White Paper Server. Five Reasons for Choosing SUSE Manager

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1 White Paper Server Five Reasons for Choosing SUSE Manager

2 Server White Paper Five Reasons for Choosing SUSE Manager SUSE Manager for Comprehensive Linux Systems Management According to a recent Forrester study, IT spends 70 percent of its budget on just maintaining their existing environment. 1 Many customers tell us this percentage is even higher in their organizations. The reason is that data centers have become increasingly complex. The System Management Challenge For a long time, companies primarily built their workloads on top of physical systems. Adding various operating systems to the data center increased complexity. But then, other options, especially virtualization, also became available for running application workloads. However, competing virtualization platforms such as XEN, KVM, VMware, Hyper-V added to the diversity of technologies in the data center, producing yet another layer of management and maintenance complexity. In addition, virtualization has been followed by cloud computing. Now data center managers must decide what type of cloud computing service they want to use. Private, public or hybrid cloud computing? In other words, rapid data center development has created endless new opportunities, but also monitoring and management challenges. At this point, you may be asking yourself: What can 1 Forrester: Market Overview: Data Center Infrastructure Management Solutions by Richard Fichera, March 29, 2012; Updated: April 3, 2012 I do to reduce this complexity or Where can I get help with these diverse resources management challenges? The answer is SUSE Manager. SUSE Manager delivers complete lifecycle management for Linux with asset management, provisioning, package management, patch management, configuration management and redeployment functionalities. By monitoring system health and managing compliance, regulatory and security requirements, SUSE Manager provides administrators all necessary information so they can take appropriate action. As a result, SUSE Manager provides five benefits through its single, centralized interface. Five Reasons for Choosing SUSE Manager 1. Automated management. This lets you reduce administrator effort even as the size and complexity of your Linux deployments grow. For example, SUSE Manager replaces slow and tedious patch management processes, which are often rife with errors and mistakes, so it saves you valuable time and resources while it maintains the integrity of your data center. 2

3 2. Management of SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers across physical, virtual and cloud environments using the same automated functionality and through a single interface. As a result, SUSE Manager ensures the same service quality and availability for all Linux workloads independently of the number of servers, operating systems, architectures and deployment types. This allows companies to optimize and expand their IT operations, gain agility and achieve a positive ROI. 3. Improved workload security. You have to conform to security guidelines and stay in compliance with corporate policies and government regulations such as SOX (Sarbanes- Oxley) and HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act). SUSE Manager has capabilities for audits and compliance-related activities helping you to avoid the risks and costs of failure to meet IT compliance and security requirements. 4. Integration with different hardware platforms, starting with x86 to IBM Power to IBM z Systems. This lets you save costs and reduces infrastructure complexity. The latest version, SUSE Manager Server 2.1 for IBM z Systems, can be hosted on IBM z Systems servers and manages all SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers in your environment, including the virtual instances on IBM z Systems as well as virtual and physical instances on IBM Power Systems and x86_64 platforms. 5. Simplified maintenance burden. Microsoft Windows customers with Linux environments can reduce their maintenance burden by using the SUSE Manager Management Pack for Microsoft System Center. This is an add-on to Microsoft System Center that allows administrators to manage Windows and Linux servers from the Microsoft System Center console. To sum up, SUSE Manager provides management for today s diverse data center environments by supporting mixed infrastructures as well as various cloud environments to reduce data center costs and complexity. And SUSE Manager can do all of this through a single management interface. As a result, you gain better control over your IT infrastructure, optimize your resources and prepare your infrastructure for further needs. Here s how Using SUSE Manager to Improve Control, Optimize Resources and More 1. Automate Your Patch and Package Management Boost productivity and alleviate strain on the IT budget. Even in the smallest data centers, manually updating, patching, and configuring servers can be a time-consuming task filled with opportunities for costly errors. You need a way to reduce IT costs no matter what size business you serve. As your Linux estate grows, it can require more and more IT personnel to keep up with all that manual work. Automation is the key to reducing the IT costs associated with server management. SUSE Manager automates Linux server management, allowing you to provision, patch, and maintain your servers faster and more accurately. With SUSE Manager, you can comprehensively manage your Linux servers across physical, virtual and cloud environments while improving data center efficiency. SUSE Manager delivers the capabilities you need to effectively manage your Linux systems, but at a more affordable price than proprietary third-party systems management products. BENEFITS: With automated SUSE Manager patch and package management processes can: Remove slow and tedious patch management processes that are often prone to errors and mistakes Locate and patch vulnerabilities to keep the integrity of your data center systems 3

