One Linux platform usage in view

The epochal influences and consequences on society and the economy due to the Corona crisis are not over yet. The lockdown has hit companies hard.

Tourism will probably be hit hardest. The consequences for trade are also difficult to estimate. The impact on industry is likely to be comparatively less severe. Much is uncertain, but one certainty remains: It will certainly be some time before a certain normality returns.

Nevertheless, a number of companies have taken it upon themselves, especially in a crisis, to put what they have achieved to the test, to question or optimize corporate processes and/or SAP-based business processes - but also to focus on the SAP IT infrastructure and to put improvements into practice. Incidentally, this was also the case during the global financial crisis.

SLES and SLES for SAP

One starting point that companies are putting on the optimization agenda when it comes to SAP IT infrastructure is to move to or use a One Linux platform. And this applies to both SAP and non-SAP applications.

Suse and Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications are known to be the choice of the majority of companies using Hana or Hana-based applications.

Some of them have unique functions for SAP Classic and S/4 and Hana. And quite a few of them prefer the rather generic operating system platform Suse Linux Enterprise Server in the non-SAP area (without the addition for SAP Applications or its specific/extended SAP functionality).

For example, the Egger Group, headquartered in Austria and active worldwide in the wood processing industry with 19 production sites and around 9600 employees worldwide.

After all, the well-known company runs around 150 systems with SLES; quite a few Java application servers or production control systems as well as SQL databases. In the SAP environment, Hana-ization with SAP business intelligence solutions (30 instances) was first advantageously initiated together with SLES for SAP Applications (and physical as well as virtualized servers).

The switch to S/4 Hana is still pending. It is assumed that SLES for SAP Applications will also be used here. Incidentally, Egger also uses the Suse Manager management software to manage, control and monitor the entire Linux environment.

As it is said by the user, "IT efficiency has increased thanks to SLES for SAP Applications and Suse Manager. It also opens up the full analytics potential of our business data. This leads to the identification of new business opportunities and thus to accelerated growth.n."

Monetary advantages

On the other hand, there are a number of companies that are increasingly relying on Suse (SLES) in the non-SAP environment as a result of the positive experiences with SLES for SAP Applications together with S/4 (and also in the SAP Classic deployment).

And thus favor a one Linux platform strategy or use. It is obvious that a one Linux platform strategy has advantages: For example, know-how only has to be built up and maintained once. Furthermore, you only have to deal with one software supplier, which ultimately saves time and money.

Speaking of money: One aspect that should not be underestimated in a One Linux platform strategy is that the expenses for more or for a high number of licenses are lower than for only a small or few Linux licenses due to a discount scale.