SUSE® Linux and OpenStack: High Standards for SAP Offerings from the Cloud

White PaperCloud Computing

As cloud computing spreads like wildfire throughout the IT industry, the importance of OpenStack—an open-source framework that offers numerous advantages over proprietary cloud solutions—continues to grow. SAP customers are among those increasingly requesting OpenStack as an administration and orchestration solution for cloud based SAP workloads. The strength of the SAP-SUSE technology partnership makes SUSE Openstack Cloud the ideal choice for rapid implementation and simple management of SAP offerings from the cloud. This enables SAP customers to respond more flexibly to new market and customer requirements while strengthening their competitive position.

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Cloud Computing White PaperSUSE Linux and OpenStack: High Standards for SAP Offerings from the Cloud

The Backbone of Advancing Digitalization According to the U.S. market research firm IDC, global expen-ditures for cloud infrastructure will grow at a double-digit rate in the years ahead and reach US$52 billion by 2019.1 Forbes, meanwhile, reports that 62 percent of all companies will run their IT exclusively from the cloud by 2020.2

This is hardly a coincidence, particularly when it comes to enter-prise resource planning (ERP) systems like SAP, which involve some of the heaviest workloads in the realm of corporate IT. Indeed, SAP operations are requiring increasingly complex (and, thus, cost-intensive) IT infrastructures. Companies can, however, significantly reduce these expenses by obtaining the hardware resources they need through a flexible cloud configuration in-stead of outfitting their data centers with a large number of un-derutilized physical or virtual systems to handle peak load times.

Better Than Proprietary ComputingOpenStack provides SAP customers with an open-source frame-work that largely standardizes the process of assembling public and private clouds while presenting an array of advantages over proprietary cloud solutions. Its open architecture and interfaces, for example, support integration with existing systems to en-sure improved interoperability. Using OpenStack also enables

customers to increase their platform independence and avoid vendor lock-in. Another key point in OpenStack’s favor is its ability to minimize the costs of licensing cloud management and virtualization solutions, which currently account for 30 percent of overall cloud TCO. “OpenStack gives companies the chance to achieve greater efficiency in the provisioning and administra-tion of their virtual machines and cloud infrastructures,” reports René Büst, a cloud expert and senior analyst at Crisp Research.3

OpenStack Leads the PackDespite having made its debut a relatively short time ago, OpenStack has already established itself as the definitive leader among the available open-source solutions for cloud infrastruc-ture. Along with its continuous technological improvement, the strong growth of OpenStack projects around the world reflects the solution’s preeminent standing. This was also affirmed by a

SUSE® Linux and OpenStack: High Standards for SAP Offerings from the Cloud With the expansion of cloud computing showing no signs of slowing down, the IT-as-a-service concept is gaining traction at more and more companies as the backbone of ongoing digitalization.

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1 IDC:“WorldwideQuarterlyCloudITInfrastructureTracker,”April,2015.www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25732215

2 www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2015/06/15/survey- number-of-all-cloud-companies-will-grow-five-fold-by-2020/

3 RenéBüst:“EinbalzenderSilberrücken.SAPunterstreichtdieBedeutungvonOpenStackundCloudFoundry,“August,2014.www.crisp-research.com/ein-balzender-silberrucken-sap- unterstreicht-die-bedeutung-von-openstack-und-cloud-foundry/

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recent Forrester study, which stated that “OpenStack has be-come a compatibility standard for the private cloud market” and “notable Fortune 100 enterprises have irrefutably proven that OpenStack is viable for production environments.”4 Those utilizing OpenStack include start-ups and midsize enterprises, but also major corporations such as Walmart, Disney, BMW and Wells Fargo.

Many Notable IT Performers Onboard One of OpenStack’s key competitive advantages is the support it receives from the OpenStack Foundation and the quickly ex-panding OpenStack community. Established in 2012 with SUSE as a founding member and platinum sponsor, the OpenStack foundation coordinates the development and governance of OpenStack projects and components, which also helps ensure the project’s ability to stay innovative. It now boasts more than 29,000 members from 170 countries and the backing of 530 renowned IT companies, including Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Oracle, SUSE and VMware. SAP announced its own involvement in the OpenStack Foundation in July 2014 as an effort to “help set the stage for innovation and development in the cloud” —the words of Björn Goerke, who serves as executive vice president of products and innovation technology at the company.5 For SAP, this new partnership went hand in hand with its goal to work more closely with the OpenStack community and drive developments for business scenarios while incorporating its own experience in managing cloud infrastructures.

SUSE at the Forefront of SAP Linux InstallationsThrough its strategic support for the OpenStack initiative, SAP is providing its users with greater access to the benefits of open-source cloud computing infrastructure. Here, the unique role played by SUSE is a result of its position as a leader in the OpenStack and Linux ecosystems and, especially, because of its longstanding partnership with SAP. SUSE has been a mem-ber of SAP Linux Lab since it was founded in 1999. A number of highly collaborative development projects resulted in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications becoming the leading Linux operating system platform for business-critical SAP environments. Today, around 70 percent of the world’s SAP Linux installations are based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP. These systems benefit from the SUSE operating system’s well-earned reputation for ensuring cost efficiency, high up-time, and optimal SAP system performance. Meanwhile, SUSE

Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications was also selected as the development platform for SAP HANA, marking the begin-ning of a new chapter in the SAP-SUSE success story.

