Turbolinux Joins Microsoft and Other Industry Leaders in Interop Vendor Alliance

Turbolinux — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:22:00 GMT

Tokyo, November 28, 2007 - Turbolinux, a leading Linux client and server distributor in Japan and China, today announced it has joined the Interop Vendor Alliance (IVA), a Microsoft sponsored community of software and hardware vendors working together to enhance interoperability with Microsoft systems. The IVA is an industry-wide group sharing the common goal of making technologies work better together with Microsoft systems for customers.

With increasing demands for products that support business objectives and lower total cost of ownership, IT managers need solutions to seamlessly enhance connectivity between Windows and Linux IT environments. As a leading Linux distributor with a strong market position in Asia, Turbolinux is well positioned to join the IVA in providing real interoperability solutions to customers with mixed IT environments. The joint solutions, such as single sign-on, will help customers reduce the cost and complexity of running mixed Windows and Linux systems.

"Microsoft is pleased that Turbolinux has joined the Interop Vendor Alliance," said Sam Rosenbalm, Interop Vendor Alliance manager, Microsoft Corporation. “We are very excited about collaborating with Turbolinux to build a bridge between open source and commercial technologies that benefits the entire IT ecosystem.”

Microsoft Corporation and Turbolinux signed a business agreement in October that addresses customer issues, furthered Linux-Windows interoperability and R&D collaboration, and provided IP assurances to Turbolinux users. Taking part in the IVA, Turbolinux will provide solutions which greatly enhance Linux-Window Server interoperability by developing some modules that enable Turbolinux products to work more seamlessly with Active Directory and the Windows networking environment.

"Joining the IVA is an important component of our partnership with Microsoft and will allow us to start solution development and testing." said Yano Koichi, CEO of Turbolinux. “Working collaboratively with Microsoft, we are eager to deliver the solutions as soon as we can to the market.”

Turbolinux will organize a research and development lab with the cooperation of Microsoft and will use the lab to focus on developing, testing and providing Linux andWindow Server interoperability solutions for customers and partners.

About Turbolinux
Turbolinux develops and sells the leading Linux distribution in Asia-Pacific. The operating system is optimized to run on a wide range of hardware platforms, including Intel-based servers and IBM mainframes. Turbolinux, with headquarters in Japan, plays a major role in developing Linux systems for the Japanese market, including Japanese and Chinese language "double-byte" text support. More than half of Turbolinux's staff is dedicated to Linux engineering development and support, providing expert support and custom application development services that go beyond Japanese localization issues. Turbolinux works extensively with standards bodies and partners to ensure certification and software compatibility in all business environments. For more information, visit http://www.turbolinux.com.