SuSE and SAP offer enterprise Linux users support services ranging from assistance within defined turnaround times during regular office hours, up to the permanent availability of specifically designated SuSE support engineers who are well trained with the customer's systems and available "24x7".

Through the close interweaving of support with the development competence of the SuSE Labs, SuSE can solve problems down to the level of the Linux source code. This guarantees maximum operating security for the entire IT infrastructure from desktop systems to high-end servers.

"With the new support from SAP and SuSE, joint corporate customers benefit from the availability of enterprise Linux solutions combined with worldclass support anywhere on the globe. This is another major step to make Linux corporate computing a reality", stated Richard Seibt, CEO of SuSE Linux.

Phoenix Contact, automation technology manufacturer and one of Germany's most successful midsize enterprises, relies on a highly available SAP installation with SuSE Linux Enterprise Server. Since the migration of its databases, Web server and file/print server to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server, the company has gained substantially improved system availability and stability and significant price/performance benefits. The company selected SAP's proven SME offering to provide the ERP backbone as well as to drive e-commerce, work flow management, and Web-based collaboration processes.

"The experiences we had with the migration of our Oracle databases to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server were more than positive", stated Dietmar Stein, System Administrator, Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG. "The administrator in charge was enthusiastic about the performance. An uptime of upwards of 300 days underlines the proverbial stability of a Linux solution. Furthermore, the extreme price difference actually resulted in the instant amortisation of the investments."

SAP awarded SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 the status "Generally Available for mySAP? Business Suite", certifying that the product is released for deployment with SAP applications just three months after its market launch in November 2002.

Unique among operating system manufacturers, SuSE does not confine SAP users to a single hardware architecture. SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is available for Intel processors as well as for IBM zSeries 64-bit mainframes.

SAP and SuSE have a long history of intensive and beneficial technical collaboration. In April 2001, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server was certified for SAP solutions on the x86 architecture. Since May 2002, customers have been able to use SAP solutions on the latest generation of IBM mainframes. So far, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server for IBM zSeries servers is the only Linux system that has been released for the mainframe version of mySAP Business Suite. As "SAP Global Technology Partner", SuSE enjoys the same exclusive partner status as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Dell, and Sun Microsystems.