Servers

Teradata is working with SUSE, as in the past we showed in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Now come a couple of articles from India about it:

1. Analytical Platform for Entry Level Enterprises

The platform includes the following features:

* Teradata 550 SMP (symmetric multiprocessing)- a departmental data warehouse, designed to meet customers' need for a smaller, less expensive system. It was developed to run a single application or support test and development workloads and can be installed within hours of delivery. It is simple to set up and can use the Novell SUSE Linux 64-bit OS or Windows.

2. Teradata Unveils Family of Analytical Platforms

The Teradata 550 SMP is a departmental data warehouse, designed to meet customers' need for a smaller, less expensive system. It was developed to run a single application or support test and development workloads and can be installed within hours of delivery. It is simple to set up and can use the Novell SUSE Linux 64-bit operating system or Windows.

[...]

The Teradata 2500 entry-level data warehouse is a cost-effective, fully integrated, scalable platform with dual-core Intel processors, industry standard enterprise-class storage, open Novell SUSE Linux 64-bit operating system, and the Teradata 12 database and utilities. All are pre-installed in a single "ready to run" cabinet with energy-efficient green technologies.

Another product which is worth mentioning is the Lenovo ThinkServer that runs SUSE. It's in the news again.

The same month, Lenovo launched its first servers outside of China with the ThinkServer line for SMBs with up to 500 employees. The new line includes three tower and two rack servers available with Microsoft Windows Server or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell. The systems are powered by a variety of Intel processors and prices start at $749.

There is also this SAP-Novell relationship, which we remarked on in the past.

Included with the integrated bundle will come SAP’s All-in-One ERP system hosted on a Primergy RX300 S4 rack, along with a version of SAP MaxDB database running on the SUSE Enterprise Linux operating system from Novell.

Novell put its head in 'the cloud' (servers), still hoping to edge out Red Hat.

I’ve been thinking, which isn’t quite as dangerous as you might think. I’ve been thinking about cloud computing. Or more specifically what goes into cloud computing, the various definitions and what it could mean to us here at Novell.

[...]

How do you host this level of service? How about on a fast, reliable, secure and massively scalable infrastructure that can operate in a continuity model, with support for both physical and virtualized hosts. How fortunate that by combining Platespin and SLES we can deliver this.

Hamish Taylor compared the importance of GNU/Linux to the old(er) role of Novell servers and maybe Netware too.

Generally speaking, at or near the top every Linux advocate's list of "The best things about Linux" is the word "alternative". Linux gives people an alternative; a choice of operating systems; you don't have to be locked into using Microsoft's, or anyone elses, software.

In other words: Linux forces competition into the marketplace.

In the mid 90's to early 2000's, Microsoft competed with Unix and Novell for the SME server market. They won significant market share with NT3.51, NT4 and Win2000. This was mostly as a result of having pretty decent products which were relatively easy to use and at pretty good prices. Linux is now competing against Microsoft in many marketspaces, for much of the same reasons.

Desktop

It was last week that we wrote about the big H-P news. There is still some more coverage appearing about it, e.g. this one article from India:

Days of 'Wow' Windows Vista may not be numbered, but Microsoft's operating systems are facing strong winds from many of its competitors. Many of its close partners are now inching towards GNU/Linux systems. HP is introducing GNU/Linux as an operating system choice for business desktop customers. The offerings are designed to help small businesses enhance their productivity and ease their management of technology.

Glyn Moody wrote about that too while eWeek wrote about virtual desktops from H-P.

Hewlett-Packard is looking to offer new virtualization software and services for those enterprises seeking to create a centralized infrastructure for managing a fleet of corporate clients. The HP Virtual Client Essentials software suite offers technology to enhance the video and graphics capabilities of HP’s virtual desktop infrastructure offerings. The desktop virtualization also offers new support for thin-client PCs running Linux and added support for USB peripherals.

Personnel

The press in Utah covered a public appearance of Ron Hovsepian. The article is mostly focused on Novell, but Microsoft was there too.

"There's an evolution right now in the IT industry," Hovsepian recently told a gathering of honchos from the high-tech industry and government sponsored by the Utah Technology Council.

[...]

For Novell, that has meant strengthening an "ecosystem" of partners. One example is Novell's once-unthinkable alliance with Microsoft announced in 2006 in which the 800-pound gorilla of the software world agreed to peddle Novell's version of the open source Linux server software, the programs that run businesses' computer systems.

[....]

Keith Otis, general manager for Microsoft's southwest area (which includes Utah), described it as a "hybrid approach" for connecting computers and devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants.

There are still many articles out there about the new appointment of Ted Ts'o, but most of them say nothing about the departure of Novell's Rex.

On Thursday, the Linux Foundation announced it had appointed Ted Ts'o as Chief Technology Officer. In this position, Ts'o will lead all of the Foundation's technical initiatives, and be the technical point of contact for Linux Foundation members and its Technical Advisory Board.

Xandros

The distribution was mentioned a few times in articles about the Eee PC. Here is one example.

with the Xandros Linux OS and a 40G-byte solid state drive (SSD) for storage and 6-cell battery, followed by Micro-Star International's Wind U100 with a 6-cell battery.

A company called Sentegrity made an appearance and it has some kind of relationship with Xandros.

Sao Paulo, December 12, 2008 - Sentegrity, exclusive distributor of Xandros products in LatAM and Tecnoworld, a leader in manufacturing of technology components announced today a agreement, encompassing sales and marketing in Brazil.

[...]

“Tecnoworld is an ideal partner for Sentegrity in Brazil due to their excellent reputation and extensive customer channels”, said James Largotta, Managing Director and General Manager of Xandros in Latin America and the Caribbean. “Tecnoworld has a proven track record. Their people and infrastructure make this collaboration a perfect match for both companies, allowing us to offer and support our existing products and expand our product offerings in key areas.”

This press release appeared in a couple of languages.

Sentegrity the leader in Open Source solutions and exclusive distributor of Xandros products and services in Latin America, announced today an aggressive plan to offer financing to their partner network.

PC Pro has added this 'research paper' (PR lies) and down at the bottom it reveals something interesting about a man with roots in Scalix/Xandros.

Danny Essner Director of Marketing, Intermedia As Director of Marketing for Intermedia, Danny is responsible for all customer and channel partner acquisition and retention strategies for Intermedia's Microsoft Exchange hosting and SaaS offerings. Prior to joining Intermedia, Danny ran marketing and channel development at Linux-based Exchange alternative Scalix and Linux-based operating system and management tools software company, Xandros, where he helped negotiate strategic relationships with Microsoft and Red Hat.

Is it possible that a man behind bad patent deals just simply left the company? What was the capacity of these "strategic relationships"? ⬆