Hana on Azure and Linux on Azure

It's a rather impressive story with a kind of blockbuster that Microsoft has created. Already written off here and there, the company has more than recovered economically and is in a real climb. The main success drivers are the transitions to the cloud and Microsoft Azure.

More and more user companies are using public cloud Azure services as an effective lever to drive forward their digitalization strategies, which almost always include hybrid cloud usage. This applies to both the non-SAP and SAP environment. In the SAP community, Microsoft and Azure seem to enjoy a favored reputation or are on a roll, ahead of Amazon AWS and the Google Cloud Platform. At least this is one of the results of the DSAG investment survey published at the beginning of the year.

SAP, Microsoft and Suse in unison

SAP customers are increasingly using SAP or Hana on Azure and Linux on Azure in their hybrid cloud strategies. With on-prem here and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) public cloud from a hyperscaler there. Or they are about to include scenarios for this in their concrete calculations.

Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications is also included as the preferred and recommended operating system platform with a market share of over 90 percent for SAP Hana.

Mission critical

The fact that all three partners are seen as providing support with world-class solutions for mission-critical and application-related SAP use, including in cloud computing, is repeatedly cited as a major plus point for the combination of SAP, Microsoft and Suse. Furthermore, that the partnering of the three IT giants extends over decades in some cases and that user companies from many industries and different company sizes benefit from this.

For example: Suse and Microsoft are driving forward the optimization of the Suse kernel for Microsoft Azure use as part of a co-engineering project. Or: At the beginning of April, Suse was the first and only OS provider to provide "SAP Linux" for SAP Large Hana Instances on Microsoft Azure. Both benefit user companies.

Likewise, the Suse-SAP cooperation is known to be very intensive. This is underlined by Suse's 20-year involvement in the SAP Linux Lab, which is characterized by the development and provision of numerous dedicated "for SAP solutions and functions".

Technology Consistency

It's obvious: the group of cloud-opponents in the SAP community is shrinking rapidly in view of the factual benefits that cloud use has proven to bring. This does not mean that there will be no more SAP on-premise environments in the foreseeable future, but that a certain mix of on-premise and cloud services will become established, depending on individual company requirements.

Suse has made far-sighted provisions for this. For example, with the provision of Suse Linux for SAP Applications for both SAP on-prem operation and cloud use. And with uniform and consistent technology consistency, which brings a number of advantages - including cost savings. The live patching function for minimizing downtime, for example, is available for both SAP operating variants. And if you want, you can also obtain and use the Suse Manager for Linux and SAP Hana management via Azure.