German Linux vendor, SUSE, has unveiled its latest ready-to-use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (SLES 12) version for channel partners to install for customers who are using it to run SAP Business One with the SAP HANA database.

As the only Linux distribution certified for use with SAP Business One and SAP HANA, channel resellers have been waiting for the latest version to gain new capabilities they can share with their customers, Dirk Oppenkowski, SUSE’s global alliance director for SAP sales, told Channel Futures.

Dirk Oppenkowski

Dirk Oppenkowski

“The new version they’ve been asking for over the last six months is here,” he said. “All they have to do is click the link and download it.”

The SLES 12 version, which includes Service Pack 3, is a specialized SLES image that channel partners can use to make customer deployments of SAP Business One on HANA easier and faster, according to SUSE. The download is designed only for use with hardware that is certified for SAP Business One’s SAP HANA version.

Previously, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES 11), was being used by partners with SAP Business One and SAP HANA, said Oppenkowski.

To help SAP Business One resellers and channel partners gain the skills needed to deploy and configure SLES 12 for their customers, SUSE has been training resellers about the operating system through SUSE Academy, an on-demand online training center, he added.

“It’s very popular with partners,” he said. The Academy includes Linux standard training, administrator training and more. Instructor led sessions are also held once a week to answer questions and provide feedback.

“We wanted to make it easy for the partners to implement the whole solution for their customers,” said Oppenkowski. By providing the SLES 12 installation services for the small- to medium-sized customers who are using the SAP Business One Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, customers can avoid having to task their often small IT departments to commit to such a large-scale project, he added.

Some 500 resellers so far have received SUSE Academy training, including about 2,500 reseller staff members who are qualified to do the SAP Business One on SAP HANA installs. Those technicians are now providing education, automated installation programs, sales and technical support to about 6,000 companies around the world that are using SAP Business One and SAP HANA, according to SAP.

SAP HANA is an in-memory database that process transactions and analytics data wherever it resides using data virtualization, integration or replication, all while accessing and storing only one copy of the data.

SUSE has been partnering with SAP since 2011 when SAP asked for help delivering a Linux-based version of Business One with HANA, said Oppenkowski. Until that time, the products were only available to run on Windows or SQL Server. The SUSE-fueled version came to market in 2012.

SUSE does not sell any SAP products under the deal, but just provides operating system support and training to allow customers to run the applications on Linux.

SLES 12 was certified for use with SAP HANA eight months ago and is now certified for use with SAP Business One Version 9.3.