Linux versus Linux

Here I already reported a few years ago about the strange and non-market Linux policy of SAP: The successful and close partnership with Suse Linux is gratifying and for European SAP-existing customers very helpful.

Who on Suse Linux knows that up-to-date drivers, suitable add-ons and tested operating system versions are available for each new Hana release.

At our SAP-There are always reports that in the enterprise environment Red Hat with its Linux distribution is also used, but that in the meantime almost all Hana installations are based on Suse Linux run - even if on the side a Red Hat-server stands.

It must have been a favorable twist of fate when, many years ago - nothing had yet been heard or seen of Hana - the company Suse began to make a lasting commitment to the SAP Linux Lab in Walldorf: The early bird catches the worm!

Since then, the European Linux distributor always at the forefront of new Hana operating models and innovations.

I always criticized the imprecise Linux policy.

As a global Company white SAP was well aware of the market shares and presence of the various Linux distributors. It was no secret that in the USA the Company Red Hat is the market leader and Suse Linux was hardly known.

One of the first major Hana users and a later SoH reference customer was the American Company John Deere.

Naturally, the CIO there used a Red Hat-Linux distribution. And this mistake also happened repeatedly in the company's own group.

At an internal CCC meeting of our North and South American colleagues, there was a massive exchange of opinions between our European group CCC leader and the hosts: Red Hat versus Suse!

SAP saw this dilemma and organized an official certification of the Red Hat-distribution for Hana.

Too much of a good thing

So far, so good. But after two years, you have to be SAP-Existing customer recognize that Red Hat has apparently never been able to develop sustained interest in the Hana market and that SAP was equally incapable of making Red Hat understand the complexity of a ERP-market.

Red Hat's European commitment to the Walldorf-based SAP Linux Lab was never really there anyway.

Today the SAP-community is faced with the shambles of a business that has gone completely off the rails. SAP-Linux policy: the certification, the patch level, the up-to-dateness of the Red Hat-Linux version for Hana are about two years old.

It is not "high availability" capable for a Hana installation and is hopelessly outdated compared to the Suse distribution.

SAP knows it and remains silent.

Obviously, the Walldorfers are trying to sit this dilemma out, which will definitely end in an even bigger disaster.

Why I know this Linux history and give it here to the best?

Because last summer, as Group CIO, I was forced to launch a special program for the global replacement of Red Hat Linux for Hana. The complaints in my email inbox increased almost exponentially, so I decided to take this radical step.

After a CIO meeting in Singapore, the decision was made: Even with little or no Suse-Linux-know-how, all existing Red Hat-Hana installations transformed to Suse.

We expect this technical release change to be completed in Q2 of next year. And I would love to pass on the cost of this change to SAP Pass on.

This treatment of existing customers is irresponsible, and would Gerd Oswald not be on my way to retirement, I would have long since pitched up at his office in Walldorf.

Of course I could use this Red Hat-versus-Suse problem, but Bernd Leukert, the board member responsible for technology, has not yet SAP-The company's voice was too weak to make the effort worthwhile.

Michael Kleinemeier, as the official successor of Gerd Oswald, is up to his ears in work and repair services, so Red Hat would probably be his last problem in the current situation.

Suse is investing more heavily in the American market and, thanks to the new constellation of Suse parent Micro Focus and HP Enterprise even more global momentum. At least HP Enterprise's commitment to Suse Linux is very much in line with our Group strategy.

For all its advantages and disadvantages, Hana is still very sensitive in terms of IT architecture/infrastructure. Hana can now be set up quickly and is ready for operation, but we can only operate it on certified hardware with multiple layers of security.

A commitment and a more intensive partnership between HPE and Suse can only be helpful here.

Aware of this dilemma, I also in the summer the general release for HoP, Hana on Power (IBM), and for AWS. The combination of Red Hat and x86 is therefore disqualified for SAP Hana with immediate effect.