MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-06-03 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Novell HHS contract
|
U.S. Health
Department
Signs Major
Linux Deal
With Novell
June 1, 2005
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The deal
gives Health
and Human
Services
employees
unlimited
access to a
range of
Novell
products,
but there's
no plan to
unseat
Microsoft
software
By Marianne
Kolbasuk
McGee
InformationWeek
The U.S.
Department
of Health
and Human
Services has
signed a
multi-million-dollar, multi-year enterprise deal to use Linux and identity management products from Novell Inc., the vendor revealed on Tuesday.
Financial
terms of the
deal between
Novell and
HHS weren't
disclosed.
However a
Novell
spokesman
says the
agreement is
the first
"enterprise
site
license"
between a
large
federal
department
and a Linux
vendor.
Although
HHS'
National
Institute of
Health
agency was
"the driver"
of the deal,
under the
contract,
other HHS
agencies are
eligible to
use Novell
Linux and
OpenSource
technologies, the Novell spokesman says. NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts medical research.
The contract
provides
unlimited
use of
Novell
products to
about 70,000
at HHS,
including
about 30,000
NIH users.
Under the
arrangement
Novell is
providing to
HHS
"unlimited
access,
upgrade
protection
and
technical
support" for
products,
including
SUSE Linux
Enterprise
Server,
Novell Open
Enterprise
Server,
Novell Linux
Desktop,
patch
management,
and a range
of
identity-based services for management, integration and security.
HHS is
already a
user of
Novell
products,
however the
new deal
provides an
enterprise
license to
Novell's
Linux and
OpenSource
products,
the
spokesman
says. The
pact doesn't
require HHS
or NIH to
migrate off
other
platforms
used in
their
environments, he says.
An NIH
source says
there are no
plans to
"unseat"
Microsoft
products,
which are
widely used
throughout
HHS.
However,
Linux
products
provides "an
attractive
low unit
cost" for
thousands of
scientific
users within
NIH and
other HHS
agencies,
such as the
Centers for
Disease
Control and
Prevention,
the NIH
official
says.
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