SUSE, the well-known open-source company based in Luxembourg, has been a familiar name in IT circles within Europe. However, it has struggled to establish a strong presence in the U.S. market, where competitors like Red Hat and Canonical dominate. In an effort to break into the U.S. market and challenge its competitors head-on, SUSE is unveiling its AI strategy and SUSE AI solutions, a new generative AI platform that is vendor- and LLM-agnostic.
Prior to the announcement, I had an exclusive conversation with SUSE CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen and Pilar Santamaria, the VP of AI at SUSE, discussing the new service and SUSE's overall strategy in the AI and open-source landscape.
Van Leeuwen emphasized SUSE's goal of bringing the endless possibilities of open source to enterprises. He highlighted the importance of long-term support for enterprise customers, citing SUSE's decision to fork CentOS and provide continued support for existing customers after changes made by Red Hat. This move has attracted numerous former CentOS users to SUSE's fork, showcasing the benefit of open source for customers.
SUSE's portfolio includes not only core Linux offerings but also Kubernetes service Rancher and security service Neuvector, positioning the company well for enterprises seeking platform consolidation. Despite facing challenges in establishing brand recognition in the U.S., particularly due to pronunciation issues, SUSE is confident in the quality of its products and solutions.
With a strong brand like Rancher in the U.S., SUSE plans to further connect it to the overall brand and offer customers a broader range of solutions beyond Kubernetes.
Recognizing the potential for growth in AI, SUSE has developed an open-source AI solution to support AI workloads securely and with a focus on privacy. The platform aims to enable businesses to deploy AI workloads effortlessly, without the need to share data with third parties. It empowers enterprises to run AI models in their own cloud or virtual private cloud, enhancing control and compliance.
The modular nature of the solution allows users to customize their AI deployments, selecting components that best suit their specific needs. As showcased by Fujitsu's adoption of SUSE's AI solution, the platform is set to drive innovation and facilitate secure AI adoption in various industries.
SUSE's AI solution is currently available through an early-access program.