Novell Delivers First Integrated Toolkit for Building, Testing and Managing Software Appliances

WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Novell today announced the availability of a suite of new tools that significantly reduces the time and cost for independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprises to develop, deploy and manage software appliances. With the availability of the SUSE® Appliance Toolkit, Novell now delivers the industry's most complete and integrated solution for building, testing, updating and configuring software appliances across physical, virtual and cloud environments. The Toolkit features an onsite version of Novell's innovative appliance-building solution SUSE Studio™ and new management tools that enable ISVs and enterprises to reduce software development time, installation cycles and maintenance costs.

"Software appliances can significantly simplify integrating and managing the applications and solutions that customers need," said Dr. Bob Sutor, vice president, Open Source and Linux, IBM Software Group. "The SUSE Appliance Toolkit from Novell can potentially help our business partners deliver IBM software to their customers quickly, efficiently and cost effectively."

Application development today is time consuming and resource intensive. ISVs and enterprises are recognizing that tailoring the operating system to specific use cases can improve productivity, drive down support costs and enhance security. Software appliances – pre-configured combinations of an application, middleware and operating system integrated into a single image and tailored to run on industry-standard hardware – offer new possibilities for efficient and cost-effective software application deployment. According to analyst firm IDC, $1.1 billion in revenue is expected to be spent on software appliances by 2012 worldwide.(1)

"Software appliances are an ideal solution for organizations faced with delivering projects on schedule, managing diverse development teams, and securely developing and deploying applications across multiple hardware and software platforms," said Brett Waldman, research analyst, System Software at IDC. "However, the creation, support and management of software appliances remain a mission-critical issue for ISVs and enterprises. Addressing the challenges of building, deploying and configuring enterprise software across widespread networks represents a significant opportunity for the software industry as a whole."

Engineered for ISVs and enterprises

For independent software vendors, the SUSE Appliance Toolkit is an essential part of the SUSE Appliance Program, a comprehensive program that enables ISVs to build, update, configure and go-to-market with fully-supported software appliances. With the SUSE Appliance Program and the SUSE Appliance Toolkit, ISVs can quickly deliver existing applications to physical, virtual and cloud computing environments, reduce sales cycles and pursue new market opportunities. Since the July announcement of the SUSE Appliance Program, nearly 4,500 ISVs have registered for the Web-based appliance-building tool SUSE Studio. Members of the SUSE Appliance Program include Adobe, Black Diamond Software, BitRock, GroundWork Open Source, IBM, Ingres, SEP, ROC Software and Zmanda.

Software appliances are the ideal solution for enterprises faced with managing diverse development teams and securely developing and deploying applications across multiple hardware and software platforms. The SUSE Appliance Toolkit provides enterprises with an easy-to-use solution that brings the benefits of software appliances in-house yet maintains the integrity and security of their software applications and reduces the cost and complexity of managing deployed applications.

"Enterprises today are faced with managing numerous applications across distributed networks in heterogeneous environments," said Markus Rex, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions at Novell. "Novell is responding to this challenge by engineering innovative technology that enables our customers and partners to take advantage of newer industry trends, such as software appliances, to solve computing challenges. The SUSE Appliance Toolkit makes it easier for enterprises and ISVs to quickly create, deliver and configure tailored, ready-to-use installations of their applications for physical, virtual and cloud computing environments."

Complete solution for building, deploying and managing appliances

The SUSE Appliance Toolkit is a collection of tools designed to make building, testing, updating and configuring appliances fast and easy. Developers can choose to build their appliances on either SUSE Linux Enterprise or openSUSE®.

The SUSE Appliance Toolkit includes:

• SUSE Studio Onsite, a local, behind-the-firewall version of the online appliance creation tool, SUSE Studio Online. Since its July release, SUSE Studio has built more than 250,000 appliances and has nearly 55,000 registered users worldwide. SUSE Studio Onsite provides the same configuration, easy-to-use interface and integrated testing features that make SUSE Studio Online popular, but will provide them on a server hosted within a data center.
• WebYaST, a tool for enabling remote, Web-based configuration of the SUSE Linux Enterprise.
• SUSE Lifecycle Management Server, a tool for authentication, entitlement and access control that makes it easier to distribute software patches and updates.
• Support for KIWI, the image creation tool behind SUSE Studio. KIWI is a command line tool for creating appliances.

Availability

The SUSE Appliance Toolkit is available now. For more information about the Toolkit, visit http://www.novell.com/toolkit. For more information about the SUSE Appliance Program, visit www.novell.com/appliances.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers the best engineered, most interoperable Linux* platform and a portfolio of integrated IT management software that 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, SUSE and openSUSE are registered trademarks and Studio is a trademark of Novell Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. *All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

(1) IDC, "Worldwide Software Appliance 2008-2012 Forecast: A Workload Analysis"; Doc # 213783; August 2008

SOURCE Novell