SUSE Linux Enterprise and OpenStack: Have it All and Have it Now

I want it all and I want it now! Not only is that a great rock anthem from the 1980s, but it also reflects the demands of the modern consumer.  Living in today’s mobile-centric, social media driven, internet enabled age, consumers expect fast and convenient access to services and products on their terms.  The business world simply has to keep up and seamlessly adapt in order to compete, thrive and even survive.  That’s not an easy task if you are starting with an existing traditional IT environment.

China UnionPay, headquartered in Shanghai, faced exactly this scenario and found the ideal solution by turning to OpenStack – running on top of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

China UnionPay is one of China’s leading bankcard/credit card providers who has experienced explosive growth in recent years. They needed a “flexible, reliable and secure” cloud platform to provide access to online resources for tens of thousands of new customers simultaneously.  They also needed to launch new innovative banking services faster than their competition to seize new business opportunities. Sound like a familiar challenge?

Thanks to OpenStack, built on the bedrock of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, China UnionPay now has an agile, secure, stable and industry-compliant private cloud platform that supports consistent business growth. In their own words, “OpenStack is a very mature platform which we can count on the support of a large global community” and this new cloud platform offers the high availability needed to support critical business requirements.

What does this all look like in practice?  China UnionPay currently runs some 4,000 virtual servers on just over 1,000 physical machines and has started migrating key business applications to the cloud platform, including an important online transaction system.

And the results?  How does the ability to design, develop and launch new banking solutions three times faster than in the past, along with a saving of ten percent in hardware costs sound?

Let me leave you with China UnionPay’s own conclusion: “The OpenStack and SUSE project has been a great success. The support we receive from SUSE is tailored to our specific requirements, giving us peace of mind that we can keep leveraging next-generation technologies without worrying about technical hurdles.”