Microsoft and Novell Open Interoperability Lab

Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. today announced the opening of the Microsoft and Novell® Interoperability Lab in Cambridge, Mass. Announced last fall as part of Microsoft and Novell’s groundbreaking collaboration agreement, the opening of the lab delivers on a promise the two companies made to work together to create a joint development facility at which Microsoft and Novell technical experts will design and test new software solutions and work with customers and the community to build and support technologies that allow Microsoft® Windows Server® and SUSE® Linux Enterprise to work well together.

“The Microsoft and Novell Interoperability Lab is officially open for business,” said Tom Hanrahan, director of Linux interoperability at Microsoft. “We are pleased to be working with Novell on this joint interoperability effort and are eager to roll up our sleeves and continue the challenging technical work required to make Windows Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise interoperability a reality for our customers.”

“Today’s lab opening is another indicator of the high priority that Novell and Microsoft are giving this collaboration,” said Suzanne Forsberg, Interoperability Lab manager for Novell. “This kind of technical interoperability work requires disciplined effort and dedicated resources, and that’s what this lab is built around. Enterprise customers are demanding exactly the kinds of interoperable solutions that will be the focus of this lab’s work and output.”

Located in Cambridge, the 2,500-square-foot lab and workspace will be home to a combined team of the best and brightest Microsoft and Novell engineers focused on making Windows Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise work better together. The first priority for the lab team will be to ensure interoperability between Microsoft and Novell virtualization technologies. Additional work will include standards-based systems management, identity federation and compatibility of office document formats.

The lab houses more than 80 servers of varying architectures as well as a storage area network. Microsoft and Novell are committed to including other vendors and technologies as the lab continues to grow to create a heterogeneous lab environment that reflects the current IT environments and interoperability challenges facing enterprise customers today.

More information on SUSE Linux Enterprise is available at http://www.novell.com/linux. More information on Microsoft is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass.