ArcelorMittal Sistemas develops and integrates IT solutions for the ArcelorMittal Group, Brazil’s largest steel producer and one of the world’s leading steel and mining groups, operating in 140 countries. From its headquarters in Belo Horizonte, ArcelorMittal Sistemas delivers essential IT services not just in Brazil but also to group companies in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, the United States, France, Liberia, Luxembourg and Mexico.
In Brazil, ArcelorMittal Sistemas is responsible for hosting and supporting mission-critical business systems. This includes ArcelorMittal’s core SAP ERP Corporate Brazil platform, relied on by more than 30,000 users, and SAP HANA database, housing some 23TB of data.
At-a-Glance
As the IT arm of Brazil’s biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal Sistemas plays a vital part in keeping production of this critical material running uninterrupted. To maximize system uptime and boost developer productivity for more than 30,000 SAP ERP users, ArcelorMittal Sistemas counts on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications and SUSE Multi-Linux Manager.
ArcelorMittal Sistemas Cuts IT Implementation Time by 80%
“SUSE solutions have transformed our operations. Today, we are able to maintain high availability in our SAP infrastructure while reducing costs and ensuring compliance with the standards required by the business.”
Overcoming a complex, heterogeneous infrastructure
Without question, SAP systems are a mission-critical part of ArcelorMittal’s operations. Any downtime can have significant consequences: delaying deliveries, disrupting billing and impacting sales. In a worst-case scenario, steel furnaces (which must run around the clock) could grind to a halt, severely damaging ArcelorMittal’s production schedules and profits. Ensuring uninterrupted performance of SAP workloads is critical for maintaining operational efficiency and avoiding costly production stoppages.
To proactively maintain its industry leadership, ArcelorMittal Sistemas identified strategic opportunities to boost IT efficiency and reliability. The company operated a heterogeneous infrastructure that included multiple computing architectures like x86 and ppc64, various operating systems and non-standardized cluster configurations. Managing this complex environment was challenging and slowed service deployment times, directly impacting IT agility. It also left ArcelorMittal Sistemas reliant on multiple vendors to support its SAP environment, resulting in integration problems and higher costs.
On top of these technical challenges, ArcelorMittal must meet strict Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) rules, which demand high security and rigorous data controls, including a monthly audit requirement. This compliance pressure added another layer of complexity to an already challenging infrastructure situation.
Henrique Matiole, Cloud and Data Center Infrastructure Manager at ArcelorMittal Sistemas, states: “Operating such a complex infrastructure was becoming unsustainable, both from a management and a cost perspective. So, we embarked on a major IT simplification and modernization project, which included migrating critical SAP applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud.”
Why SUSE solutions?
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications
As ArcelorMittal Sistemas set out to migrate its SAP landscape to the cloud, it also took the opportunity to streamline supporting operating system (OS) and management layers. When the time came to unify on a single OS, ArcelorMittal Sistemas opted for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications.
Wesley Paes, SAP Infrastructure Architect at ArcelorMittal Sistemas, explains: “SUSE has been part of our IT landscape for over ten years. As we moved in a new direction with cloud, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications provided a continued baseline of reliability and performance.”
ArcelorMittal Sistemas deployed SAP HANA along with ABAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS) instances in a single high-availability cluster setup, running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications. To meet strict compliance requirements and ensure business continuity, the company utilizes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Extended Service Pack Overlap Support (ESPOS), which provides an extended lifecycle to meet service uptime without risking service interruptions. This infrastructure helps the IT team deliver extremely high uptime for SAP applications while minimizing day-to-day management expense and effort.
SUSE Multi-Linux Manager
To further streamline system management and enhance operational control, ArcelorMittal Sistemas chose to deploy SUSE Multi-Linux Manager. The solution automates patching and content lifecycle management, providing staging control over updates, reducing operational risk and providing real-time monitoring for all Linux environments, regardless of vendor, from a single console. With SUSE Multi-Linux Manager, ArcelorMittal Sistemas can now manage its entire Linux environment centrally, simplifying administration while keeping systems secure and compliant.
The impact of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications
Supports goal to achieve 99.95% availability
By running mission-critical SAP solutions on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications, ArcelorMittal Sistemas ensures exceptional uptime, security and reliability for more than 30,000 users.
This is possible because SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications is uniquely positioned as the leading Linux platform for SAP HANA and is a reference development platform used by SAP itself. The deep partnership and co-engineering between SUSE and SAP ensure the operating system is fine-tuned to optimize SAP application performance and reliability.
To guarantee business continuity, ArcelorMittal Sistemas leveraged the high-availability features built into the platform. The solution includes the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension, an integrated clustering technology that automates the monitoring and recovery process for both SAP HANA and SAP S/4HANA applications.
By deploying SAP HANA and its core services in a high-availability cluster with automated failover, the company created a resilient infrastructure that protects against data loss and minimizes recovery time — a critical factor when even an hour of downtime can disrupt the entire production and supply chain. This robust foundation is what enables the company to confidently pursue a goal of 99.95% availability.
Increases productivity by 86%
Since standardizing on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications, ArcelorMittal Sistemas has achieved an estimated 86% increase in productivity, reducing service deployment times from up to 40 hours to just eight hours.
“Before, we had challenges in delivering new projects in around a week,” says Paes. “Today, we can deliver these projects in less than one day. We can directly link this improvement to the standardization and automation delivered by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications.”
Reduces costs by 58% within the first year
ArcelorMittal’s IT modernization efforts produced a major financial impact. Previously, the company’s reliance on multiple vendors for its Linux environment resulted in fragmented support, operational complexity and higher maintenance costs. By standardizing on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP® applications and SUSE Multi-Linux Manager, ArcelorMittal Sistemas directly addressed these challenges, achieving a remarkable 58% reduction in operating system costs within its first year.
“SUSE’s reliable, innovative solutions have increased our productivity and reduced costs for our IT infrastructure,” says Matiole.
These savings unlock capital that can now be reallocated from routine operational overhead to strategic, high-value initiatives. As a result, ArcelorMittal Sistemas is fueling its next wave of service improvements and innovation, strengthening its competitiveness in a demanding industry.
The impact of SUSE Multi-Linux Manager
Standardizes IT, simplifies management
Moving to a consolidated, homogeneous infrastructure, easily managed through SUSE Multi-Linux Manager, is making life easier from an IT administration perspective. It’s now much more straightforward for ArcelorMittal Sistemas to perform routine maintenance, updates and diagnostics. Improved efficiency makes it easier to meet SOX requirements, while tighter controls reduce the risk of audit failures, strengthening the company’s compliance posture.
“SUSE solutions have transformed our operations,” says Matiole. “Today, we are able to maintain high availability in our SAP infrastructure while reducing costs and ensuring compliance with the standards required by the business.”
What’s next for ArcelorMittal Sistemas?
Supported by its SUSE solutions, ArcelorMittal Sistemas is now focused on reaching its goal of 99.95% availability for SAP HANA and SAP ASCS/ERS clusters. With a highly available, robust IT environment helping to ensure business continuity for its factories, ArcelorMittal is positioning itself to remain a world leader in steel production.