Novell announced the expansion of its Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) program for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, lengthening customers' access to the company's Linux support for each service pack release. For the first time, long term support is also provided globally for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z. Novell further announced the immediate availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 4 (SP4), bundling all previously released patches, fixes and updates for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, while supporting the newest hardware, storage systems and networking devices, including Intel's latest Xeon E7 processor family and AMD's latest Opteron processors.
Novell's updated LTSS offering enables data center customers to stay on covered releases longer than other Linux distributions. The ability to run workloads for an extended time on one service pack helps enterprises mitigate risk by minimizing changes to mission-critical workloads, allows more time to migrate to a future release of SUSE Linux Enterprise, and defers the costs associated with updating and testing.
The updated LTSS program includes worldwide support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on IBM System z. As a provider for Linux on the mainframe, Novell is making further investments in this market to help customers obtain more value from their mainframe deployments. LTSS for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z reduces risk by ensuring that the configurations for mission-critical workloads running on the mainframe can be maintained over an extended period of time without change.
The new program also includes three extra years of extended support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and five years of support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server service packs.
SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP4 supports a range of hardware, storage systems and networking devices, including Intel's latest Xeon E7 processor family and AMD's latest Opteron processors. This release also delivers all previously released patches, fixes and updates for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z), SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 10.
SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP4 provides support for HyperPAV (for improved disk subsystem throughput) and hardware-accelerated cryptographic devices, as well as refreshed device drivers for storage and networking devices. In addition, the enhancements to the LTSS program will enable customers to run SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 with commercial support until 2016.
"The extension of our support program and the release of SP4 for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 provide important benefits for data center operators, giving them UNIX-caliber lifecycles for their critical workloads," says Markus Rex, senior vice president and general manager for Open Platform Solutions at Novell.
For more details on SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP4, go to the Novell website.