Novell has announced the availability of a suite of new tools that reduces the time and cost for independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprises to develop, deploy and manage software appliances. With the availability of the SUSE Appliance Toolkit, Novell says it now delivers the industry’s most complete and integrated solution for building, testing, updating and configuring software appliances across physical, virtual and cloud environments. The Toolkit features an onsite version of Novell’s innovative appliance-building solution SUSE Studio and new management tools that enable ISVs and enterprises to reduce software development time, installation cycles and maintenance costs.

 “Software appliances are an ideal solution for organisations faced with delivering projects on schedule, managing diverse development teams, and securely developing and deploying applications across multiple hardware and software platforms,” said Brett Waldman, research analyst, system software at IDC. “However, the creation, support and management of software appliances remain a mission-critical issue for ISVs and enterprises. Addressing the challenges of building, deploying and configuring enterprise software across widespread networks represents a significant opportunity for the software industry as a whole.”

Application development today is time consuming and resource intensive. ISVs and enterprises are recognising that tailoring the operating system to specific use cases can improve productivity, drive down support costs and enhance security. Software appliances – pre-configured combinations of an application, middleware and operating system integrated into a single image and tailored to run on industry-standard hardware – offer new possibilities for efficient and cost-effective software application deployment. According to analyst firm IDC, $1.1 billion in revenue is expected to be spent on software appliances by 2012 worldwide.

 “Software appliances can significantly simplify integrating and managing the applications and solutions that customers need,” said Dr Bob Sutor, vice president, open source and linux, IBM Software Group. “The SUSE Appliance Toolkit from Novell can potentially help our business partners deliver IBM software to their customers quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.”

www.novell.com/appliances