Novell today announced the availability of Novell Cloud Manager, a new solution that enables customers to create and securely manage a cloud computing environment as a seamless extension of existing data center resources.  The new Novell Cloud Manager is designed for the heterogeneous reality of most IT environments, giving users the freedom and flexibility to create and manage private clouds which support all leading hypervisors, operating systems and hardware platforms.

Novell Cloud Manager lets IT administrators package, price and present IT services on-demand through a customizable interface. Customers can leverage the flexibility and cost savings of cloud computing, without the security and compliance risks inherent in public clouds.

Novell that was conducted by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Novell showed that 89 percent of respondents see private clouds as the next logical stop for organizations already using virtualization and 93 percent feel private cloud platforms should offer a management framework that can span a heterogeneous infrastructure. In addition, 91 percent of survey respondents note concern about the inherent security risks public clouds present.

“Novell Cloud Manager will simplify our IT service provisioning by enabling us to treat our physical resources and virtual infrastructure as a seamless private cloud and gain a much clearer and more granular understanding of our IT use and costs,” said Ryan Klose, chief information officer of Premium Wine Brands for Pernod Ricard. “Working with AkurIT, our Novell business partner, who implemented the virtual infrastructure and Novell Cloud Manager, our BIS Infrastructure team can be more responsive to changing business priorities. Novell Cloud Manager allows us to simplify and automate many of our business processes, accelerate IT service delivery as well as provide visibility and cost transparency to the business. Strategically, this will provide us with a competitive edge.”