Novell and SAP are out to get even the smallest SAP user running mission-critical applications on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Novell and SAP have
announced that they will customize SAP's
enterprise applications to work even more efficiently with SUSE Linux
Enterprise and its associated virtualization and identity management
technologies.
According to the press release, Novell and SAP
will optimize SUSE Linux Enterprise for SAP's
data center applications, further promote SAP's
SUSE Linux-based Business All-in-One solutions and work within the SAP
Enterprise Services Community program on behalf of customers in ways related to
SAP's GRC
(governance, risk and compliance) practices. The goal is to make it so that any
SAP applications users, from the smallest
company to the Fortune 50, can run more of their mission-critical operations on
SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), while reducing their total cost of
ownership.
Specifically, Novell and SAP will work to
create an SLES-based SAP Business All-in-One
solution for small and midsize businesses. Historically, SAP
has concentrated on the biggest of enterprises. Recently, however, SAP
has focused on SMBs with initiatives like its All-in-One
Fast-Start.
According to the two companies, their new SMB offerings are "designed
to combine business software, database, operating system and hardware into one
optimized package, which will provide lower TCO
for customers. The included hardware and software components will be pre-tested
to help enable a faster time to value and to increase investment protection,
and will be available through local OEMs in various geographies."
In addition, SAP will be using SLES for
its SAAS (software as a service) offering, SAP
Business ByDesign. This service is meant for midsized companies.
The two companies are also working on providing virtualization management
for SAP's Adaptive Computing Controller tool
with Novell ZENworks Orchestrator and are integrating Novell's identity and
security management solutions with the SAP GRC
Access Control application. This virtualization focus will make it possible to
run multiple SAP application instances off a
single SLES server.
SAP will also be using the Intel 64-bit
version of SLES as a platform for its SAP
NetWeaver Business Intelligence Accelerator. This appliance, jointly developed
with Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Intel, is designed
to improve business intelligence query performance, reduce administration tasks
and shorten batch job times. While meant to handle enterprise-sized jobs, it
may also be of interest to SMBs dealing with complex data problems.
"As Linux continues to grow as a mainstream
platform for supporting business applications, it becomes increasingly
important for collaborative relationships between application software vendors
such as SAP and infrastructure software vendors such as
Novell," Al Gillen, research vice president of System Software at IDC,
said in a statement. "This development, support and go-to-market effort
should make it possible for SAP and Novell to deliver a better-integrated and more
technically complete solution than users could achieve by assembling the same
components on their own today. The end result is a lower barrier to adoption
for SAP applications, particularly for midmarket companies,
and an expanded addressable market for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server."
