the company’s internet-based activity is supported by one operating system now – freeing up highly skilled employees to work on other projects.

The company undertook intensive testing to find the right platform to support its web-based business looking in particular at integration with IBM WebSphere and the ability to handle very heavy loads. Securelinx provided hands-on Linux expertise and support to the project which took three-months from start to finish.

Commenting on the deployment, CJ Johnston, IT Server & Desktop Manager, Quinn-direct Insurance said:

“We’ve already started to see a healthy return on investment from our standardisation on Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server…The website is considerably more responsive for end users and we now typically handle four times as many quotes as before. Automated XML requests from partner websites are completed and returned within seconds.”

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is one of the leading Linux server distributions on the market today. Novell’s Linux server solutions give businesses greater flexibility, are scalable, inexpensive and easy to maintain.