Microsoft and Suse Renew $100 Million Linux License

Posted 07/26/2011 at 6:27am | by Paul Lilly

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Microsoft makes Windows, a closed source platform. Suse builds open source Linux distros aimed at enterprise users. On the surface, these two would appear the unlikely couple, but the two companies just renewed a pact dating back to 2006 that has Microsoft purchasing and reselling Suse licenses. As part of the four-year contract extension, Microsoft has agreed to invest $100 million in new Suse Linux Enterprise certificates for Microsoft enterprise customers receiving Linux support from Suse.

"Our collaboration with Suse not only helps customers to achieve success today, but also seeks to provide them with a solid foundation for tomorrow," said Sandy Gupta, general manager of the Open Solutions Group at Microsoft. "Through our continued engagement on the technical side, an outstanding support offering from Suse and our ability to provide mutual IP assurance, we feel confident that we will be able to deliver core value to those running mixed-source IT environments well into the future — and into the cloud.”

As part of the original deal in 2006, Microsoft agreed to purchase and resell $240 million worth of Suse licenses before signing another pact in 2008 to resell $100 million more. So far the joint collaboration has served more than 725 customers around the globe representing a range of industries, such as manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare, and financial services, Microsoft says.