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A Waltham, Massachusetts-based company today unveiled a virtualization solution that it says breaks new ground in management, hardware enablement and interoperability.

 

Novell says its “SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 2,” or SP2, is the only Xen-based solution of its kind and includes support for Microsoft (News - Alert) for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 users.

 

Holger Dyroff, Novell’s (News - Alert) vice president of outbound product management, said the new service pack includes something useful for customers, partners and developers.

 

“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,” Dyroff said. “Reliability, security and interoperability don’t need to break the bank. That’s the ongoing value Novell provides with SUSE Linux Enterprise.”

 

Novell officials say the SP2 version includes improvements in several areas, such as the “SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10,” “SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time.”

 

The new pack also includes what the company calls a “Subscription Management Tool” that’s designed to help customers better manage SUSE Linux Enterprise software updates.

 

Specifically, the management tool helps businesses manage their software updates while maintaining corporate firewall policy and regulatory compliance requirements, Novell officials say. The tool provides a repository and registration target that’s synchronized with the Novell Customer Center,” in order to keep all the capabilities of the center while allowing a more secure centralized deployment,” company officials say.

 

One participant in the SP2’s beta program, Srinivasa Rao Addepalli, chief technical officer and architect of Intoto (News - Alert) Inc., said most businesses seeking security applications for a virtualized environment select the SUSE Linux Enteprise Server.

 

“To secure virtual systems, Intoto has been providing UTM and MultiService Business Gateway (News - Alert) solutions using Xen running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, and we have been pleased with the increase in performance and manageability of the SP2 release,” Addepalli said. “With the addition of fully virtualized Windows Server 2008 guest support, the SP2 release facilitates creation of a true virtualization system.”