SUSE slowly but surely is climbing back into the channel game. Once known primarily as a provider of a distribution of Linux, the company now operates as a unit of Micro Focus. In addition to curating an operating system along with a distribution of the OpenStack cloud platform, it now also provides a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) environment based on open source software overseen by The Cloud Foundry Foundation (CFF) and a container-as-as-service (CaaS) environment based on the Kubernetes container orchestration platform.
As part of this expansion of reach, SUSE also has extended its alliance with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to include the reselling of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications by AWS on the AWS Marketplace.
Over the last several weeks SUSE has been expanding its channel alliances, including an alliance with Infosys focused on SAP HANA applications and relationships with ATS Group and Novacoast.
The goal is to recruit select partners capable of working on emerging applications that require robust implementation of open source software to be built and deployed, says Mark Salter, global vice president of channel sales for SUSE.
In general, since moving over to Micro Focus as part of a transfer of assets between Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Micro Focus, Salter says SUSE has been rapidly expanding its focus beyond operating systems and infrastructure. With the addition of PaaS and CaaS capabilities SUSE is now better positioned to exploit the shift to cloud0native applications and associated DevOps opportunities, says Salter.
“We want to with partners that are trying to bring customers to the next level of modern IT,” says Salter.
Of course, as SUSE moves up the software stack in pursuit of that goal the number of competitors it encounters expands well beyond Red Hat and Microsoft. The challenge SUSE and its partners now face is re-establishing a brand that for many years has been allowed to languish under multiple owners that were never especially committed to open software. Hopefully, with help from channel partners, SUSE as a unit of Micro Focus is now in a position to leave that history behind.
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