The Microsoft / Novell partnership announced a joint interoperability lab is now open for business.

“Customers want interoperability out of the block,” said Microsoft’s director of open source technology strategy, Sam Ramji. “The lab’s built, staffed and powered on and will be run by Microsoft’s Tom Hanrahan who was hired away from Linux.”

The two companies plan to focus on server-side issues like virtualization, directory and identity services, and management according to a story released by Information Week. There is no shortage, the story reports, of work to be done to ensure better interoperability between Microsoft products and Linux. 

Novell and Microsoft are working together to make sure SUSE Linux runs well in a virtualized environment on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with Microsoft’s Viridian Technology.  It is also working to make sure it runs well on XenSource virtualization.  The findings will be used as input for the Viridian and SUSE Linux service packs.