Hana And Linux On Microsoft Azure

Microsoft’s story is one of roaring success. Some people long thought the company was past its prime, but Microsoft continues to grow, with no signs of stopping anytime soon. The secret of its recent growth? Microsoft Azure.

More and more user companies leverage public cloud Azure services to establish SAP and non-SAP hybrid cloud environments and a sustainable digitalization strategy. Especially the SAP community favors Microsoft Azure, compared to its competitors Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

SAP, Microsoft, and Suse are a dream team

Consequently, SAP customers use SAP or Hana on Azure and Linux on Azure in hybrid cloud environments; or they are planning to use on prem components and combine them with IaaS public cloud services of major cloud providers.

Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications remains the preferred and recommended OS platform with over 90 percent market share for SAP Hana.

Mission critical

For SAP customers, the ability of SAP, Suse and Microsoft to ensure mission-critical SAP use is often the deciding factor for choosing the combination of all three world-class companies for cloud deployments. The three companies also have been collaborating for decades, and user companies of all industries and sizes can benefit from their partnership.

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 recognized the sign of the times and prepared itself accordingly. For example, the company will provide Suse Linux for SAP Applications on prem and in the cloud. Live patching is also available for both SAP variants. Furthermore, Suse Manager for Linux and SAP Hana management works on prem and in the cloud as well.