IBM and Novell Announce First Blade Chassis Subscription for Linux

ARMONK, N.Y., and WALTHAM, Mass. – Oct. 12, 2005 – IBM and Novell today announced a new single subscription option for the IBM BladeCenter chassis that will provide customers with increased flexibility and choice, making it easy to buy and administer subscriptions to Novell’s SUSE* Linux Enterprise Server based on their individual needs. This single subscription will cover all blades within the BladeCenter chassis, regardless of CPU type or quantity, and aims to help lower the cost and complexity of procuring and licensing Linux for blade server environments.

This new chassis subscription model will help customers maintain control over the cost of computing by potentially reducing subscription administration requirements and the need for separate subscriptions on each blade server. By creating a simple-to-administer and flexible environment, users will be able to configure, re-provision and expand on demand within an IBM BladeCenter chassis with up to 14 blade servers without having to purchase additional subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Customers can mix-and-match any number of blade servers with Intel®, AMD® and Power-based CPUs in a single chassis with this single subscription. This subscription model will help customers quickly and efficiently implement scalable, multi-tier and heterogeneous Linux workloads.

“As a key business partner of both IBM and Novell, rs-unix is very pleased to see the leaders in Linux offer customers an easy and cost-effective way to subscribe to Linux on the IBM BladeCenter platform,” said Jeff Medeiros, CEO of rs-unix. “Our primary goal is to provide solutions to solve our customers’ business problems, and this combination will allow us to more easily achieve that goal.”

Recent second quarter 2005 market share results show that IBM BladeCenter has been the leading blade server in the industry for eight successive quarters.* IBM was also number one in overall Linux-based server revenue worldwide in the second quarter of 2005.** Unlike competitive offerings which bundle multiple traditional server subscriptions and tie them to chassis orders, IBM’s BladeCenter chassis subscription is a complete chassis subscription and will help further reduce the cost and complexity of implementing Linux-based solutions and workloads. Depending on the blade configuration, customers could see reductions in their subscription costs of up to approximately $24,200 Canadian.

“From the inception of IBM’s BladeCenter offering, IBM has worked with industry partners to deliver the industry’s most open, flexible blade server platform to meet the dynamic business needs of our customers,” said Doug Balog, vice president and business line executive, IBM BladeCenter. “With this new BladeCenter chassis subscription, we are enabling customers to simply and flexibly manage their IT infrastructure at potentially reduced overall cost.”

“Our work with IBM aligns with the current industry trend to simplify data centres and overall infrastructure management,” said Ron Hovsepian, Novell executive vice president and president, global field operations. “Unlike competitive offerings which simply bundle existing server subscriptions, the new Novell® and IBM subscription model offers advantages for heterogeneous environments and virtualization needs, allowing customers to customize their data centres while potentially lowering the system’s total cost of ownership.”

IBM and Novell are also working together on the formation of Blade.org, a planned collaborative organization aimed at spurring solution development and innovation around IBM BladeCenter. Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the first Linux to support all IBM hardware platforms, including the first on IBM POWER and IBM zSeries.

Pricing and Availability

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 for IBM BladeCenter® chassis offerings provide customers with the ability to purchase a single SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 offering and deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 on any IBM BladeCenter server configured within a BladeCenter chassis, including Intel x86-based, EM64T-based, AMD64-based, or POWER-based IBM BladeCenter servers, whether 2 or 4-socket servers. This new pricing model starts at approximately $3,965 Canadian per annual Novell upgrade protection subscription and will be available in October 2005. For more information, visit http://www.novell.com/bladecenter.

About IBM

IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers Software for the Open Enterprise*. With more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell helps customers manage, simplify, secure and integrate their technology environments by leveraging best-of-breed, open standards-based software. With over 20 years of experience, Novell’s 6,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centres around the world help customers gain control over their IT operating environment while reducing cost. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com.