One of the World's Largest Racing Organizations Standardizes on SUSE Linux Enterprise

HONG KONG, Nov. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Novell today announced The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), one of the largest racing organizations in the world, has chosen SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server as the standard operating system for its recent deployments of core information dissemination, integration and access systems.

One of the largest non-government employers in Hong Kong, HKJC employs 25,000 full-time and part-time staff. While providing the Hong Kong public with world-class sporting entertainment, it is also one of the city's major community benefactors and the largest single taxpayer to Hong Kong. HKJC required an IT infrastructure that delivers ultimate customer satisfaction through resilience, real-time information updates and high availability. HKJC has run a mixed environment with Microsoft* Windows* and OpenVMS*; the ability to customize those operating systems to improve and streamline processes was vital to the HKJC.

"Our core mission is to provide total customer satisfaction, which means maximizing speed to market, and the availability and resiliency of our systems," said Ian Dickson, head of Application Development of The Hong Kong Jockey Club. "It's only been a short four months since we started using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and we're impressed with its performance, availability and reliability. The quality of support from Novell's Technical Services is exemplary, with Novell's technical engineer constantly providing expertise on how to optimize the operating system. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server will definitely be preferred when we look to future projects."  

When the opportunity arose to run the club's information dissemination, integration and access systems on new physical servers, HKJC examined various offerings and conducted multiple proof-of-concept analyses on several Linux* distributions. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server was the final choice because of the ability to fine-tune the actual operating system, especially in a mixed environment.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server met all the key selection criteria of stability, availability, security, performance, interoperability and certifications with various ISV applications. In the first phase of deployment, 16 instances were installed, and each deployment of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server took no more than 30 minutes. Additional SUSE Linux Enterprise Server instances were rolled out in development, system integration testing and user acceptance testing environments, on a mix of physical and virtual servers. Because SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is interoperable with Microsoft Windows and other operating systems, it gives HKJC the flexibility to continue working with a heterogeneous environment.

HKJC has adopted virtualization technology in its production and development environments for core applications. There are plans to bring future applications into a mix of physical and virtual environments. With its solid performance thus far, the Club is putting SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as a contender to support future deployments of the Club's core applications.

"Large enterprises with strong brand names like The Hong Kong Jockey Club demand exceptional service quality and product reliability for their customers," said Peter Man, country manager of Novell Hong Kong. "SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, with its optimization for a wide range of IT environments, including physical, virtual and cloud, can bring HKJC's commitment to customer service excellence to even higher grounds. Moving to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server will enable HKJC to keep its costs low, with the general public enjoying the ultimate benefits from those savings."

About SUSE Linux Enterprise

SUSE Linux Enterprise is the most interoperable Linux platform for mission-critical computing, from the desktop to the data center. For more information on SUSE Linux Enterprise offerings from Novell, visit www.novell.com/linux. For more on how customers around the globe are leveraging Novell solutions, visit www.novell.com/success.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), a leader in intelligent workload management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. We help customers reduce the cost, complexity, and risk associated with their IT systems through our solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and Linux-based operating platforms. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.

Copyright 2010 Novell, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Novell, the Novell logo, the N logo, 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.

SOURCE Novell, Inc.