SUSE LINUX and IBM Launch Software Integration Center

SUSE LINUX and IBM Launch Software Integration Center to Deliver
Best-of-Breed Enterprise Solution Stacks 

Partnership to optimize interaction between SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server
and IBM Middleware 

Nuremberg/Germany, Toronto/Canada, Dec 5, 2003 - SUSE LINUX and IBM today
announced the foundation of a joint Software Integration Center located at
the IBM Toronto Lab - providing enterprise customers optimized interaction
of the SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server operating system with IBM software
offerings. The collaboration will initially focus on IBM DB2 Universal
Database offerings and will subsequently be extended to other IBM software
products. 

SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server is the first Linux operating system to be
validated on all hardware platforms supported by DB2 for Linux and
validated to run DB2 Enterprise Server Edition. In the Software Integration
Center, IBM and SUSE will collaborate on porting, migration, certification
and support of future IBM DB2 software offerings on the SUSE LINUX
Enterprise Server platform. This will ensure optimized functionality of
database applications and underlying enterprise operating system technology
-- making SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server and IBM DB2 database software a
highly available, scalable combination for mission-critical deployments in
data centers. In addition, customers will benefit from the unique quality
of server operating system and IBM middleware being perfectly tuned and the
even faster availability of certified updates. 

"The SUSE-IBM Software Integration Center at the IBM Toronto Lab will
intensify the work already underway to optimize DB2 and other IBM software
products with SUSE LINUX offerings," said Bob Picciano, Director of
Database Technology, IBM Toronto Software Lab. "The result will be
solutions that can help provide customers with a rapid return on
investment, particularly for IBM's integrated Linux database cluster. It
takes the longstanding, close engineering relationship between IBM and SUSE
to a higher level with the ultimate goal of higher customer satisfaction." 

"The new SUSE-IBM Software Integration Center strengthens SUSE LINUX and
IBM's commitment to deliver enterprise-class Linux software that can be
deployed with maximum performance, highest availability and unprecedented
low cost of ownership," said Uwe Heine, Chief Alliance Officer of SUSE
LINUX. "Using IBM software applications on SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server,
combined with the SUSE LINUX Maintenance Program, businesses benefit from
high stability of their mission-critical Linux deployments, considerably
saving software integration and administration workload." 

About IBM's Data Management Business

There are more than 60 million DB2 users from 425,000 companies worldwide
relying on IBM DB2 Universal Database. IBM is the only data management
software vendor to provide customers with integrated solutions for database
management, tools, content management, enterprise information integration
and business intelligence.  For more information please visit
www.software.ibm.com/data 

About SUSE LINUX

Established in 1992, SUSE LINUX is one of the world's leading providers of
Linux software and services. With the largest dedicated Linux research and
development team, SUSE delivers enterprise-ready software and services that
harness the innovation, speed-to-market and independence of the open source
community. A privately-held company based in Nuremberg, Germany, SUSE --
together with global business partners -- supports customers throughout the
world. Further information on SUSE LINUX can be found at www.suse.de/en/. 

SUSE is a registered trademark of SUSE LINUX. Linux is a registered
trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the
property of their respective owners. 

Media contacts:

Lori Bosio
Manager Media Relations
IBM Software Group
T: +1-(914) 766-1408, FAX +1-(914) 766-8143
e-mail: bosiol@us.ibm.com

Martina Krahmer
SUSE LINUX
Phone: +49-911-74053-507, Fax: +49-911-741 77 55
e-mail: martina.krahmer@suse.de