SUSE is a multinational open-source software company that develops and sells Linux products to business customers. Saad Syed, Country Manager Middle East & North Africa, SUSE speaks about SUSE’s SAP platform and its advantages.

Give an overview of SUSE platforms and servers designated for SAP applications and the advantage enterprises get using the combination

The SUSE platform for SAP applications (SLES for SAP Applications, SUSE Manager, SLE Live Patching) helps customers deliver SAP services faster, more efficiently, and with less risk.

With the SUSE platform for SAP applications, customers benefit from faster service delivery of SAP services. The SUSE solution provides pre-built cloud images, co-developed with the hyperscalers and maintained by SUSE, to ensure the latest versions are readily available to customers. The deployment automation of the complete SAP software stack is based on best practices on-premises and in the cloud, which reduces implementation times and troubleshooting errors.

Customers can increase efficiency by reducing the IT workload for routine maintenance with a single console to maintain system configurations. In addition, advanced monitoring and visualization of the Linux server/cloud instance and SAP applications reduce troubleshooting time and enable proactive error prevention. Finally, the SUSE solution reduces risk by maintaining always-on, secure SAP services.

Customers of all sizes trust SUSE with their mission-critical SAP workloads, SAP and Microsoft for example are co-innovation partners but also customers.

Briefly explain the services SUSE offer to enterprises in terms of consultation, product support, and implementation

Our global services, support, and training teams provide our customers with freedom of choice. We offer services ranging from discovering the right open-source solutions for their business through design and implementation and optimization services such as health checks.  All service offerings are designed to meet the customers where they are and get them to where they want to go.

SUSE provides services that will map to every phase of the customer modernization journey. We offer our customers standard and priority support, backed by global, follow the sun, technical experts. With the add-on of  “white glove services,” our premium support services,  customers can forge a direct relationship with a technical and business professional. Premium Support Services is a tiered offering, providing direct relationships, rapid response times, and after-hours support from a team that knows the customers’ business and objectives.

How do you evaluate the growth prospects of SUSE in the next two years (w.r.t. alliances, expansions, revenue)?

Our recently closed FYQ3 was a strong quarter for SUSE. This year in May, SUSE has got listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is so far the largest enterprise software IPO in Europe 2021.

Our strong relationships with our partners, customers, and the open-source community remain a pillar of our success. We’ve doubled down on hiring, talent development, and an unprecedented employee support program.

On the product side, many enhancements were developed for SUSE Linux Enterprise solutions and SUSE Rancher container management solutions. SUSE is innovating, with a host of new cloud-ready and cloud-native solutions for edge and hybrid IT environments. We continue to shape our core and our emerging technologies with several cutting-edge open-source projects, staying deeply engaged within the variety of our open-source communities. An example is Harvester, our very first open-source hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution that’s built entirely on Kubernetes.

Saad Syed leads SUSE’s operation in the Middle East and North Africa region. He has engaged with numerous customers across the Middle East and Africa in their digital transformation journeys.