Unisys has joined Red Hat's Partner Community in a move which it promises will help push Linux into enterprise data centres.

Under the terms of the deal, Unisys will optimise Red Hat's Enterprise Linux across the full line of Intel-based Unisys ES7000 servers, running on both 32-bit and 64-bit Intel processors, from four-way to 32-way.

The partnership also covers joint marketing, customer support, the continued development of open source roadmaps, training and engineering.

"Chief information officers are increasingly looking to standardise their data centre environments on Intel platforms and move away from expensive, proprietary Unix/Risc-based systems," said Chander Khanna, vice president of platform marketing at Unisys, in a statement.

He claimed that the deal marked "a giant leap forward in developing a mission-critical ecosystem around the Linux operating environment".

Mike Evans, vice president of partner development at Red Hat, added: "Unisys is a perfect fit for Red Hat's continued commitment to further enhance the abilities of Linux in the enterprise space.

"Together, we are committed to making ES7000 a platform of choice for the Linux operating environment in the enterprise data centre."

The first Unisys server offerings integrated with Red Hat Enterprise Linux are available immediately.