BANGALORE, INDIA: Novell today announced an array of product license agreements and special offers designed to help Sun Microsystems identity management and Solaris customers upgrade to equivalent Novell solutions.

In addition, Novell is also offering incentive programs for Sun partners to join the Novell PartnerNet channel community as a result of which Sun customers and partners now have a financially compelling reason to migrate their identity management and operating system platforms to Novell.

The new Novell programs and offers address concerns raised by recent news that Sun’s product catalog, now owned by Oracle, will be substantially scaled back. Additionally, Sun’s largest customers will be now routed through a direct support model, leaving Sun partners and resellers in a bind.

“Oracle has left Sun customers and partners out in the cold,” said Justin Steinman, vice president of solution and product marketing at Novell.  “Many Sun customers are questioning the plans Oracle has for the former Sun products.  If Sun customers are concerned about the future of Solaris, then they can now migrate to SUSE Linux Enterprise.  If Sun customers are concerned about the future roadmap for Sun’s identity management products, then they can now migrate to Novell Identity Manager 4 – the only identity solution to manage identities in physical, virtual and cloud environments.  And if you’re a former Sun partner, then you may be interested in establishing a new relationship with a company like Novell, who is deeply committed to the partner channel.”