Second in the Linux server business to leader Red Hat, Novell is continuing to strive for major server wins.
In its latest significant victory, Novell announced that Office Depot has elected to consolidate its server infrastructure on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 1.
In the past, Office Depot, with offices in 43 countries, has used an eclectic collection of server operating systems.
These include Solaris, Windows, IBM’s mainframe operating system z/OS, i5/OS (the newest version of IBM’s OS/400 midrange computer operating system) and several different kinds of Linux.
According to Novell, moving to SLES on commodity hardware has already helped Office Depot reduce its hardware and power costs.
And Office Depot needs to reduce its costs.
The second-largest office supplies retailer in the United States, behind Staples, is already warning investors that its sales and earnings for the 2007’s fourth quarter, which ends on Dec. 29, will continue their downward slide.
The company is blaming its financial woes on the continuing decline of the North American housing market.