The designation means that “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2” has received the Internet Protocol Version 6 Special Interoperability Certification from the department’s Defense Information System Agency, according to Novell officials.

 

The federal Office of Management and Budget recently issued a policy mandating all federal government agencies upgrade their network infrastructures to IPv6 and interface each agency network with this infrastructure by June, according to the company.

 

IPv6 is a network layer for packet-switched networks that will succeed IPv4 for general Internet use. It eliminates the need to use network address translation to avert the exhaustion of IP addresses as it offers a much larger address space that provides improved flexibility in assigning addresses.

 

The customers of Novell, including government agencies, can now rely on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to support present and future networking standards, according to the company. This offers the peace of mind, knowing that the products they use are safe, company officials say.

 

The APL list is expected to become a defense department and U.S. federal government equipment purchase requirement, Novell officials say. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the sole general-purpose operating system with IPsec Internet Key Exchange v2 support to date, apart from making Novell the first Linux vendor to appear on the list, according to the company. The product was granted IPv6 certification just four days after the release of SP2, company officials say.

 

“SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the Linux operating system that government agencies can rely on to meet their mission-critical performance demands while satisfying stringent federal mandates,” said Carlos Montero- Luque, vice president of product management for open platform solutions at Novell. “Federal mandates for updated IT infrastructure can often signal expensive upgrades for government agencies, contractors and other organizations. With this latest certification, federal agencies and others can leverage the enterprise-class power and unmatched interoperability that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server offers, without a costly upgrade.”