HP has exited the world of identity management and handed over its Identity Center customers to Novell as part of an exclusive alliance.

Under the agreement, HP will resell Novell identity and security management offerings and Novell will license HP's Identity Center technology.

"We chose to collaborate with Novell because of its outstanding set of technologies, recognised market leadership and tremendous commitment to working with HP customers," said Ben Horowitz, vice president and general manager of business technology optimisation software at HP.

HP and Novell will jointly offer migration services to help move existing HP customers to Novell's team. Customers who choose not to migrate will continue to be supported by HP.

"HP and Novell have clarified a path for HP Identity Center customers who have invested in critical identity management infrastructure," said Gerry Gebel, vice president and service director of consulting firm Burton Group.

"The agreement between Novell and HP is a positive outcome for both vendors as they partner to address the technology and services requirements of enterprises in an increasingly competitive industry."

As part of the migration platform, licence credit will be given to current HP Identity Center customers. Novell is offering full licence credit for the first 12 months for customers that begin migration to its identity and security management products.

Markus Krauss, identity and security management sales lead at Novell EMEA, told vnunet.com that HP picked Novell for this deal for several reasons.

"Identity management is a very specialised and innovation-driven market and Novell has proved itself as the market leader in this arena in terms of innovation," he said.

Krauss added that there is less overlap between the two companies than there might otherwise be with other companies operating in this space, making the deal an "optimum fit".

As part of the deal HP has provided Novell with all relevant intellectual property and source code which is currently being reviewed for the purpose of management as well as possibly integrating some of the functionality into its own programmes.