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Happy Birthday SAP Linux Lab!

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the SAP Linux Lab, and Suse was there from the beginning. Here are some highlights of two decades of collaboration.
Friedrich Krey, Suse
March 7, 2019
Linux Column
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When the SAP Linux Lab was founded in 1999, many could not be convinced of its importance in the SAP realm. The reason for that is simple. At the time, Unix and Windows were the dominant SAP IT infrastructures. However, SAP Linux Lab was only supposed to ensure that SAP solutions running on the open source operating system Linux would be optimally supported. Consequently, many people questioned why they would even need another operating system for SAP, especially an open source one.

Better together

In the Linux Lab, SAP employees, hardware manufacturers, and Linux distributors worked tirelessly to ensure that Linux for SAP would work flawlessly also in mission-critical enterprises. One part of it was to provide high-performance Linux for major SAP environments (think 1000 users) using Intel processors.

In the mySAP era (2003 to 2007), Linux caught up fast with Unix and Microsoft—in part because of solutions like CRM (then Sales Force Automation) and SCM. Consequently, it secured a fixed spot in the SAP infrastructure.

Close cooperation

Now, Suse SLES for SAP Applications is the leading Linux operating system in the SAP environment, primarily because of the SAP Linux Lab. And not without reason: Suse was there from the beginning, supporting SAP-relevant solutions and even creating numerous functionalities just for SAP systems together with SAP and partners.

The list is endless and ranges from adaptive computing, Business Warehouse, Industry Solutions, SAP ERP ECC, SAP Business By Design and Business One, Suse as a software development platform, virtualization and Solution Manager to usability, performance management, security, high availability or implementation optimization and in-memory and cloud computing.

Hana as the milestone for 2011

Undoubtedly, 2011 was a milestone: as theonly operating system, Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications was certified for SAP Hana. For five years, Hana was only offered with Suse SLES for SAP Applications. Consequently, Suse was able to gain even more acceptance in the SAP community and to gain know-how about Hana/Linux applications. This know-how is still in use today and can even be applied to the S/4 migration.

Linux and more

But that’s not all. Besides Linux, SAP and Suse are working on a lot of other open source projects together. These include OpenStack, Ceph, Cloud Foundry, Kubernetes, and virtualization with KVM. Numerous Suse open source solutions are actually in use with SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) and Hana Enterprise Cloud (HEC).

Worldclass Partnership

Suse and the SAP Linux Lab have a world class partnership. This entails that Suse has always had a rich and broad knowledge about SAP solutions based on innovative infrastructure solutions. That’s why I can already proudly say today: Happy 20th birthday SAP Linux Lab!

https://e3mag.com/partners/suse-linux-gmbh/

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Friedrich Krey, Suse

Friedrich Krey is Head of SAP Alliances and Partners EMEA Central SUSE Linux GmbH and one of our esteemed E3 SAP Community Magazine columnists.


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Working on the SAP basis is crucial for successful S/4 conversion. 

This gives the Competence Center strategic importance for existing SAP customers. Regardless of the S/4 Hana operating model, topics such as Automation, Monitoring, Security, Application Lifecycle Management and Data Management the basis for S/4 operations.

For the second time, E3 magazine is organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of S/4 Hana groundwork.

Venue

More information will follow shortly.

Event date

Wednesday, May 21, and
Thursday, May 22, 2025

Regular ticket

EUR 590 excl. VAT

Venue

Hotel Hilton Heidelberg
Kurfürstenanlage 1
D-69115 Heidelberg

Event date

Wednesday, March 5, and
Thursday, March 6, 2025

Tickets

Regular ticket
EUR 590 excl. VAT
The event is organized by the E3 magazine of the publishing house B4Bmedia.net AG. The presentations will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected SAP partners. The ticket price includes attendance at all presentations of the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025, a visit to the exhibition area, participation in the evening event and catering during the official program. The lecture program and the list of exhibitors and sponsors (SAP partners) will be published on this website in due course.