SUSE partners with Microsoft to launch Azure-optimized enterprise Linux kernel
SUSE today announced the launch of its first enterprise Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure customisation. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 now runs on a custom-tuned kernel, delivering more excellent performance, faster boot times, and smaller memory footprint for Microsoft Azure workloads. The Azure Tuning kernel enhances access to new and future Azure features and helps customers increase their flexibility. SUSE is currently working with Microsoft and other partners to transform and consolidate open source solutions with the goal of enabling customers to manage complexity, reduce costs and deliver business-critical services that drive digital transformation.
Gerald Pfeifer, vice president of product and technology projects at SUSE, said: “The foundation for SUSE’s collaboration with Microsoft is to meet the evolving needs of customers, drive innovation and minimise business disruption. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server optimised for Azure public cloud users is SUSE A direct result of addressing the challenges of real-world customers with open, open source approaches.”
KY Srinivasan, general manager of the Microsoft Enterprise Open Source Group, said: “We work closely with SUSE to ensure that customers using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server receive a first-class Microsoft Azure experience. The new Azure Tuning kernel allows these customers to enjoy the new addition as soon as possible. The benefits of Azure services, such as acceleration and SR-IOV networking, write accelerators and other features, can also keep up with the release cycle of the Azure engineering team.”
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 delivers measurable performance benefits to customers, including a 25% increase in network throughput and a 23% reduction in average wait time. The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 instance on Azure will run on this custom kernel by default, but customers can use the package manager Zypper to switch back to the standard kernel flexibly and quickly. In addition to the Azure Tuning kernel, customers using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on Azure have access to many tools and resources for native cloud deployment of SUSE public cloud modules, such as the ability to manage Azure resources through a Linux command prompt.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with the Microsoft Azure Tuning kernel is now available on the Azure Marketplace for standard pricing and support.
