“SMB will emerge as a big market”

Juergen Geck Chief Technology Officer Suse Linux

*How do you plan to enhance the use of Suse Linux in India?

Novell has always promoted open source. After acquiring Suse, we have tried to promote Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 using Novell’s reach. In India, the awareness of open source started a wee bit late. That said, today the country is fully equipped to deploy open source, and Indian enterprises are waking up to the benefits of Linux.

*Are you happy with the evolution of the global open source market?

We are quite pleased with it. We foresee a major threat for proprietary vendors as open source is getting implemented in many enterprises, and vendors are accepting the fact that open source enables a more competitive environment for all the principal vendors. There are a host of government initiatives happening in the global market, and frankly, I would like to see the Indian government opening up to open source. The benefits of open source are that it establishes standards in IT, and that there are fewer integration issues.

*Is Red Hat more visible than Suse in the Indian market?

There is no doubt that Red Hat is more active in promoting Linux. However, we are also chalking out activities on the education front. These will help Suse Linux gain ground. Although we are associated with enterprises, Novell is equipped to enter the small and medium business (SMB) market in India. We have a dedicated team that is trying to tap the SMB space. Moreover, there are many partners who have approached us, and we believe that SMBs are a huge space to cater to.

*What differentiates you from the competition?

Suse Linux has a common code base that extends across desktops, servers and mainframes. Its AutoBuild technology guarantees that all Suse Linux products come with uniform quality assurance, and that they run on all relevant hardware platforms.

This unified code base gives IT managers the flexibility and cost savings that come from the deployment of a common operating system and consistent management tools, and the ability to install software updates across all their Linux deployments. As a result, all Suse Linux-based products benefit from bug fixes and performance enhancements, regardless of what platform they run on. This common code base makes it easy for ISVs and IT developers to build applications for a variety of system architectures; move code between development, test and production environments; and support different hardware as business needs change over time.

Atanu Kumar Das