HHS picks Novell

The Department of Health and Human Services has signed an agreement for unlimited use of much of Novell's product portfolio. The agreement includes the National Institutes of Health, part of HHS.

The HHS deal is separate from Novell's SmartBuy agreement, which was signed last summer, said Alan Kraft, vice president for federal government solutions at Novell. HHS wanted to use its own vehicle for the three-year agreement, he said.

SmartBuy, the General Services Administration's enterprise licensing agreement, is not mandatory for most vendors' products. One notable exception is Oracle, whose recently signed deal requires agencies buying the company's products to use the SmartBuy arrangement.

"We are in negotiations to change our SmartBuy [arrangement], at least with the Linux piece, to be similar to what Oracle has," Kraft said. If he gets his way, the deal would require agencies buying Novell Linux to use the SmartBuy terms.

The HHS deal includes Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Open Enterprise Server, Linux Desktop and a range of other products, according to company officials. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.