Server administrators can boast of a bit more uptime and roll out new software with more confidence as the latest version of SUSE Linux includes a snapshot features that allows the platform to be rolled back to a stable state.
SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 is available now and the Nuremberg, Germany-based IT company says its latest software scales even better to virtual and cloud infrastructure, granting organizations more server stability and performance.
"Given their competitive cost pressures, IT organizations today have a hard time responding quickly to changing business needs and leveraging innovation," says Nils Brauckmann, president and general manager of SUSE. "SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 helps enterprises stay agile, reclaim budget and easily leverage future open source innovation, helping them compete more effectively now and in the future."
Built on Linux' open-source kernel, SUSE's enterprise-grade operating system was designed for organizations that experience drastic changes or frequently need to add new hardware or software to stay competitive in their industries. With the introduction SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and its Workstation Extension, IT professionals can convert servers into development environments or administrative portals.
The SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 update also brings with it the High Availability Extension and geo clustering, which enables struggling servers to failover to healthy clusters and maintain asset availability.
SUSE's latest iteration increases the ability of cloud platforms to service more virtual machines per node, including guest machines, says Mike Gebele, Lenovo vice president of server systems. On cloud platforms like OpenStack, SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 delivers the "mission critical" service of cloud operations, says Gebele.
"The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 focus on eliminating downtime makes it a great platform for high-performance and mission-critical in-memory database and analytic applications," says Gebele. "Lenovo's x6 architecture and its advanced memory capabilities, combined with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, optimizes in-memory database performance and analytics workloads."
SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 is available with modules preconfigured for Amazon Web Services, Google Compute Engine and Microsoft Azure. It also has an updated customer portal for easier management of subscriptions and access patches and updates.
Paired with SUSE' latest iteration, Microsoft's newly announced cloud-in-a-box offering through a partnership with Dell is making on-campus clouds much more obtainable for organizations of all sizes.
While Microsoft has revealed pricing for the bare bones cloud kits, it detailed the sheer girth and might of its Azure servers at its Cloud Briefing event in San Francisco on Oct. 20.
Azure's virtual machines can be provisioned with up to 6.5 TB of solid state drive space, because, despite the general strategy of scaling out, a lot of developers are creating apps that require servers that scale up, according to Mark Russinovich, Azure chief technical officer.
