Novell and Red Hat have been elevated to IBM's Strategic Alliance program -- IBM's highest tier partner status, according to a recent IBM announcement. The move will make it simpler for clients to acquire open standards-based Linux hardware, software, and services through integrated and streamlined sales, distribution and services channels.

Inclusion in the program opens significant new channels and access to IBM innovation centers to Novell and Red Hat, including those in emerging countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China and Korea, IBM says,  "to drive more open source deals in those booming markets."

Other results of the move include new subscription models combining IBM offerings with Novell and Red Hat solutions; support by Novell and Red Hat of IBM's open platforms including the Java-based Apache Geronimo web server and Apache Derby database; and continued support of the Eclipse development platform.

"The companies are (also) reinforcing their commitment to the Java community, which comprises more than six million developers worldwide," IBM said in an official statement. "Additionally, the companies will help customers begin to deploy Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) based on a J2EE application environment."

IBM says this announcement represents the most significant elevation of IBM's strategic partnerships with its key Linux Distribution Partners since it embraced Linux six years ago. The company cited figures from IDC that show that the overall Linux marketplace is growing annually at 26 percent, and expected to reach $35.7 billion by 2008.