HP, Novell team on Linux server licensing

Would enable cheaper running of SUSE Linux on HP servers, vendors say

By Shelley Solheim, IDG News Service, and Eric Lai

February 15, 2006 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Hewlett-Packard Co. and Novell Inc. have teamed up to offer a bundling license that they say makes it easier and cheaper to run SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) on HP servers.
The Enterprise Linux 8-License Value Pack provides a subscription of Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 for up to eight HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers. The bundle also includes Novell's AppArmor security application.
Licenses apply for any combination of eight ProLiant tower, rack or blade servers with up to four single-core or dual-core processors per machine. In addition, for those users with virtualized environments, there is no extra charge for virtual machines, said Jeffrey Wade, worldwide marketing manager for HP's open-source and Linux organization.
The license costs $5,700 per year and includes support for 25 incidents provided by HP, which is touting itself as a rival to IBM as a one-stop source of enterprise support for Linux and open-source applications running on top of it, such as MySQL, JBoss, OpenLDAP and others. Wade estimates HP users with multiprocessor machines and/or virtualized environments will save up to 25% over previous licensing costs.
Despite the fast-growing popularity of these technologies, most vendors are still resisting cutting license prices, said John Abbott, a London-based analyst for The 451 Group, a New York-based consulting firm.
"They stand to lose quite a lot of margins, but they are getting a lot of pressure from customers," Abbott said.
Eighteen percent of the ProLiant servers HP sells run Linux, said Wade. About 75% of those run Red Hat Enterprise Linux and 25% run SLES.
The bundle is similar to one HP released with Novell rival Red Hat Inc. in September, although that agreement was only around HP's blade servers.
Wade said that despite the license price cut, HP expects to maintain its 67% compound annual growth rate for Linux service revenues.

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