SUSE has introduced new technologies to go along with its objective of developing highly secure infrastructure solutions to help businesses turn into digital enterprises. The announcements made at SUSECON Digital this week highlight the company’s desire to use open source innovation to provide the most secure business settings possible.
SUSE’s latest technology updates would increase security and enhance automation across its three major product areas: Business-critical Linux (BCL), Enterprise Container Management (ECM), and Edge.
“Consumers are demanding more robust software solutions due to the scale and breadth of security attacks,” said Melissa Di Donato, CEO at SUSE. “Our customers need comprehensive and secure solutions to support every stage of their digital transformation: they’re calling for multi-cluster, multi-cloud solutions to support their entire business. Today’s announcements highlight our ability to address the critical needs of our customers whilst delivering solutions they can rely on now and in the future.”
SUSE Business-critical Linux
SUSE Linux Corporate 15 Service Pack 4 (SLE 15 SP4), a new edition of its Linux code base, provides clients with the benefits of adopting one of the world’s most secure enterprise Linux systems.
The following are some of the highlights of SUSE’s SLE 15 SP4 offering:
- Adding SLSA 4 compliance to existing security certifications – SLE 15 SP4 is a Linux distribution delivering packages that meet the stringent Google SLSA standard, with an SLSA Level 4 Compliant Supply Chain that helps clients guard against today’s growing software security and supply chain risks.
- Confidential computing changes data protection in the cloud – The protection of data in use, including main memory and CPU registers, is new in SLE 15 SP4, allowing users to safely handle sensitive data in the cloud. SLE 15 SP4 is the first Linux distribution to include AMD SEV-ES (Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Encrypted State) host and guest modes, allowing users to choose further security-enhancing VM isolation. This builds on a long history of upstream collaboration. Customers can safely process data, expedite migration, and guarantee their cloud workloads are protected against remote threats, privilege escalation, and dangerous insiders with confidential computing for the cloud from SUSE, AMD, and Google Cloud. This includes workloads that demand the highest levels of security and compliance.
- Expansion into the cloud-native world – SUSE partners with NVIDIA to ensure optimal performance and availability in cloud-native and edge settings. SLE 15 SP4 is the first major Linux distribution to include NVIDIA’s open-source GPU kernel-mode driver, which would streamline GPU-accelerated computing across cloud, data center, and edge with a secured software supply chain.
- Resilience with smarter management for Linux estates – SUSE Manager 4.3 would make it easier to manage mixed Linux clients by allowing for centralized reporting, administration, and monitoring from a single interface, even in resource-constrained scenarios like edge installations.
- Designed for SAP service management – SUSE presents Trento, designed to reduce complexity and safeguard workloads in the cloud, as part of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. Trento would ensure the integrity and security of a customer’s SAP Applications environment on major hyperscalers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) by enforcing best practices and evaluating system settings on a continual basis.
SUSE Enterprise Container Management
SUSE continues to invest in its container solutions with upgrades that extend and secure the capabilities of SUSE Rancher, building on the launch of SUSE NeuVector 5.0 and SUSE Rancher 2.6.5 last month, which together enable organizations to easily secure their hybrid cloud applications:
- Developer-focused solutions – Since its 1.0 release in January, Rancher Desktop has seen a 300 percent increase in use. Customers will benefit from the 1.6 version, which includes new dashboard features such as easy-to-use drop-down menus and a new command line tool called rdctl, which allows command line access to GUI functionality. These provide users with scripting (for automation, CI/CD), debugging, and remote management, as well as increased user experience features.
- Robust container storage – Longhorn 1.3 adds a new API based on Kubernetes CRDs, allowing users to alter Longhorn settings using kubectl and GitOps-based tools. Customers may also take advantage of the new storage area network, which offers dedicated NICs, volume cloning capability that replicates environments, and persistent data for scaling, testing, and validating cloud-native programs.
- Expanded partner solutions – SUSE Rancher now supports IBM Z environments, allowing IBM Z users to take advantage of the most cutting-edge cloud-native technology. SUSE Rancher is also available on the Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform Marketplaces, making it easier for clients and partners to purchase the software.
- Enterprise grade security and certifications – SUSE plans to release a new Rancher edition later this year with additional enterprise security and compliance capabilities to directly serve the evolving needs of regulated enterprise customers as well as government organizations, building on the security enhancements announced today and recently at KubeCon.
SUSE EDGE
With 75 billion devices predicted to be online by 2025, SUSE Edge, a 100 percent open source solution that utilizes K3s, SLE Micro, and other storage and container security aspects that are purpose-built for demanding edge settings, is addressing the need for organizations to deploy at the edge.
For a dependable and scalable solution, SUSE Edge easily integrates security across the three management levels (application lifecycle, Kubernetes lifecycle and operating system). Among the highlights are:
- Management at scale – SUSE Edge supports every industry and streamlines operations for customers to be able to adapt and manage thousands of hospitals, restaurants and retail stores as independent edge locations from one centralized location.
- Addressing future of Industrial IoT – SUSE Edge enables manufacturing and industrial organizations to install edge applications that support predictive maintenance and analytics, as well as providing vital edge assistance to the auto sector in order to move intelligent vehicles to the next level.
- Simple and easy operating system deployment – Customers may control ongoing security using SUSE Edge’s live patching capability. Customers may also take advantage of new feature and capability upgrades that are vital for maintaining and growing the competitive wedge for business-critical applications.
Executive Summary
Business-critical Linux
-
SUSE Linux Corporate 15 Service Pack 4 (SLE 15 SP4), a new edition of its Linux code base, provides clients with the benefits of adopting one of the world’s most secure enterprise Linux systems
-
Adding SLSA 4 compliance to existing security certifications
-
Confidential computing changes data protection in the cloud
-
Expansion into the cloud-native world
-
Resilience with smarter management for Linux estates
-
Designed for SAP service management
SUSE Enterprise Container Management
-
SUSE continues to invest in its container solutions with upgrades that extend and secure the capabilities of SUSE Rancher
-
Developer-focused solutions: 300% increase in usage since the 1.6 release
-
Robust container storage: adds API based on Kubernetes CRDs
-
Expanded partner solutions: supports IBM Z environments
-
Enterprise grade security and certifications
SUSE EDGE
-
With 75 billion devices predicted to be online by 2025, SUSE Edge is a 100 percent open source solution that utilizes K3s, SLE Micro, and other storage and container security aspects that are purpose-built for demanding edge settings.
-
Easily integrates security across the three management levels (application lifecycle, Kubernetes lifecycle and operating system).
