Oracle's Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) has landed its third big partner since a launch nine months ago that had Wall St predicting Red Hat's impending death.

The market's number-one database vendor announced on Tuesday that Symantec has certified its datacenter software with Oracle's Enterprise Linux alternative to Red Hat. Symantec follows in the footsteps of EMC and Hitachi Data Systems.

Symantec has certified its Storage Foundation 5.0, Storage Foundation 5.0 for Oracle, Storage Foundation Cluster File System 5.0, Cluster Server 5.0, NetBackup 6.0 Client, and Veritas i3. Veritas' Storage Foundation Cluster File System was also certified with Oracle Real Application Clusters on Oracle Enterprise Linux, Red Hat, and SuSE.

Oracle said the move followed growing customer demand for ULN, although we've yet to see any important customer announcements emerge since a high-profile launch presided over by chief executive Larry Ellison last October. Certification is likely to open the door to Symantec's enterprise customer base for ULN.

ULN's threat to Red Hat was always long-term, and since October's launch, it has been pulling the partners in that could tempt customers into running their systems based on service quality rather than purely price, as analysts expected.

Oracle has been working on vendor certification with its Linux network since launch. Ahead of Symantec, also a Red Hat enterprise partner, EMC got certified in April, following Hitachi Data Systems, 170 Systems, AppWorx, Egenera, Emulex, QLogic, and Synoran. ®

Related stories

Red Hat haunts Ellison's Linux dream (15 November 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/15/ellison_red_hat_support/
Red Hat turns to Platform for Linux cluster charge (14 November 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/14/redhat_platform_hpc/
Charmed by own tune, Egenera sells PAN to rivals (29 October 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/29/egenera_pan_manager/
Symantec launches new SMB partner programme (13 September 2007)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/09/13/symantec_smb_partner_programme/
Oracle claims no Linux ulterior motive (8 August 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/08/oracle_uln_red_hat/
Symantec sales up, but profits drop (26 July 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/26/symantec_q1_07_earnings/
Oracle beats up on BEA (21 March 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/21/oracle_third_quarter_bea/
Red Hat to pack punch on Oracle clustering? (15 March 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/15/red_hat_rhel_oracle/
Analyst reverses stance on Red Hat threat (14 February 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/14/red_hat_oracle_sun_support_linux/
Oracle turns the screws in Red Hat switcheroo (23 January 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/23/oracle_red_hat_management/
Sun squares up to Oracle with Red Hat challenge (17 January 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/17/sun_solaris_subscriptions/
Red Hat answers big boys with middleware (21 November 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/21/red_hat_jonas/
Oracle welcomes Linux users with support site crash (30 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/30/oracle_meta_down/
Red Hat promises to keep charging customers double (27 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/redhat_forks_oracle/
Ellison's venomous tongue devastates Red Hat shares (26 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/26/redhat_oracle_fall/
Ellison muscles in on Red Hat support biz (25 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/25/oracle_red_hat_support/