Headquartered in Germany, ZEP GmbH is an owner-managed B2B SaaS company. Founded in 2000, ZEP is one of the leading providers of time tracking, project accounting and professional services automation solutions. More than 2,000 companies, from startups to large enterprises, rely on ZEP's modular, cloud-based software to increase productivity through efficient time management, data-driven decision making and seamless integration into their business processes.
At-a-Glance
Software provider ZEP is taking its SaaS platform to the next level of growth with SUSE Rancher Prime and AWS. With the help of managed services provider FullStackS, ZEP now runs a cloud native infrastructure that scales easily, reduces operational overhead and enables faster delivery of new features to more than 2,000 customers. As part of this modernization effort, ZEP also streamlined its software procurement by sourcing SUSE Rancher Prime directly from the AWS Marketplace, with centralized billing, standardized processes and full partner support from FullStackS.
The journey to a modern, cloud native application architecture
For many years, ZEP successfully ran a monolithic application on legacy on-premises infrastructure. But with a growing customer base, rising demand for faster development and increasing operational complexity, this setup had reached its limits. ZEP set out to modernize its SaaS foundation with the goal of making it future-proof, scalable and cloud native.
In addition to improved scalability, automation became a top priority. Furthermore, it should be possible to monitor the platform reliably. Agility was another key factor. By accelerating release cycles and implementing continuous integration, ZEP wanted to respond more quickly to customer needs and drive innovation.
To make this transformation a success, ZEP partnered with FullStackS GmbH consulting and integration services, one of the leading DevOps and application modernization providers in the DACH region. In the early stages of the project, FullStackS experts conducted structured workshops with ZEP's leadership and engineering teams to define goals, assess requirements and explore technical options. Moving to the cloud was not just an infrastructure decision, but a strategic step to evolve the entire product architecture.
"In the beginning, not everyone in the company was aware of how much modern infrastructure could support product development," recalls Daniel Drack, Senior DevOps Engineer at FullStackS. "After the first workshops, the goal was clearly defined, and we quickly implemented it together."
Within months, they developed a roadmap for migration and modernization based on cloud native principles — with Kubernetes, infrastructure as code and a fully containerized application landscape as its foundation.
“With AWS and SUSE Rancher Prime, we have reduced our deployment times to just a few hours. Our developers work more agilely and can implement innovations faster than ever before.”
Why SUSE + AWS?
Kubernetes played a central role in ZEP's modernization strategy as the de facto standard for managing containerized applications. However, managing Kubernetes clusters can be complex. To reduce this barrier, FullStackS recommended SUSE Rancher Prime as the central container management platform. SUSE Rancher Prime provides an easy-to-use interface, built-in monitoring and centralized multi-cluster management to reliably run container workloads in any on-premises or cloud environment.
"Rancher Prime has proven itself with many of our customers — especially when it comes to running Kubernetes productively and securely without having to build an entire DevOps team," explains Drack. "For ZEP, it was the ideal entry point into the world of containerized applications."
FullStackS also recommended deploying the Kubernetes clusters on AWS — not only for technical stability and scalability, but also for seamless integration with other AWS services such as EC2, RDS, SQS, SES, Lambda, S3 and Route 53, which ZEP already relied on for its SaaS offering. AWS also met data sovereignty and compliance requirements, with ZEP's environment running in the Frankfurt region.
The combination of SUSE Rancher Prime and AWS proved ideal: while Amazon EKS provides Kubernetes as a managed service, Rancher adds centralized management through a unified interface. The platform extends native AWS functionality with role-based access control (RBAC), centralized authentication, lifecycle management and advanced security policies.
SUSE's recognition as an AWS Containers ISV Competency Partner underscores its deep expertise in container orchestration, while its AWS Security ISV Competency highlights its commitment to securing containerized workloads. These competencies validate SUSE's ability to deliver robust, secure, and scalable solutions on AWS, ensuring that organizations like ZEP can confidently modernize their applications in the cloud.
Another milestone in the project was ZEP's decision to purchase SUSE Rancher Prime through the AWS Marketplace. FullStackS, a SUSE Cloud Elevate partner, facilitated the first Channel Partner Private Offer (CPPO) for Rancher Prime in EMEA. This customized AWS model allows organizations to purchase software directly from the Marketplace while continuing to work closely with their preferred implementation partner. This resulted in a strong foundation of proven technology, flexible infrastructure and trusted support.
