IT services and hardware vendor Unisys Corp. has upped its involvement with Linux by joining the Red Hat Partner Community one month after unveiling support for Linux on its ES7000 servers.
In an announcement Tuesday, Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat Inc. said the deal allows the two companies to offer integrated Linux products to enterprise customers with Red Hat Enterprise Linux across the full line of Unisys server products, backed up by support worldwide by Unisys technicians.
Last month, Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys said customer demand had pushed it to begin offering its ES7000 servers with Red Hat or SUSE Linux, in addition to its existing Microsoft Windows-equipped line of ES7000 servers. The company said it had been closed out of the bidding on some recent contracts because it hadn’t had a Linux option for its hardware.
The new partnership spans an array of initiatives, including joint marketing, customer support and training.
“CIOs are increasingly looking to standardize their data center environments on Intel platforms and move away from expensive, proprietary Unix/RISC-based systems,” Chander Khanna, vice president, Unisys platform marketing, said in a statement. “Working with Red Hat, Unisys will help customers create flexible and robust Linux-based solutions designed to meet their specific needs. It’s a giant leap forward in developing a mission-critical ecosystem around the Linux operating environment.”
The full line of Intel-based Unisys ES7000 servers, running on both 32-bit and 64-bit Intel processors, from four-way to 32-way, will be available with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
“With its heritage in mainframe-class, mission-critical technological innovation as well as deep experience in supporting key vertical applications, Unisys is a perfect fit for Red Hat’s continued commitment to further enhance the abilities of Linux in the enterprise space,” Mike Evans, Red Hat’s vice-president of partner development, said in a statement. “Together, we are committed to making ES7000 a platform of choice for the Linux operating environment in the enterprise data centre.”
The new Unisys servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux are available immediately.