4 Server White Paper Five Reasons for Choosing SUSE Manager Raise your IT staff s productivity and reduce server downtime Address external regulations, industry standards and internal policies Avoid unnecessary downtime and improve time to market responsiveness 2. Reduce the Complexity of Linux Systems Management Just make it easy. remotely or locally. This integration lets administrators reduce their time spent identifying issues and managing their Linux servers. BENEFITS: Because of its ability to integrate with and manage diverse Linux servers, SUSE Manager: Reduces the inherent complexity of managing multiple Linux distributions Manages Linux systems across diverse hardware architectures plus virtual and cloud environments Provides you with seamless systems management with a single centralized solution 3. Simplify Compliance Spend less time staying in compliance with corporate policies and external rules associated with the use of Linux subscriptions. You want a smart way to tackle the challenges of maintaining and demonstrating compliance for all your Linux workloads. With SUSE Manager you get it. Based on the Spacewalk open source project, SUSE Manager is the best solution to manage various Linux distributions (like SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux), and various deployment environments (physical, virtual and cloud) from a single, centralized console using the same automated functionality. SUSE Manager directs Linux workloads across a range of hardware from x86 to IBM System z. It works across VMware, Xin, KVM and Hyper-V. It works on SUSE OpenStack Cloud, Amazon EC2 and other cloud platforms. And it even works for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server-based virtual and software appliances. This expands your flexibility and helps your IT organization realize the potential of virtual and cloud computing. You can decide the placement of workloads where they make sense based on performance, availability and cost, without losing any control. No matter where you deploy Linux, SUSE Manager s tight integration with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server gives your IT staff the same view of their Linux systems, whether managing them The security of your Linux environment can be further enhanced through its configuration management and provisioning capabilities. SUSE Manager provides a standard approach to maintaining the security of your Linux enterprise systems. As a result, your IT staff can develop and maintain standard configurations that conform to security specifications and increase the consistency of provisioning new servers. And the provisioning capabilities of SUSE Manager reduce the risk of deployment errors that cause security holes. 4

5 In addition, you can easily conduct a hardware and software inventory, to quickly comply with audits without resorting to manual procedures. SUSE Manager automatically tracks server changes and keeps a history, so you can easily provide this information to auditors. Plus, you can use its standard reports or build tailored reports to provide audit information. If your organization uses an enterprise management suite or a business services management solution for centralized auditing and reporting, you can leverage the SUSE Manager API to simply export information into these third-party tools. If compliance is a growing concern and time-consuming process in your organization, SUSE Manager is the right choice for you. 4. Run SUSE Manager on x86 or on IBM z Systems SUSE Manager has been available to be hosted on x86-86 hardware. In addition, SUSE made available SUSE Manager 2.1 for IBM z Systems 2, which can be hosted on IBM z Systems servers and can manage all SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers in your environment. This includes the virtual instances on IBM z Systems as well as virtual and physical instances on IBM Power Systems and x86-64 platforms. This version of SUSE Manager is now delivered as an appliance image, which makes installation on your z Systems server very easy. Supported IBM z Systems servers include IBM zenterprise System z196, IBM zenterprise, IBM zenterprise System z114, IBM zenterprise EC12, IBM zenterprise BC12, IBM z13, and, of course also the Linux-only configuration machines LinuxOne Emperor and Rockhopper Connect to Microsoft System Center SUSE Manager Management Pack for Microsoft System Center enables Windows systems administrators to view server health information and perform both Windows and Linux patching duties via the same console. Through tight integration between SUSE Manager and Microsoft System Center, the system administrator is able, through a single console, to: Quickly check the update status of all Linux servers to ensure their health and security View a list of all Linux servers entitled for a selected list of critical and optional updates and patches Get alerts for all outdated or critical updates available for Linux servers (proactively protect systems) Schedule a maintenance window to run updates on a specific Linux server or a group of Linux servers Patch Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers when combined with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support. BENEFITS: Today, system administrators are required to use separate tools for maintaining patch health compliance and deploying required updates to the Windows and Linux servers in their environments. The SUSE Manager Management Pack for Microsoft System Center streamlines the management of your virtual and physical environments across both Windows and Linux platforms from a single, central console. Reduce cost Leverage your investment in existing infrastructure including software, hardware and expertise. Save time Windows and Linux patch management can be done from the same console rather than splitting time between the two silos. Minimize risk Improved efficiency in the patching and updating process translates to lower risk of failure via a missed or incorrectly applied patch. Conclusion When you choose SUSE Manager, you get the most advanced systems management solution for enterprise Linux environments. You also get: The only systems management solution tightly integrated with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server The most efficient solution for managing Linux environments And the ability to manage both SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux The conclusion is simple. When you add up all of the capabilities and benefits of SUSE Manager, it s time to choose it to simplify your Linux systems management www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/os/linux/linux-one.html#ibmcustom-id-latlos-header 5

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