Novell® announced today it is the first Linux* vendor to appear on the U.S. Department of Defense Unified Capabilities Approved Products List (APL), as SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2 (SP2) has received the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Special Interoperability Certification from the department's Defense Information System Agency. With this certification, Novell customers, including government agencies, can rely on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to support present and future networking standards, offering peace of mind for long-term use.
The APL list is expected to become a Department of Defense and U.S. federal government equipment purchase requirement. In addition to making Novell the first Linux vendor to appear on the list, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is also the only general-purpose operating system with IPsec IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange v2) support to date. The product was granted IPv6 certification just four days after the release of SP2.
"SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the Linux operating system that government agencies can rely on to meet their mission-critical performance demands while satisfying stringent federal mandates," said Carlos Montero-Luque, vice president of Product Management for Open Platform Solutions at Novell. "Federal mandates for updated IT infrastructure can often signal expensive upgrades for government agencies, contractors and other organizations. With this latest certification, federal agencies and others can leverage the enterprise-class power and unmatched interoperability that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server offers, without a costly upgrade."
On behalf of the U.S. federal government, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a policy mandating all federal government agencies upgrade their network infrastructures to IPv6 and interface each agency network with this infrastructure by June 2008. IPv6 is a network layer for packet-switched networks that will succeed IPv4 for general Internet use. IPv6 delivers a much larger address space that provides improved flexibility in assigning addresses and removes the need to use network address translation to avert the exhaustion of IP addresses.
The next-generation platform for the open enterprise, SUSE Linux Enterprise is the best-engineered and most interoperable platform for mission-critical computing, from the desktop to the data center. For more information on SUSE Linux Enterprise offerings from Novell, visit www.novell.com/linux.
About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers the best engineered, most interoperable Linux platform and a portfolio of integrated IT management software that helps customers around the world reduce cost, complexity and risk. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell harmoniously integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.
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