Wednesday, 14 March 2007

HSBC Taps Microsoft-Novell Agreement to Reduce Linux Cost and Complexity

Microsoft and Novell have said that HSBChas joined the growing number of global firms taking advantage of the recent collaboration between Microsoft and Novell.

Under the agreement, Microsoft will deliver to HSBC certificates for three-year priority support subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell, as HSBC moves to standardise its Linux deployments on one distribution. By reducing the diversity of its Linux environment, HSBC will be able to reduce its Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for Linux, and improve interoperability with its existing Microsoft Windows infrastructure.

"The Microsoft-Novell agreement is a great catalyst to helping us reduce the complexity of our Linux environment as we standardise our Linux infrastructure with SUSE Linux Enterprise and continue to extend the use of Microsoft Active Directory," said Matthew O'Neill, group head of Distributed Systems for HSBC Global IT Operations. "Some will be surprised to learn that our Windows environment has a lower total cost of ownership than our current Linux environment. Our decision to simplify our mixed-source environment with Microsoft and Novell will allow us to reduce the cost and complexity. That's why we have selected Novell as our preferred Linux partner to support our Linux infrastructure going forward."

On November 2, 2006, Novell and Microsoft announced a series of agreements to jointly build, market and support new solutions to improve virtualisation capabilities, make Microsoft and Novell products work better together, and give customers peace of mind that both companies stand behind the products they deliver. As part of this five-year agreement, Microsoft can use, resell or distribute certificates that customers redeem to receive SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscriptions for upgrades, updates and technical support from Novell.