HSBC benefits from Microsoft/Novell union

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HSBC is the latest company to reduce costs and enhance interoperability by enjoying the fruits of the recent alliance between Microsoft and Novell.

The financial services giant plans to standardise on one flavour of Linux and will be aided in doing so by a Microsoft-fueled supply of certificates for three-year priority support subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell.

"The Microsoft-Novell agreement is a great catalyst to helping us reduce the complexity of our Linux environment as we standardise our Linux infrastructure with SUSE Linux Enterprise and continue to extend the use of Microsoft Active Directory," said Matthew O'Neill, group head of distributed systems for HSBC's global IT operations.

"Some will be surprised to learn that our Windows environment has a lower total cost of ownership than our current Linux environment. Our decision to simplify our mixed-source environment with Microsoft and Novell will allow us to reduce the cost and complexity. That's why we have selected Novell as our preferred Linux partner to support our Linux infrastructure going forward."

Historically fierce competitors, Microsoft and Novell teamed up in November last year to announce that they planned to collaborate on the joint creation, marketing and support of new solutions aimed at making the two companies' products work in a more harmonious way, improve interoperability and give customers greater peace of mind.

Since the five-year partnership was announced, more than 40,000 new certificates for three-year priority support subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server have been activated.

In addition to HSBC, other big names taking advantage of the alliance include Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Wal-Mart.

"The ability of HSBC to reduce complexity, simplify support and increase its IT agility is a testament to the mission of Novell's agreement with Microsoft - to help customers win," said Roger Levy, vice president and general manager of open platform solutions for Novell, who will join HSBC's open source software committee as a nonvoting advisor."

Susan Hauser, general manager of strategic partnerships and licensing at Microsoft, added: "Our customers tell us that they want technology vendors to work better together - that's what our agreement with Novell is all about.

"Founded on intellectual property assurance, our interoperability efforts are helping HSBC apply best practices from its Windows infrastructure to lower TCO for its Linux environment."

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