SWsoft announced Thursday it will deliver its popular Virtuozzo server virtualization software in a new bundle with Novell's (Nasdaq: NOVL) 
Suse Linux 
Enterprise Server 10.
The SWsoft bundle will be available through the SWsoft channel. Although Novell provided support and resources for the bundle, the company doesn't plan to sell it directly.
The bundle will ship in the second quarter of this year, and it will run on servers using X86, AMD64, EM64T, and Itanium processors. SWsoft will provide the primary support for the bundle, but Novell will still provide support for any unmodified components of Suse Linux Enterprise Server.
Fitting in With Novell
SWsoft's move brings up some interesting questions about Novell's own virtualization efforts. The company has many enterprise-class customers with ongoing server consolidation efforts, so Novell has to be ready to play in a virtualized world."Virtualization is absolutely core to our Linux strategy," Justin Steinman, Novell director of product marketing for Linux and open source solutions, told LinuxInsider. "We're doing a lot with virtualization over here."
In September of last year, Novell introduced the industry's first enterprise Linux-based virtualization solution built on Xen and optimized for Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Virtualization Technology. Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) , by contrast, just announced virtualization support built on Xen this week.
In February, Novell and Intel announced a solution to let Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows Server 2000/2003/XP run unmodified in Xen virtual environments on Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 -- operating on Intel-based server platforms featuring Intel Virtualization Technology.
Also, earlier this week, Novell announced that integrated Xen virtualization technology is available for SAP (NYSE: SAP) NetWeaver and mySAP Business Suite, which has been tested and validated by SAP, a company that so happens to be the largest enterprise resource planning software provider in the world.
Where Does Virtuozzo Fit?
"Novell has bet a lot of money on Xen in terms of development efforts, but we realize customers have other options," Steinman said.
"We've heard from customers in the marketplace who wanted an option to run Linux with Virtuozzo in the SWsoft solution, so we got together with SWsoft, did some testing, and created a bundle for the SWsoft channel," he concluded.
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