US-based software firm Novell has extended its partnership with SAP to deliver expanded support options to companies running their business operations on SAP applications and the SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system.

Novell and SAP are planning to enable SAP's enterprise applications to work with Linux Enterprise and Novell's virtualization and identity management technologies, in order to provide new data center options for customers. In addition, the companies plan to optimize Linux Enterprise for SAP's data center infrastructure requirements, further promote SAP Business All-in-One solutions, and collaborate to assist customers with issues related to the SAP governance, risk and compliance practices.

Novell already works with Linux, supporting its growing acceptance as a mainstream business platform. "From our entrance into the Linux market, our focus has been on delivering Linux for mission-critical deployments in the data center, and this relationship with SAP is a key step forward in that effort," said Ron Hovsepian, president and chief executive at Novell.

SAP also has a commitment to Linux platforms, using Linux Enterprise Server as one of the options for its NetWeaver Business Intelligence Accelerator software, which is an appliance jointly developed with HP, IBM and Intel. Furthermore, the European software giant has also chosen Linux Enterprise Server as the platform for its hosted offering, Business ByDesign.

Leo Apotheker, deputy chief executive and president of Customer Solutions and Operations at SAP stated that organizations are turning to open source solutions with Linux as their core platform.