Novell Announces New Program to Aid Transition to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Provides award-winning support and tools to aid customers moving from an
existing Linux distribution to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Bangalore — Novell today announced the availability of a new subscription
and support program designed to aid customers making the transition from
their existing third-party Linux* distribution to SUSE® Linux Enterprise
Server. The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Subscription with Expanded Support
program includes a three-year subscription to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
that provides technical support for a customer’s existing Linux deployments
for up to two years while they make the transition to SUSE Linux
Enterprise.

The new program is in response to growing customer demand for help as they
make the strategic decision to transition their data center Linux
infrastructure from existing third-party distributions, such as Red Hat*
Enterprise Linux and CentOS, to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Many times,
customers who want to move between platforms are constrained by factors
such as IT resource limitations, application migration scheduling and
training costs, which means they need time to make an orderly transition.
In response to these challenges, Novell is providing technical support for
a customer’s existing Linux environment and is also delivering training and
tools to ensure the transition to the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform is
smooth and successful.

“As the Linux market matures, we are increasingly being approached by
customers who want to move to SUSE Linux Enterprise, attracted by Novell’s
award-winning support, superb interoperability in mixed-source
environments, and by our support for mission critical applications,” said
Justin Steinman, vice president of Solution and Product Marketing at
Novell. “This new program makes it even easier for these customers to make
the move to Novell.”

“We made the transition to Novell and to SUSE Linux Enterprise because the
total cost of ownership was much lower when compared to our existing Red
Hat installation,” said George Rapp, senior vice president of Information
Systems at Stonebridge Bank. “We’re also very impressed by the
interoperability Novell offers for diverse environments like our data
center, and the management tools that ship with SUSE Linux Enterprise make
setup, management and on-going maintenance very easy.”

The new program is available immediately. Please contact Novell sales for
more information.

About SUSE Linux Enterprise
The next-generation platform for the open enterprise, SUSE Linux Enterprise
is the best-engineered and most interoperable platform for mission-critical
computing, from the desktop to the data center. In a customer study
conducted by independent research firm Lighthouse Research, Novell gained
top ratings for overall support, and significantly outpaced Red Hat and
Oracle Linux on both timeliness of phone support and support of mixed
platforms, open source and proprietary software. The full report, with
methodology and detailed results, is available at
http://www.novell.com/linux/support-survey.html. For more information on
SUSE Linux Enterprise offerings from Novell, visit www.novell.com/linux.
For more information about SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, visit
www.novell.com/products/server.

About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers the best engineered, most
interoperable Linux platform and a portfolio of integrated IT management
software that helps customers around the world reduce cost, complexity and
risk. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships,
Novell harmoniously integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and
technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.

Novell and SUSE are registered trademarks of Novell Inc. in the U.S. and
other countries.

*All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Press Contacts:
Mohar Mukhopadhyay
Assistant Manager (Corporate Communications)
Novell
+91 80 40022300

Madhu Prasad
Ogilvy PR Worldwide
+91 80 4434 4356

Sweta Mohanty
Ogilvy PR Worldwide
+91 80 4434 4354