FIS-ASP GmbH is a leading full-service IT provider with over 25 years of experience hosting and outsourcing complex IT landscapes, particularly SAP environments. The FIS Group subsidiary currently employs around 140 people and operates SAP systems for over 50,000 users in midsized companies. With three redundant data centers in Bavaria, FIS-ASP ensures 24/7 availability of critical business applications for its customers. The company's IT infrastructure is certified according to ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001.
FIS-ASP develops customized SAP outsourcing solutions for each customer, from defining the appropriate operating model, to migration and integration, to ongoing operation and support. The IT service provider can draw on the expertise of its parent company, FIS GmbH, an SAP Gold Partner, at any time. Thus, FIS-ASP offers comprehensive support for all SAP applications and helps companies advance their digital transformation initiatives.
At-a-Glance
FIS-ASP is rebuilding its SAP hosting services on a new technological foundation. Using open source solutions from SUSE, the IT service provider is creating a fully sovereign IT infrastructure stack. With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, SUSE Rancher Prime and SUSE Virtualization, FIS-ASP can securely run business-critical SAP systems and other virtual and cloud native workloads on a central, open platform. This new strategy eliminates vendor lock-in risks, facilitates regulatory compliance and safeguards the data sovereignty and operational freedom of FIS-ASP customers, both now and in the future.
Building a sovereign technology stack for SAP operations
FIS-ASP knows exactly what concerns SAP customers thanks to close cooperation and regular communication. "IT managers today are constantly caught between the pressure to innovate, security and costs," says Manuel Sammeth, one of FIS-ASP's three managing directors. "They want to modernize their environment without relinquishing control over their data. At the same time, they need to ensure that their IT operations are as cost-effective as possible. It is precisely these challenges that we want to support them with as a partner."
On the one hand, this involves keeping pace with technological change in the SAP world. Many companies are currently migrating to SAP S/4HANA or preparing to do so. At the same time, more and more cloud native extensions and integration scenarios are emerging around the core systems. In addition to a highly available infrastructure for their business-critical SAP systems and SAP HANA databases, companies also need agile platforms to deploy the latest apps like AI, edge and containers.
On the other hand, many companies are looking for greater digital sovereignty. They want to decide for themselves where and how their systems are operated and avoid creating new dependencies on external providers. Hybrid cloud models, preferably with data centers in Germany or Europe, are becoming increasingly strategically important.
Customers in highly regulated industries particularly require that their sensitive SAP data is stored only in secure, GDPR-compliant environments. "As a hosting partner with our certified infrastructure in Germany, we can offer this certainty," explains Sammeth. "However, in our view, digital sovereignty goes beyond data sovereignty. We want to use the technologies that offer the greatest added value for our customers across the entire infrastructure stack and avoid economic or technical disadvantages caused by vendor lock-ins."
FIS-ASP recently experienced the risks of dependence on proprietary virtualization software firsthand. For several years, the company ran around 1,000 SAP systems on a virtualized IT infrastructure based on VMware vSphere and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). However, Broadcom's acquisition of VMware fundamentally changed the situation.
"After initial discussions, it quickly became clear to us that we as a mid-sized service provider will no longer play a relevant role in the VMware partner ecosystem," says Sammeth. "At the same time, massive cost increases were on the horizon. According to our estimates, the total costs for virtualization and operating systems would have more than doubled from 2027 onwards."
These additional costs would have impacted FIS-ASP’s hosting offerings and entire business model. ”Therefore, we decided to completely revamp our platform for SAP operations and use open source technology for the entire infrastructure stack," says Sammeth.
"Our goal is to build a truly sovereign infrastructure to run SAP applications, and SUSE provides all the components we need to do so. Our partnership with SUSE over the past few years, its strong open source philosophy and the company’s European roots were also key factors in our decision."
Manuel Sammeth
Managing Director
FIS-ASP GmbH
Why SUSE solutions?
FIS-ASP possessed much of the technical expertise required to modernize the technology stack. The IT service provider had already gained experience with the open source hypervisor KVM and the SAP-certified Linux platform SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications years ago. Additionally, the FIS Group already uses SUSE AI, SUSE Rancher Prime and SUSE Virtualization for the development and operation of AI applications for SAP customers.
"Our goal is to build a truly sovereign infrastructure to run SAP applications, and SUSE provides all the components we need to do so," summarizes Sammeth. "Our partnership with SUSE over the past few years, its strong open source philosophy and the company’s European roots were also key factors in our decision."
Another decisive factor was that SUSE enables FIS-ASP to bridge the gap between traditional and modern application environments. The new architecture allows both classic SAP systems and cloud native services and applications to be operated securely and efficiently on a single platform.
"Technological independence is our top priority," emphasizes Sammeth. "We want to design our infrastructure in such a way that we and our customers can confidently decide on the solutions used at any time."
Why SUSE KVM and SUSE Multi-Linux Support?
SUSE provides FIS-ASP with a migration path for transitioning its customers’ business-critical SAP systems to a new virtualization platform. The service provider will replace VMware's virtualization solution with SUSE KVM, an enterprise-grade implementation of the open source KVM hypervisor included with SUSE Linux. This allows FIS-ASP to continue using its existing server environment, protecting its hardware investments in its data centers.
