Bosch Group expands Digital Services with SAP HANA on SUSE

SUSE has just published a new success story with Bosch Group, a global supplier of technology and services.

Bosch Group is an innovation leader with expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, offers customers connected and cross-domain solutions. Taking advantage of the digital transformation happening across all industries, Bosch wants to build on its high-quality solutions and expand its offerings with new, digital services.

Aligning strategy with digital transformation processes

Bosch Group is focusing on innovative, service-based business models and the Internet of Things (IoT). To offer new services, the company needed the ability to integrate with business applications that support real-time analytics. To achieve this, Bosch deployed the SAP HANA in-memory database using SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications on IBM Power Systems in combination with SUSE Manager to boost automation and productivity.

Getting ready for closer IT integration

“To support all of our business sectors in developing innovative business models for the future, in integrating their new offerings into existing ERP systems easily and in leveraging advanced new data analytics tools, we needed to refresh our infrastructure with the latest technologies such as the SAP HANA in-memory database. And in preparation for our broader transformation initiative at Bosch, we also needed to improve the scalability of our infrastructure.” says Volker Fischer, Senior Manager Server Services AIX and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications at Bosch Group says:

Streamline IT Operations

Bosch runs all SAP ap­plications centrally. This also means that all subsidiaries around the world rely on the availability of the central SAP applications to do their business. Given the growing importance of IT, the company requires reliable processes to ensure business con­tinuity for all systems, including its new SAP HANA databases.

Volker Fischer explains: “With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications be­ing the leading operating system for SAP HANA, especially on IBM Power Systems, it was not difficult to get all of our internal cli­ents on board. And since we had been us­ing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications on x86 servers for many years, we were convinced that the outstanding stability and reliability of this operating system—specifically optimized for SAP software—would help us to expand our service portfolio while keeping the admin­istration workload low.”

SUSE has worked with SAP to include a range of optimizations spe­cifically for SAP software. For example, SUSE has developed the Page Cache Management for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications to give us­ers full control of page caching. The page cache limit kernel parameter helps Bosch to run a performance-optimized operating system and keep mission-critical SAP ap­plications fast at all times.

Best solution for SAP HANA

It highlights the capability of SUSE solu­tions, that although the majority of Bosch’s more than 1,000 SAP systems currently use other operating systems and data­bases, the company’s 80 SAP HANA da­tabases run exclusively on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications on IBM Power Systems

Read the full success story here