Choosing a CentOS Replacement: What to Consider

The CentOS end-of-life on June 30, 2024, sent countless businesses scrambling to find a CentOS replacement. What was once a stable and reliable Linux operating system, CentOS now no longer receives security patches or maintenance updates. With 60% of cyberattacks caused by unpatched systems (according to the Ponemon Institute), using a discontinued system is a risk no business wants to take.

However, looking for a CentOS 7 replacement is a huge endeavor. It takes time, resources and lots of testing. And, if anything goes wrong, you might be looking at extended downtime.

We’re here to help. In this article, we will look at why it is essential to look for a CentOS replacement, how to choose the best replacement for your business, and why SUSE might be a better option as a CentOS successor.

Why Do You Need to Choose A Replacement for CentOS?

With the End-of-Life (EOL) status of CentOS, users are faced with critical challenges that make it essential to transition to a supported alternative. Without regular updates or patches, an EOL OS is vulnerable to emerging security threats, leaving critical systems exposed to potential breaches. Many regulatory frameworks require up-to-date software to meet compliance standards. Running an unsupported OS may lead to non-compliance and legal repercussions. Proactively choosing a replacement ensures a secure, stable, and compliant IT environment, allowing businesses to focus on growth without disruptions.

How to Choose A CentOS Replacement

Before diving into the key considerations for selecting a CentOS replacement, it’s important to understand the factors that will have the greatest impact on your organization’s long-term success. Below, we’ve outlined the top three factors which are critical to ensuring your new operating system meets your current and future needs:

1. Consider Scalability

As your business continues to grow, you want to make sure that your OS can scale appropriately. Scalability, as defined by SUSE, is “the ability for IT systems – such as applications, storage, databases and networking – to continue to function properly when changed in size or volume. It often refers to increasing or decreasing resources as needed to meet the higher or lower demands of a business.”

Choosing a CentOS substitute that scales with your business allows you to add more users, service more customers and process more data. This allows you to make informed decisions.

Linux is a highly scalable operating system – running on both desktop machines and in the largest supercomputers. Releasing our first enterprise Linux in 1991, SUSE is known for our modular, reliable, compliant and future-proof Linux server. SUSE provides a scalable choice that ensures your enterprise’s business continuity.

2. Consider Flexibility

Like most businesses, you are probably running a complex infrastructure. You might have servers in the cloud (or multiple clouds), on-premises or even on the edge. This adaptability makes Linux suitable for a wide variety of applications.

No matter where you are running your Linux OS, you want to make sure that it runs similarly wherever you need it to so your administrators are comfortable with the features and function of the OS. That’s why SUSE has developed our enterprise server with modularity in mind – using a common codebase to ensure applications could be moved across multimodal IT environments.

Flexibility also includes the ability to run the OS wherever you need it to run. Whether you are running on-premises, in the cloud or on the edge, with SUSE, you gain superior reliability, performance and flexibility to run the most demanding business-critical workloads. SUSE offers multiple editions of its OS to support different types of environments and workloads – no matter where your business takes you.

3. Consider Robust Support

While CentOS was a stable Linux distribution that was supported by a robust community, those days are now gone. When choosing the right replacement for CentOS, consider who can best support your business and provide you with business continuity – not only today but into the future. You want to choose a company that has deep open source roots and who has the engineering bench to address and provide security patches to address any vulnerabilities. Furthermore, you want a company that provides support for your entire infrastructure – not just a specific distribution.

SUSE provides you with 24x7x365, follow-the-sun technical support services plus optional consulting services for your entire infrastructure. We’ve been in the open source business for 30 years, our engineering team is robust and our support and consulting teams are available to help you with your entire Linux infrastructure.

Avoid Migrating to A CentOS Replacement with SUSE

If you want to keep your CentOS infrastructure, SUSE has your answer with SUSE Multi-Linux Support.

SUSE Multi-Linux Support is the best replacement for your end-of-life CentOS. With SUSE Multi-Linux Support, you receive fully application binary compatible security patches and maintenance updates providing CentOS 7 extended support and covering your entire Linux estate. You’ll get enterprise support and predictable releases for your multi-distro world from a trusted partner who understands Linux and the value of open source. Moreover, you get access to world-class, follow-the-sun technical support for your multi-distro environment.

Learn more about SUSE Multi-Linux Support.