TARRYTOWN, N.Y., July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Open-Xchange Inc., maker of the world's leading open source collaboration server, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Novell to begin selling SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server bundled with its Open-Xchange (OX) Server. Open-Xchange also enters Novell's Technology Partner Program and will receive selling, marketing and development support. Open-Xchange's technology serves as the engine behind Novell's award- winning SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server.

This agreement clarifies the relationship between the two open source partners, and allows Open-Xchange to offer OX for distributions beyond Novell.

"When we released our first stand-alone commercial product, Open-Xchange 5, last month, we predicted a fair amount of traction, but we have been overwhelmed by the hundreds of customers and hundreds of partners who have now become part of the Open-Xchange ecosystem," said Frank Hoberg, CEO, Open-Xchange Inc. "By decoupling Open-Xchange from a single distribution, customers get greater flexibility and true open-source choices -- while still enabling us to support and upgrade existing SUSE LINUX Openexchange customers. SUSE and Novell have been strong supporters and partners of Open-Xchange and we see this change as a further strengthening of those bonds."

"Open-Xchange's agreement to offer SUSE Linux Enterprise to its customers and partners clearly demonstrates their commitment to Novell," said Petra Heinrich, vice president of Partner Programs. "In addition, through Novell's technology Partner Program, Novell will continue to support Open-Xchange Inc. in go to market activities."

OX 5 maintenance and support includes migration tools for existing SUSE LINUX Openexchange customers, and exclusively will be provided by Open-Xchange Inc. and its worldwide partner network. In the last two months more than 120 partners joined the Open-Xchange partner network -- from small partners providing services for the small business market to global system integrators and ISVs (independent software vendors).

Open-Xchange enables easy migration and integration to an open source environment -- allowing IT administrators to create and implement killer-apps without changing existing infrastructure components, i.e. databases, directory services, message transfer agents, e-mail servers or web-servers.

"Users of open source server components are accustomed to a high level of freedom from entanglements, of setting their own course and timetable -- rather than being dependent on a vendor's whim," said Dana Gardner, principal analyst, Interarbor Solutions. "With this announcement, Open-Xchange is furthering its high level of independence, and is clarifying the boundaries in the open source collaboration product space."

Because Open-Xchange easily integrates into complex heterogeneous environments, businesses can implement an open source strategy using Open-Xchange Server on the back end -- while continuing to use proprietary clients like Outlook on the front end. The company gets all the benefits of open source without disrupting end users.

About Open-Xchange Inc.

Based in Tarrytown, NY, Open-Xchange Inc. ( http://www.openexchange.com/ ) is the world's leading Linux-based groupware, collaboration, and messaging provider. Open-Xchange's flagship product, Open-Xchange Server, comes in a free open source version, OX 0.8, and a commercial version, Open-Xchange 5.0. Olpe, Germany-based Netline Internet Service has been developing java-based, three-tier web applications since 1996 and continues to be the contract developer of Open-Xchange. Netline also provides the core collaboration engine for SUSE LINUX Open-Xchange Server. Netline is also a licensed reseller of Open-Xchange Inc.

CONTACT: Bill Baker of Baker Communications Group for Open-Xchange Inc.,
+1-860-350-9100, wbaker@bakercg.com

Web site: http://www.openexchange.com/