* Novell/IBM hopes Linux licensing deal will get SEAL of approval in Europe
They say Europe has richer architecture, tastier coffee, more advanced cell phone technology … now add better Linux licensing options to the list.
Novell is making it easier for European users of IBM and SuSE Linux to deploy the open source operating system on a wider variety of platforms.
Under Novell’s Strategic Enterprise Agreement for Linux, dubbed SEAL, users with IBM servers can get discounts on bulk license purchases of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 – with up to 50% price reductions. Along with the reduced price, users are also allowed to deploy the SuSE Linux licenses across any IBM-based server platform, from mainframe, to RISC-based and Intel-based servers.
This kind of program could be useful for companies looking to take a variety of different tasks running on separate servers – such as e-mail, file/print or application servers – and pack these workloads into a larger box, such as IBM zSeries mainframe. The program appears to offer more flexibility for users concerned about being locked into a certain kind of SuSE license based on the hardware used. For example, if someone decides to move a Linux-based application off of a virtual server running on a mainframe to a eSeries or iSeries server, there is not hassle involved in renegotiation or renewing the license for the new server platform.
Novell has not said if it plans to launch SEAL in the North American market. But if enough pro-Linux IBM data center shops clamor for it, you might expect to see a similar iteration of this program in the near future.
