Microsoft and Novell Thursday released a virtualization bundle that represents the pair’s first fully supported joint product since their historic interoperability partnership was forged in 2006.
The two have configured and optimized Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to run as a guest operating system on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. The product is the first to include technology developed by both vendors at the Microsoft and Novell Interoperability Lab they opened just over a year ago in Cambridge, Mass.
Dell has said it will offer a blade server running the Linux-Windows virtualization software, and is just one of a number of channel partners stepping up to offer support. The others are systems integrators Computer Integrated Services Company of New York, Continental Resources, Insight, Total Tec Systems, and China-based 21Vianet.
Microsoft and Novell opened their Windows-Linux interoperability lab in September 2007 with an initial focus on three projects: virtualization, management and identity federation. The lab was one part of their 2006 partnership agreement.
