SUSE's partnership with Dell

The last few days the relationship SUSE has with Dell has been on my mind. They’ve actually been top of mind for a couple of months. We had a lot of fun at Dell World in December with a booth in the OEM Solutions area, talking to customers about the benefits of using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on customized, purpose-built servers. We also joined them in the Dell Cloud booth, showing attendees how they can use Dell PowerEdge servers and SUSE Cloud to build and deploy their own private cloud. In fact, we were able to point them to the Dell Solution Center area of the show floor where we did live demos of the solution running (and still running) in the Dell Solution Center.

This week we’ll be at the Dell Field Readiness Seminar in Las Vegas, talking with their sales teams about everything we do together. Which, as I think about it, is quite a lot. The OEM Solutions and Dell Cloud relationships are only two of the more recent examples of how we are continuing to grow and expand our partnership with Dell, but what makes working with Dell fun is that the groundwork was laid a long time ago. We have a nearly fifteen-year partnership with many strengths and many firsts. Those highlights include:

• Dell validates and certifies SUSE Linux Enterprise Server across the PowerEdge line
• Dell fully supports any Dell system running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
• SUSE Linux Enterprise was the first Linux available with Dell OEM Solutions
• SUSE Linux Enterprise is the only Linux available on the Dell vCloud hosting service
• SUSE Cloud is the first OpenStack-based, enterprise-class (Dell certified and supported) private cloud offering available from Dell

Did you know that Dell’s success rate for resolving customer support requests involving SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is over 99%? There are two major factors that play into that statistic – certification and training. Dell ProSupport is equipped to solve these support requests because they know SUSE; they don’t just transfer a customer to yet another customer support line. Dell ProSupport works the issue to resolution and collaborates closely with SUSE technical support and engineering. When we work together, customers win.

The great thing about working with SUSE hardware partners is that I can say almost the exact same things as the above about the other partners I work with, IBM and HP. SUSE’s hardware partners are invested in us, and we are invested in them. We work together to deliver solutions to address the needs of your enterprise – and that’s a beautiful thing.