The impact of SUSE Rancher Prime + AWS
Simplifies software procurement, reducing operational overhead
By purchasing SUSE Rancher Prime through the AWS Marketplace, ZEP streamlined its procurement process and gained greater visibility into its software spending to better optimize costs. Using the AWS Marketplace Channel Partner Private Offer (CPPO) model, the company was able to purchase the solution directly through its existing AWS account, without having to set up a new supplier, go through manual approval processes or set up new billing processes. Importantly, this purchase method still provides full access to personalized sales support and a white glove experience from SUSE and FullStackS.
The AWS Marketplace dashboard gives ZEP's IT and finance managers constant visibility into terms, costs and resources. Compliance documentation, such as certifications and license terms of the software components used, can also be accessed at any time. This greatly simplifies audits and other review processes.
Additionally, future extensions or renewals of the SUSE Rancher Prime license can be easily managed through the AWS platform, as can the purchase of additional SUSE products or complementary AWS services. Standardized licensing terms reduce the legal review burden in many cases.
"Consolidating software procurement via the AWS Marketplace makes strategic sense and simplifies both operational processes and internal invoicing," says Alexander Appenzeller, Business Development Manager at FullStackS. "For ZEP, this was an important step towards an efficient, scalable platform architecture. AWS Marketplace acts as a central source of supply; SUSE delivers ready-to-use, enterprise-ready solutions; and FullStackS remains closely involved as a supporting partner."
Enables reliable and streamlined DevOps operations
Since the beginning of the cloud transformation, FullStackS has been ZEP's key implementation partner, providing architecture consulting and managing the day-to-day operation of the platform. Together, they not only built the infrastructure on AWS, but also established a long-term operating model that is scalable, maintainable and highly available. Leveraging SUSE Rancher Prime’s intuitive interface and AWS’s robust infrastructure services, FullStackS efficiently handles nearly all DevOps tasks, from infrastructure reviews and regular upgrades to security checks and performance tuning. Most of these services are bundled into the FullStackS Care package, a modular maintenance and support offering designed specifically to optimize SUSE Rancher Prime deployments on AWS.
"FullStackS handles 90 percent of our DevOps tasks for us. The team knows our environment in detail, responds quickly and also proactively contributes suggestions for further development," says Christian Bopp, Co-Managing Director of ZEP. "Partnering with FullStackS and adopting SUSE Rancher Prime on AWS has significantly simplified our DevOps operations. We can now spend more time on strategic product improvements and less time managing infrastructure."
SUSE Rancher Prime simplifies many of the day-to-day tasks associated with managing Kubernetes clusters. The consistent application of infrastructure as code enables new resources to be provisioned automatically and reproducibly. Roles and access are centrally controlled and logs and system status are always transparent. Combined with AWS's reliable cloud infrastructure, this provides ZEP and FullStackS more control, visibility and agility with significantly less effort.
Accelerates software development and reduces time to market
With its new cloud native platform built on AWS and SUSE Rancher Prime, ZEP runs a powerful, highly available environment for its SaaS solutions. The combination of robust infrastructure, well-architected design and proven management tools ensures that the modular platform runs reliably and performs well for over 2,000 customers. The flexible setup also allows ZEP to easily scale workloads as needed — whether to onboard new clients or expand functionality.
The greatest impact is seen in accelerated software development. With a containerized architecture, CI/CD pipelines and centralized control via SUSE Rancher Prime, ZEP can now develop and deploy new features much faster.
“With AWS and SUSE Rancher Prime, we have reduced our deployment times to just a few hours”, says Bopp. “Our developers work more agilely and can implement innovations faster than ever before.”
This gives ZEP a clear competitive advantage: instead of managing infrastructure, the company can focus on advancing its product and delivering value to customers — on a platform that grows with the business.
“With AWS and SUSE Rancher Prime, we have reduced our deployment times to just a few hours. Our developers work more agilely and can implement innovations faster than ever before.”
What's next for ZEP?
Demand for flexible, SaaS-based time tracking, project management and resource planning solutions continues to grow, especially among small and medium-sized businesses. With its new platform based on AWS and SUSE Rancher Prime, ZEP is well positioned to meet this demand. The company can deliver new features faster, continuously improve existing applications and easily support a growing customer base. Automated scaling and stable operations also make it easy to absorb peak demand periods.
At the same time, ZEP remains technologically independent and future-proof. SUSE Rancher Prime supports all major Kubernetes offerings in the cloud, providing maximum flexibility in infrastructure choice. Integrating another provider or expanding to new regions is always an option — without disrupting operations.