To further help customers experience the benefits of Linux on the mainframe, Novell announced simplified pricing and discounts throughout 2008 for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for IBM's System z mainframes. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z lets customers consolidate distributed workloads onto System z servers to help minimize costs, reduce downtime and data center complexity, and increase flexibility.

“We are pleased to be collaborating with Novell to support our mutual customers and business partners,” said Karl Freund, vice president of marketing for IBM System z. “This pricing is another example of Novell's commitment and support to help customers deploy Linux on System z to take advantage of server consolidation to reduce energy consumption and significantly lower their costs.”

Mark Shackelford, vice president of IT for Baldor Electric, said, “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z provides us with a highly available system that delivers business value while significantly reducing our costs. System z can handle thousands of virtual servers, and standardizing on SUSE Linux Enterprise has significantly reduced the complexity of keeping pace with our company's growth.”