Novell today announced that Finland’s Ministry of Defence has selected Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as its platform for critical process management and documentation applications, messaging services, and Intranet portal. The Ministry tapped Novell's Linux platform for its proven reliability, high availability and security.

“Our key operational and decision-making processes rely on our ability to access our IT systems 24 by 7, securely and with no glitches. Because of this, we decided to adopt Novell SUSE Linux as the platform for our core applications, messaging and intranet services,” said Antti Nummiranta, an IT designer for the Ministry of Defence. “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server promises high reliability and availability, and based on our experience, the product truly delivers on these promises – we have not had a single second of downtime on the Linux platform.”

The Ministry operates a heterogeneous IT environment where key applications run on Linux and employees access them from Windows workstations. The Ministry’s decision-making processes, correspondence and e-mail communications run through a central Lotus-based process management and documentation application. All correspondence is scanned into the application and initiatives are reviewed and approved through the system. Moving off an existing UNIX* deployment, the Ministry turned to a version of Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server specifically optimized for Lotus Domino* environments. The Ministry is also using SUSE Linux as the basis for the Ministry’s new Intranet portal, which holds key organizational information and workgroup applications such as facility reservation and notice boards for ministry employees.

“Finland's Ministry of Defence clearly highlights how SUSE Linux Enterprise Server offers companies and organizations a reliable, scalable and flexible platform for their most critical applications and services,” said Tom Francese, president, Novell EMEA. “Novell's technology and its comprehensive service offering have enabled the Ministry of Defence to seamlessly migrate existing systems to Linux and smoothly and securely run critical applications on an open source platform.”

The Finnish Ministry of Defence is the latest addition to a growing list of government entities leveraging Linux from Novell. Local governments in Munich, Germany, Bergen, Norway, and Jefferson County, Colo.; schools systems in Baerum, Norway, and Indiana; the Swiss Federal government; the UK National Health System and U.S. National Institutes of Health; and the New Zealand Ministry of Education and Inland Revenue Service have all tapped SUSE Linux for their software infrastructure needs. For more information on Novell's solutions for government, please visit http://www.novell.com/industries/government/.