A Pioneer in the World of OpenStackSince SUSE has helped advance OpenStack development from the very beginning, SUSE Linux solutions also have an inher-ent advantage with SAP customers interested in setting up a cloud infrastructure. After all, SUSE was the first Linux distribu-tor to join the OpenStack Foundation and continues to support the initiative as a platinum sponsor. SUSE also unveiled the first OpenStack enterprise product, SUSE Cloud, in 2012. “The latest version of OpenStack is a sophisticated, robust solution that companies are actively evaluating,” stated Gary Chen, a research manager for cloud and virtualization system software at IDC. “SUSE has arrived just in time to aid businesses in establishing their own private clouds.”6

A Range of Benefits for Private Clouds As it turns out, Gary Chen was right. Just a few years after its release, the OpenStack-based administration and orchestration solution SUSE OpenStack Cloud has gained a strong foothold in the market. Demand for the solution is also rising in SAP circles thanks to the myriad advantages it offers companies in imple-menting and operating private clouds in connection with both SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver.

Fast to deploy and easy to manage.OpenStackcloudsoftwareisoftenconsideredcomplexandhardtoconfigure,deployandupgrade.SUSEOpenStackCloudforSAP,however,streamlinestheprocessofdeployingandmanaginganOpenStackprivatecloudwhileacceleratingthedeliveryofrealbusinessbenefitsfromacloudordatacentertransformation.

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4 “OpenStackisReady—AreYou?,”May,2015.www.forrester.com/OpenStack+Is+Ready+8212+Are+You/fulltext/-/E-RES122728

5 SAPPressRelease:“SAPCommitstoCloudFoundryandOpenStackforInnovativeDevelopmentintheCloud”,July,2014.http://news.sap.com/sap-commits-cloud-foundry-openstack-innovative-development-cloud/

6 SUSEPressRelease:“SUSEReleasesFirstOpenStack-BasedEnterprisePrivateCloudSolution”,August,2012.www.suse.com/company/press/2012/8/suse-releases-first-openstack-based-enterprise-private-cloud-solution.html

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Cloud Computing White PaperSUSE Linux and OpenStack: High Standards for SAP Offerings from the Cloud

SUSEhasdemonstratedthesecapabilitiesatthe“RuletheStack”competition,whichhasbeenrunaspartofrecentOpenStackSummits.AtthemostrecentOpenstackSummitinVancouver,Canada,SUSE’sengineerstooktophonorsforthethirdstraighttimeafterinstallingacompleteandfeature-richOpenStackinfrastructureinwhatwasbyfartheshortestamountoftimecomparedtootherentrants.WitharapiddesigncycleandnewreleasesofgenericOpenStacksoftwarearrivingtwiceayear,customersregularlyfacecomplexupgradesanddemandingredeployments.Alongwiththefastestdeploymentandsmoothestupgradeexperience,SUSEoffersusersamorestable,business-orientedreleasecycleandlongersupportperiods.

Rock-solid and production-ready.Byautomatingthehigh-availabilityconfigurationanddeploymentofcriticalcloudservices,SUSEOpenStackCloudhelpspreventunplanneddowntimetoensurethatbusinessescancontinuetoaccesstheirkeyresources.SUSEhasover20yearsofexperienceindeliveringhigh-quality,hardenedopen-sourcesoftwaresolutionsforbusiness-criticalenvironments.ThestronghardwareandISVpartnershipsithasforgedonthisfoundationhaveresultedinthebroadesthardwarecertification,thebestinteroperabilityandthemostcomprehensiveapplicationandworkloadsupportinthefieldofenterprisesolutions.HavingpremieredastheoriginalOpenStackdistribution,thecurrentfiftheditionofSUSEOpenStackCloudmarksitsmosthardened,mature,solidandproduction-readyreleaseyet.

Unparalleled value and investment protection.SUSEfocusesonhelpingcustomersavoidthedisadvantagesofvendorlock-inandthehighcostsassociatedwithproprietarycloudofferings.SUSEOpenStackCloudofferschoice,flexibilityandlowercostswhilemaximizingROI.SUSEOpenStackCloudalsohasthewidestmixed-hypervisorsupportavailable,coveringKVM,XEN,MicrosoftHyper-V

andVMwarevSphere.InadditiontogivingcustomersfurtherfreedomandtheflexibilitytomaximizetheirITinvestmentsinexistingvirtualizedworkloads,thisdrivesbusinessinnovationthroughthedevelopmentofnewcloud-basedapplicationsandworkloads.SUSEfollowsastrong,openapproachthatencouragescollaborationandindustrypartnerships.Thisguaranteescustomersaccesstobest-of-breedcloudarchitecturesandsolutionsthatfullymeettheneedsoftheirbusinesses.

A New OpenStack Cloud for SAP HANA To take advantage of these benefits, many SAP users and service providers are choosing SUSE OpenStack. One of them is FIS-ASP, which provides system integration and other services. FIS-ASP is using the SUSE solution as the core component of a new OpenStack cloud for SAP HANA, which the company has devel-oped to help optimize its customers’ SAP operations. “Using a Linux distribution makes it easier standardize and consolidate all of the relevant SAP installations,” explains Matthias Braun, head of SAP delivery at FIS-ASP. “When it comes to infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing, SUSE’s OpenStack distribu-tion is the best match for our requirements.”7

Build Your Cloud Environment for SAP ApplicationsYou expect your current server and virtualized SAP workload implementations to be highly reliable and manageable. Im ple-menting these workloads for private cloud deployment should be no different. With SUSE OpenStack Cloud you get a no-compromise solution that is open for innovation, easy to deploy, easy to manage and includes the high-availability capabilities you need for mission-critical SAP applications. Learn more at: www.suse.com/products/suse-cloud/ and www.suse.com/products/sles-for-sap/__________

7 FIS-ASPPressRelease:“FIS-ASPOffers“ProofofConcept”forHigh-PerformingSAPHANAOpenStackCloud,”June,2015.www.fis-asp.de/press-information-fis-asp-offers-proof-of- concept-for-high-performing-sap-hana-openstack-cloud.html

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