RSPCA Further Improves the Quality of Care for Animals with Move to an Open Enterprise

Press Release

Novell's Linux technology to be installed for its security, reliability, flexibility and ability to run critical open source applications more efficiently

Bracknell, UK — February 14 2006 — The Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA) will introduce a range of Open Source Linux solutions from Novell to support its 15 animal centres and 4 wildlife centres throughout the UK.  This will provide staff with the ability to share information more quickly and allocate resources more efficiently; further improving the reliability and efficiency of its service and ensuring that animals are provided with effective care.

The animal centres are a base for the care and re-homing of animals.

The charity will save valuable funds in IT support by using Novell® GroupWise® 7 email technology to give remote workers the ability to communicate via email, share animal medical records electronically, share knowledge and communicate the findings of research projects.  The charity will also use Novell® ZENworks® 7 resource management solution to manage its animal centre from a central head office location.

“Our investment in Novell's open source technology will increase the productivity of our staff and reduce costs for the charity,” said Chris Rolfe, Network Manager, RSPCA.  “Our staff now have improved access to information enabling them to make better, more informed, decisions.  Our staff can also now manage resources more effectively saving valuable funds for the charity. This will only help us to meet our objective of improving the quality of life for animals.”

Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES)
Utilising Novell OES, the RSPCA will implement 2 Novell® SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server 9.0s operating in a two-node cluster environment.  This will provide a low cost, scalable, high performance platform to securely deliver new email and resource management applications for the benefit of remote workers.

By deploying the Linux servers in a cluster environment, the RSPCA will avoid the many consequences of downtime, ensuring business continuity in the event of isolated server maintenance.

“Deploying Novell® SUSE® Linux Enterprise Servers empowers the RSPCA to leverage the benefits of Linux and open source technologies, both now and in the future,” said Chris Rolfe, Network Manager, RSPCA. “Through its performance, scalability and security, we are confident the system can meet the ever-changing demands of our end-users and the RSPCA's future needs.”

The charity gained this confidence through a previous installation of Novell® SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server 8.0, which currently runs its Oracle database.

Novell® GroupWise® 7
The RSPCA will also install Novell® GroupWise® 7 to enable remote animal centre workers to communicate with each other via a corporate email system and share animal medical records electronically.

The four wildlife centres act as research functions. The introduction of Novell® GroupWise® 7 email will enable the researchers to share information with other researchers based at different locations more easily.

Novell® ZENworks® 7
Using Novell® ZENworks® 7, new software and updates will be distributed to every PC in the animal centre network from the RSPCA headquarters, reducing IT support costs and the need to travel to remote offices. Patch management for example, is expected to become fully automated, a process which previously took five man-days per month to complete.

RSYNC
Finally, open source RSYNC technology will be deployed at the central head office and remote locations to handle back-up of information at its 15 animal centres and 4 wildlife centres. RSYNC will remove the need for back-up equipment at each centre and will reduce local back-up costs significantly.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) is a leading provider of infrastructure software and services to over 50,000 customers in 43 countries. With more than 20 years of experience in data centres, workgroup and desktop solutions, Novell's 6,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centres around the world are meeting customer requirements for identity-driven computing and Linux solutions. By providing enterprise-class software and support for commercial and open source software, Novell delivers increased operating flexibility and choice at a lower total cost of ownership. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com.

Press Contact:

Gavin Loader
Text 100
020 8846 0724
Gavin.Loader@text100.co.uk

Anna Roberts
Text 100
020 8846 0700
anna.roberts@Text100.co.uk