W.S. Badcock, with stores in eight states in the south-eastern US, also plans to use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 to run its point-of-sale store management system, taking advantage of the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform to handle both front- and back-office systems.

Our goal is to have one common platform across the enterprise, and SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell will completely meet our needs at a reasonable cost, says Veryl White, director of Technology Infrastructure for Badcock. Novell is helping us to reduce overhead throughout the enterprise, providing top-notch, enterprise-class software and capabilities that would be cost-prohibitive from a proprietary software vendor.

Badcock will consolidate on one Linux distribution, replacing any instances of Red Hat Linux with SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell.

Badcock's store management system includes approximately 100 applications, all of which will run on SUSE Linux Enterprise on IBM xSeries servers. The management capabilities of Novell ZENworks will be a key part of Badcock's deployment, along with Novell's support and training offerings, says White.

Susan Heystee, president of Novell Americas, says: As more customers learn about and experience the advantages of running Linux on the desktop, they discover the synergies of running SUSE Linux Enterprise on their servers, as well. Linux is now a clear alternative for enterprises of all kinds, enabling them to run their businesses effectively at a dramatically lower cost.