CENIBRA elevates availability, resilience and efficiency with SUSE

“SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension gives us the robust failover and replication tools we need to maintain business continuity and maximize uptime for vital SAP S4/HANA systems. At the same time, the open source nature of the SUSE technologies helps keep our options open for the future.” Miguel Antunes, IT Coordinator, CENIBRA.

Brazil-based CENIBRA is a key producer of raw material for paper products. As booming demand put aging systems and processes under increased pressure, CENIBRA decided to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA, running on IBM Power Systems servers with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications.

For years, the company had relied on SAP ERP applications to support everything from finance and accounting to logistics. With the infrastructure underlying this SAP ERP instance nearing its end of life, CENIBRA decided that the time was right to refresh its IT landscape.

Enlisting the help of local systems integrator, PC Place, CENIBRA decided to migrate core business applications to SAP S/4HANA, running on SLES for SAP Applications. SLES for SAP Applications was chosen due to its strong interoperability with IBM and SAP solutions. In addition, SAP and SUSE provide integrated technical support for their software, meaning a reduced time to resolve any issues with SAP S/4HANA on SLES, compared to other operating systems

Maintaining high availability for key systems

To keep key processes running smoothly around the clock, CENIBRA implemented SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) High Availability Extension, a bundled component with SLES for SAP Applications. The extension provides high availability clustering technologies that are easy to set up and can be deployed in both physical and virtual environments.

As SAP is a mission-critical platform for CENIBRA any unplanned disruption or downtime has significant impact on operations. SLE High Availability Extension provides the robust failover and replication tools required to maintain business continuity and maximize uptime for vital SAP S4/HANA systems, whilst the open source nature of the SUSE technologies helps keep CENIBRA’s options open for the future.

With SAP S/4HANA running on IBM Power Systems servers and SLES for SAP Applications, CENIBRA has a modern, fully supported IT stack that it can count on to keep operations running smoothly from end to end.

CENIBRA can now generate reports in a much faster and more standardized way across multiple business entities. This enables the company to always have trusted, up-to-date information at hand to drive sound business decisions.

Meanwhile, with SLES for SAP Applications, CENIBRA enjoys consistently high application performance and has improved the resiliency of its mission-critical SAP systems.

CENIBRA made use of saptune, a tool specific to SLES for SAP Applications that optimizes the operating system to take full advantage of IBM Power architecture, to help maximize the value of its investment in the new platform.

The SUSE operating system has also delivered a noticeable improvement in administrative efficiency; the intuitive user interface and easy-to-navigate configuration tools help simplify and streamline management.

Thanks to the solid foundation of SLES for SAP Applications, IBM Power and SAP S/4HANA, CENIBRA is ready for the next phase of its technology evolution, migrating to the cloud, meaning it can take full advantage of the innovative technologies that will help the business run better.

Click here to find out more about how SUSE and CENIBRA have elevated availability, resilience and efficiency, preparing themselves for future innovation and growth.