Kathy Gibson at SUSEcon, Prague – In the age of digitalisation and data centre modernisation, open source has come of age.

This is demonstrated by the growth that enterprise open source software provider SUSE has enjoyed over the last months.

“SUSE is in good shape,” says Nils Brauckmann, CEO of SUSE. “In the last year, revenue grew at 21%, and it was profitable growth.”

Business is positive going forward, he adds, with SUSE now part of the larger mothership Micro Focus group following the completion this month of the HPE Software spin merger.

“Micro focus is now the seventh-largest pure-play software vendor in the world, with revenues approaching $4,5-billion,” Brauckmann points out.

The acquisition also means SUSE now offers a broader range of software solutions that help enterprises master the challenges of hybrid IT, and to leverage the value of their legacy investment, Brauckmann adds.

“So what does this means for SUSE?” he asks. “From an operational point of view, things remain pretty much the same in that we still go to market with our own brand and our own development teams.”

There are also a number of changes that will prove positive for SUSE, he adds. “On the one side, we can continues our independent structure, which allows us to be agile and adaptable, making the right investment decision to succeed.

“At the same time, we will  benefit from the scale of the larger organisation, adding to our ability to execute and thrive in the future.”

Being part of a bigger group also allows SUSE to invest in in the business. “For instance, during the last year, we added more than 300 people to the organisation,” Brauckmann says.

“All of this enables us to be a company on the move.”

The addition of new products means the SUSE is able to offer a full stack of solutions that allow customers to become more adaptable an agile in both the enterprise IT and application space.

“The good news is that, while we are doing that, we are seeing an uptick in demand from customers for enterprise open source solutions,” Brauckmann says.

“Open source is the true innovation engine behind a lot of the new trends in the enterprise data centre.”

While a lot is changing, Brauckmann stress that there are many things that remain the same. “Very importantly, our strong commitment to and foundation in open source remains the same. We have been doing this now for 25 years, and we are one of the open source pioneers and leaders taking open source to the enterprise.”

SUSE continues to advocate “open” open source, he adds. “We want to engage in open source not just to reduce time and cost to market. But we want to  build best of breed solutions, giving enterprise customers choices to avoid vendor lock-in – giving them flexibility and adaptability through freedom of choice.

“For us that is the true benefit of open source.”

SUSE also remains true to customer-centric innovation, Brauckmann says. “We don’t want to innovate for its own sake. We want to add real value to enterprise customers, and will continue with customer-centric innovation.”

The company has also reiterated its commitment to technology partnerships, and to the development of its partner ecosystem.

“And SUSE also commits to quality, in our product and in our partnerships.,” Brauckmann adds.