"Our customers don't have to compromise on functionality or service quality," says Sammeth. “SUSE KVM’s feature set is fully comparable to VMware ESXi. We can control I/O limits, bandwidth and burst behavior with even greater precision than before. Currently, we are working on making certain functions more accessible." FIS-ASP uses automation tools such as Ansible and a self-developed management interface to simplify tasks such as provisioning, configuration and resource control.
SUSE Multi-Linux Support was another important consideration for FIS-ASP, providing enterprise-grade support for hybrid Linux environments within a single platform. This allows the service provider to continue running Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a guest operating system while already transitioning to the new virtualization platform.
With SUSE Multi-Linux Support, FIS-ASP can migrate large and business-critical systems – such as SAP HANA databases with several terabytes of RAM – step by step to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, without disrupting ongoing operations.
Why SUSE Virtualization?
FIS-ASP also required a platform that extends its traditional SAP infrastructure to support modern, cloud native workloads. SUSE Virtualization provides a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) based entirely on open source technology, combining a Kubernetes-based virtualization layer (KubeVirt) with integrated storage and networking capabilities.
This allows FIS-ASP to manage virtual machines and containerized applications on a single, consistent platform. It also supports a wide range of use cases — from SAP application servers to cloud native extensions such as SAP Edge Integration Cell, as well as AI, edge and non-SAP workloads.
"We chose SUSE Virtualization because it allows us to add an agile layer to our core SAP infrastructure," says Sammeth. "This enables us to deploy new applications more quickly and scale resources with greater flexibility."
The impact of SUSE
Offers an open, sovereign architecture without lock-in risks
With the new technology stack based on SUSE KVM, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, SUSE Multi-Linux Support and SUSE Virtualization, FIS-ASP fulfills the desire of many SAP customers for comprehensive digital sovereignty. The company uses open source technologies at all infrastructure levels, from the hypervisor to the operating system to the HCI platform.
FIS-ASP is leaving lock-in risks behind with its new strategy. For example, SUSE Multi-Linux Support frees the company from product roadmaps or release cycles of a single vendor. "SUSE enables us to make a smooth transition at our own pace," explains Sammeth. “We do not have to migrate everything at once. Instead, we can decide for ourselves when the time is right to switch to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.”
Ensures full transparency and control across the entire infrastructure
With SUSE, FIS-ASP can give its customers full transparency across all components of the infrastructure and their software supply chain. They can clearly see where and how their data is processed at all times. This transparency simplifies the implementation of legal requirements and internal compliance policies and helps organizations meet ISO 27001 and NIS2 standards.
This focus on transparency and compliance is complemented by a strong support model. FIS-ASP relies on SUSE’s Premium Support for all technical inquiries. With SUSE Sovereign Premium Support, SUSE also offers a fully EU-based support model, ensuring that all requests are handled by specialists located within the European Union and that support data is stored exclusively on servers in the EU.
Delivers freedom of choice and sustainable economic advantages
By replacing its previous virtualization platform, FIS-ASP improved the cost-effectiveness of its hosting services and gained long-term financial predictability. "Renewing the previous subscriptions alone would have incurred additional costs of over 100 percent," says Sammeth. "We also feared that VMware would continue to raise prices in the coming years."
With open source technologies, however, FIS-ASP has more control over its software stack costs. It can adjust support contracts, switch service providers or operate certain components internally when it has the right expertise. This flexibility reduces the risk of vendor dependencies and sudden changes to pricing models.
"Today, we talk to customers about more than just their SAP environments," says Sammeth. "Many companies are now reassessing their virtualization strategies in light of rising costs and are increasingly considering a shift to more cost-efficient platforms for all their workloads. We can support them on this path with SUSE’s open source solutions."
Provides a trusted partnership to enable a secure transformation
Restructuring the infrastructure stack involves a certain amount of effort. Migration takes time and resources, and it requires developing new skills. SUSE Premium Support empowers FIS-ASP in this process with targeted training, technical best practices and close professional collaboration.
"We have built a strong, trust-based partnership with SUSE. This gives us the confidence to implement the transformation in a structured way and without operational risk," says Sammeth. "By training our teams in open source technologies and digital sovereignty, we are investing in skills that are in high demand on the market. This also improves the long-term competitiveness of our company."
Accelerates modernization projects in hybrid cloud environments
In addition to technological and economic independence, FIS-ASP is gaining new strategic opportunities through the platform change. With SUSE Virtualization, the service provider can run classic virtual machines and modern containerized applications on a central cloud native infrastructure. SUSE Virtualization’s API-based architecture facilitates provisioning infrastructure as code, enabling seamless integration into DevOps workflows.
The company can also flexibly map its customers' different cloud strategies. Whether customers host their SAP environment entirely on FIS-ASP’s infrastructure or use cloud resources from hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, SUSE provides a consistent and open platform for managing workloads in on-premises, private cloud and public cloud environments.
With SUSE Rancher Prime, for example, FIS-ASP can automatically deploy container workloads and Kubernetes clusters across hybrid environments and manage them centrally.
What's next for FIS-ASP?
FIS-ASP has begun migrating the first workloads to the new infrastructure platform. The transition is taking place in stages, beginning with development and test systems, then moving on to business-critical production environments. This approach ensures that SLA requirements are maintained at all times.
The new platform architecture future-proofs FIS-ASP‘s business model. "No matter what SAP strategy our customers pursue or where they are in their transformation journey, SUSE empowers us with the flexibility to support them," says Sammeth. "With SUSE's open technology stack, we help our customers confidently make the right decisions for their SAP future."