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 IDC reporting that the Linux thin client market will grow substantially in the next few years, Securelinx believes that a Thin Client option will be considered more and more by organisations in Ireland looking to reduce costs, mitigate risk and provide fit for purpose computing platforms. As both a Novell SUSE solution Partner and Dell Professional Services Partner for Linux, Securelinx is ideally placed to create secure and customised thin-client images tailored to meet customer needs, roles, and responsibilities.

This new thin client solution provides centralized data and image control for tighter security, easier image management, and better reliability — all without compromising the end-user workspace experience. To request more information on this topic from Securelinx please email us at info@securelinx.com or click on the link below to read the full Novell press release.

Read full Novell announcement

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.

“This service pack for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 has something for almost everyone – customers, partners and developers,” said Holger Dyroff, vice president of outbound product management for SUSE Linux Enterprise at Novell. “The benefits of Linux in the enterprise are becoming well known, and Novell’s focus is on continuing to simplify the customer’s experience, always with an eye to reducing costs. Reliability, security and interoperability don’t need to break the bank. That’s the ongoing value Novell provides with SUSE Linux Enterprise.”

Read the full press release about SLES 10 SP2

EBS Building Society, based in Dublin, Ireland, offers a broad range of banking, mortgage, saving and investment products. EBS employs approximately 600 people in its head office and branch network serving over 400,000 members. It is the fifth largest retail credit institution in Ireland with total assets under management of over €16 billion.

Challenge

EBS is a highly successful mutual society, attracting new savers, investors and borrowers. Each time the organisation creates new financial products, it typically introduces new applications to support them, including Internet banking services and other online tools. As a result of this continual innovation, EBS found that both the number of physical servers and the diversity of operating systems were increasing, with a consequent rise in complexity and cost of operation. Core banking systems run on the IBM System z mainframe platform, while most newer applications run on UNIX* servers – and the branch offices used both Linux- and Windows-based front-end applications. EBS wanted to rationalise its physical infrastructure, reducing the number of standalone servers to cut its management and maintenance costs, and reducing the total number of processors to cut software licensing fees.

Solution

EBS selected SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as its new strategic platform, running on the IBM z/VM operating system on an IBM System z mainframe. EBS can quickly and easily create a new Linux* virtual server for each new application, enabling the organisation to deliver new services cost-effectively in a standardised environment.

EBS Building Society – Official Novell Case Study (PDF)

Read more about the SLES 10 SP1 and Virtual Machine Driver Pack release

In order to reduce its total cost of ownership for IT, while increasing flexibility, reliability and security, Ogilvy has embarked on a project to migrate email and file-and-print servers to Linux®. The strategic drivers behind the move include cost efficiencies as well as improved flexibility—the ability to support small office environments as well as larger regional hubs where new business requirements can be satisfied rapidly and intelligently with only a marginal impact on costs.

The migration to Linux began with a pilot project in Ireland, where Ogilvy worked with Securelinx (www.securelinx.com), an IBM “Leader for Linux” Business Partner. Formerly a division of a leading Irish systems integrator, Securelinx was launched as an independent company in August 2002, specialising in the deployment of secure Linux-based platforms for enterprise computing. Says Yuri Aguiar, Ogilvy’s CTO,

“We made a strategic decision to adopt Linux globally, and teamed up with Securelinx to start the rollout. This was, and continues to be, a major project – it’s not just about the technology, but also about building the right internal skill sets and changing the way we work within the organisation.”

Read the full case study (PDF)

The deployment will see Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Novell eDirectory running on HP hardware to support the roll out of Oracle 11i applications. According to Brinsley Sheridan, Group IT Manager:

“The deployment of Oracle 11i on Novell’s SuSE SLES 9 provides Bord na Mona with a consolidated server platform, reduced cost and a fully supported operating environment to implement mission critical applications. Collaboration between HP, Oracle and Novell working with local service delivery partner SecureLinx eliminated the risk for Bord Na Mona that the deployment of multi vendor systems can sometimes bring.”

Novell provided Bord Na Mona with a strong operating system value proposition which included Novell’s Open Enterprise Server to run the core services such as email, file and print. They will be moving their existing Netware servers to OES on a phased basis. They also choose SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to run mission critical database and web applications and eDirectory to secure access to network resources – all under a single licence agreement.

During a tough evaluation process Bord Na Mona ultimately chose Novell’s platform over competitive Linux providers due to the increased performance, support and scalability of Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The business relationship Bord Na Mona has with Novell ensures a fully supported environment from the hardware platform through the operating system to the application suite. Implementation by local Novell partner Securelinx working with HP and Oracle provided the confidence needed for a successful deployment of the solution.
Securelinx was able to provide a structured methodology for the implementation phase which has many lasting benefits including a secure environment, customised and automated build processes, and highly responsive on-going support of the Linux infrastructure – essential features that the competition just couldn’t match.

Commenting on the deployment Novell Ireland’s Client Manager, Kevin McAteer says

“The scale of this implementation confirms the view that enterprise customers, such as Bord Na Mona, can deploy Linux software solutions, using open source and proprietary software, confidently throughout the enterprise to support the applications that drive their businesses. Although Novell has a successful track record in enterprise implementations this deployment of Oracle 11i on Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is one of our first in Europe”.

Read the official Novell Case Study