Product category:
Manufacturing IT Platforms
News Release from: Microsoft
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 15 February 2007
Further compatibility between Microsoft
and Novell
Road map focuses on virtualization, Web services for managing physical and virtual servers, directory and identity interoperability, and document format compatibility
Microsoft and Novell have unveiled more details about their joint technical road map and the benefits customers can expect from the collaboration Microsoft and Novell are engaged in development on four areas of technology that address significant problems faced by enterprise customers today: virtualisation, Web services for managing physical and virtual servers, directory and identity interoperability, and document format compatibility
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 2 May 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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"With this first installment of the Microsoft-Novell development road map, we see that both companies are building on this relationship to develop real, product-specific solutions to deliver on the promises made to customers," said Al Gillen, research vice president, System Software, for IDC.
"The great potential of the November announcement between Microsoft and Novell could have been disappointing without a product-specific road map to execute against".
"With the road map, the technology benefits customers can expect will be tangible and delivered on a predictable basis".
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Microsoft and Novell are developing a compelling virtualisation offering for Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Windows Server to consolidate server workloads in heterogeneous data centres.
The virtualisation collaboration agreement between Novell and Microsoft is designed to allow customers to do the following:.
* Host SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell as a virtualised guest on an upcoming service pack of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, to be available in the second quarter.
* Host SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 as an enlightened guest on the next version of Microsoft Windows Server, code-named "Longhorn," using the Windows Server virtualisation technology, which is scheduled to be available within 180 days of the release of Windows Server "Longhorn".
* Host Windows Server "Longhorn" as a paravirtualised guest on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, using the Xen virtualisation technology embedded in the Linux operating system.
Windows Server "Longhorn" is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2007.
Microsoft and Novell are working with the community to make it easier for customers to manage their mixed Windows Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server physical and virtual environments by collaborating on standards-based solutions that provide exceptional scalability and flexibility in managing heterogeneous environments.
The Web Services for Management (WS-Management) specification supports the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) initiative to expose management resources via a set of Web services protocols.
Novell is working with the open source community to develop an open source implementation of the WS-Management specification.
Novell ZENworks Orchestrator and Microsoft System centre Operations Manager 2007 will incorporate WS-Management this year.
Microsoft and Novell are working toward improving directory and identity interoperability between Microsoft and Novell products and technologies using standards-based protocols designed to result in improved access control for IT resources managed with either Novell eDirectory or Microsoft Active Directory.
Microsoft and Novell will be developing a series of interoperability demonstrations that focus on interoperability between technologies and products from both companies.
A more detailed road map for this collaborative effort will be available in the first half of 2007.
As previously announced, Microsoft and Novell are delivering seamless interoperability between office productivity applications.
Novell is cooperating with Microsoft and others on an open source project to create a bidirectional translator for documents, spreadsheets and presentations between the OpenDocument format (ODF), which is supported by OpenOffice.org, and Open XML, the default file format for Microsoft Office.
On Feb 2, Microsoft announced the availability of the Open XML/ODF Translator for Microsoft Word 2007, Word 2003 and Word XP.
Later this month, Novell will release an Open XML/ODF Translator for the Novell edition of OpenOffice.org.
The document translators represent the first product deliverables resulting from the technical collaboration between Microsoft and Novell.
Both Novell and Microsoft will continue to work on the translator project to extend the interoperability to spreadsheets and presentations.
"The majority of our customers have mixed-source environments, and they want their platform vendors to take responsibility for making things work together," said Jeff Jaffe, Novell executive vice president and chief technology officer.
"That's what our technical collaboration agreement with Microsoft is all about".
"We're working together to deliver true interoperability between Windows Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and we are standing together behind our products and our customers".
"Microsoft and Novell have come together to deliver compelling new solutions around virtualisation, directories, system management and office document formats," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Servers and Tools Business at Microsoft.
"We're working on reducing costs and improving flexibility in the data centre so customers can focus on managing their businesses, not their IT systems".
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