Novell today released SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, the next version of its data centre operating system.
And, as the economic downturn continues, more IT executives will be looking to save cash with open source systems, according to Jeff Jaffe, chief technology officer at Novell.
"With the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, Novell is helping IT professionals save money while addressing other key issues identified in the survey, such as interoperability, support for mission-critical computing and the flexibility to deploy Linux in a wide range of environments," he said.
It features two new extensions. With the SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono extension users can run Microsoft .NET-based applications on Linux, while the High Availability Extension is a clustering product which offers high availabilty at a low cost.
The new operating system runs on major hardware platforms and works on hypervisors from VMware, Microsoft and Xen. SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 is also certified for use in Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud.
Novell also said it was looking at application deployment and virtual applicances, adding that it would deliver SUSE Linux Enterprise JeOS (Just enough Operating System) in addition to a suite of development tools which allow vendors to create virtual appliances with just the SUSE Linux Enterprise components they need. Novell promised more details on that system and toolkit later in the year.
Novell also announced the release of ZENworks Linux Management 7.3, a policy-driven automation system.
