IBM and SUSE LINUX have come through with the Common Operating Environment (COE) certification brownie points needed to wangle SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 into the defense establishment. Red Hat has already been down this road and got its COE hunting license almost a year ago. From IBM's point-of-view, however, since it handles both brands of Linux, the real competition is Microsoft.

IBM says SUSE LINUX is the first Linux to get both COE clearance and Common Criteria for Information Security Evaluation (CC) certification, an ISO standard mission-critical classification otherwise known as CAPP/EAL3+.

SUSE LINUX was previously certified at the EAL2+ level on IBM's Intel-based xSeries. Now it's got the higher rating, by the grace of an addition of an auditing subsystem, across IBM's whole server line including the company's Opteron machines. The pair intends to pursue an EAL4+ security rating next year.

IBM intends to get Common Criteria accreditation for its z/VM virtualization technology this year. That's the stuff that lets mainframes run multiple instances of Linux. IBM's Directory Server and Tivoli Access Manager are already CC certified.

SUSE LINUX's COE compliance, the Defense Department's test of functionality and interoperability, is currently limited to IBM's xSeries and zSeries. Support for the pSeries and iSeries is due this half.

SUSE LINUX EAL3+ evaluation was done at atsec information security GmbH, the vendor-independent security consultant, and accredited in Germany by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).

The government market for Linux is supposed to be worth $5 billion in 2006, up from $2 billion now. IBM claims to have 175 government accounts for Linux.

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