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The NHS has extended a networking deal with Novell, covering security and workload management for Cloud applications.

In a five year deal worth around £6 million. Novell's Secure Login software will be used to improve access controls for different types of hospital records.

The deal is also said to be intended to “help lay the foundations for the UK Government Cloud Computing Programme and support the NHS' ongoing commitment to green IT.”

“One of the goals for the NHS is to achieve greater value from its infrastructure. Standardising on open source not only reduces costs, but will also underpin two key strategic initiatives for the NHS – reducing our environmental impact and moving towards a Cloud Computing environment,” said Mark Ferrar, strategy director at the NHS.

Novell is providing the NHS with its Open Enterprise Server 2 and Storage and Access Manager to act as an operating system backbone that can support over 300,000 users.

The contract also covers the use of ZENworks Configuration Management for remote management, enabling IT staff to issue updates and fixes remotely. Novell's Patch Management, Asset Management and SecureLogin will be used to keep patient records secure and confidential, and prevent any embarrassing data breaches, while Teaming+Conferencing will enable real-time collaboration and communication between departments.

“Using Novell's Intelligent Workload Management solutions will help the NHS keep patient data safe, streamline operations, boost green IT and prepare to move to a Cloud Computing IT environment,” said Javier Colado, president EMEA at Novell.