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The economic slowdown has forced businesses to look at ways to cut costs while maintaining performance, both of which open source software such as Linux can provide. However, to navigate Linux technology and take advantage of the developer community, organizations need trained Linux professionals that understand the marketplace and have experience at the kernel and application levels. Stats from the a Linux Foundation report claim 85% of 2,000 recruiters are finding it hard to hire suitably qualified Linux Professionals making Linux professionals some of the most sought talent in 2012.

For people with well-honed Linux skills and up-to-date training, the job market is thriving — and the opportunities put Linux professionals directly in the center of disruptive and exciting innovations that are changing the way we work and live.

SUSE is definitely in growth mode. Ralf Flaxa, SUSE’s VP of Linux Engineering, is the person primarily responsible for hiring engineers for SUSE. Currently, SUSE is hiring approximately 15 positions with more opening every week.

According to a recent interview with Brian Proffitt at ITWorld, when looking for programmers in general, Flaxa said that programming language aren’t as important as the style and experience of the programmer being interviewed. Do they have agile development experience, for instance? What’s their experience working with open source communities? Those are key factors for Flaxa when looking at candidates.

The article in ITWorld contains a lot of helpful advice about Ralf’s hiring preferences, which is handy for resume and cover letter guidance (hint hint).  Find out if SUSE is where you belong and check out our career page.

Guest Post by Brett Waldman, Senior Research Analyst, IDC

As an ISV, you know Software as a Service (SaaS) is a very important part of your business model, if not today, then in the very near future. It can also be an overwhelming feeling. Move to a SaaS model is going to be very disruptive to your development model and you have 3 main choices when deciding to offer a SaaS application

•     Multi-tenant architecture
•     Platform as a Service (PaaS) hosting
•     Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) hosting

A multi-tenant architecture like the one Salesforce.com built is a good way to go if you have millions of dollars and a year or so to make your transition. If you don’t have the time or money or expertise, then this is probably not the path for you.

PaaS is in its relative infancy. PaaS holds a lot of promise, however, many of the vendor offerings are still in beta, switching costs are very high, and no access to middleware or operating system. These issues may all be solved in the future, but they are all issues today that you need to be aware of.

The final option IaaS hosting has two options of its own

• Put your application inside a virtual machine
• Turn your application into a software appliance

Simply putting your application inside a virtual machine is cumbersome, patch and update management is different from a typical workload, and a true cloud architecture is different than a traditional enterprise architecture which could lead to unintended consequences.

That leaves software appliances a valid choice when considering your move to SaaS. By creating a software appliance and using a tool such as SUSE Studio , you can continue to use and modify Linux has you may have in the past, include any middleware you choose, and most importantly offer customers a choice – consume on-premise or in the cloud – and for you it’s the same the software appliance. You could also go a step further and offer a hybrid cloud approach where certain instances are on-premise and then others in the cloud. This is why software appliances make for a good start with your customer’s journey to cloud.

I am thrilled that this week we released SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 2.  It’s a big step forward for us at SUSE. This is the first major product update since we started operating as an independent business unit within The Attachmate Group. It’s also a good indication of our commitment to the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform. As you can see, the acquisition didn’t interrupt development at all.  Quite the opposite; it means we can now focus 100% on the products and innovations that matter most to our SUSE customers.

SP2 is packed with new features and capabilities that I hope you’ll take the time to explore (after you read this post, of course). SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2 is the first release built using a new forward-looking development model that combines modern Linux kernels, consistent libraries and interfaces with a unique, forward-porting approach.  It means you gain faster access to open source innovation, and the ability to use the latest hardware, without losing enterprise quality and application compatibility.  Truly a win-win. 

One area that’s been significantly enhanced is virtualization. In addition to new support for Linux Containers, SP2 includes updated Xen and KVM open source hypervisors.  Both SUSE and IBM have worked together to provide cross-platform support and choice for customers with mixed IT environments. We’re proud of the leadership and support we’ve demonstrated for KVM and Xen. Since 2010, SUSE Linux Enterprise has provided commercial support for KVM. Today, our collaboration with the Linux community and our strong partnerships enable SUSE and IBM to deliver an open standards-based solution for one of today’s most requested features – KVM support for Windows guests.

SP2 is a particularly important release for IBM customers because it adds terrific performance-enhancing and power-saving capabilities. This will help IBM  customers take full advantage of the native resiliency of IBM Systems servers and get even more benefit from server virtualization.

This is one more chapter in the 20-year partnership between SUSE and IBM. Our shared belief that open standards and open source software are absolutely critical to the future of IT is reflected in the latest version of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.  Take it for a test drive and see for yourself how well it performs.  www.suse.com/promo/sle11sp2.html

Years ago in business school I learned about “core competencies.” Prahalad and Hamel argued that core competencies were the basis for a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage. I was reminded of core competencies this past winter when my wife asked me to put up a tile backsplash in our kitchen. Doing tile work is not one of my core competencies.

I mean, I CAN do it. But I guess the bigger question is SHOULD I do it. In hindsight, perhaps I should have entrusted our backsplash to an expert – one with the right expertise, tools and experience to do a high quality job in half the time it would have taken me.

Last week I was reminded again about core competencies. Last week we unveiled a new partnership between Dell OEM Solutions and SUSE. A Partnership that brings together Dell’s hardware and supply chain expertise and SUSE’s flexible operating platform and robust software configuration tools to deliver joint customers enterprise quality integrated systems in half the time it would have taken them to do it themselves.

And time is money. By leveraging Dell and SUSE’s combined expertise, enterprises can bring their integrated systems solutions to market faster. More importantly, they can redeploy their scarce internal resources on furthering those competencies that help them thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

It took me two days to complete the tile backsplash. And another two days to recuperate from the physical labor. Now the grout is starting to separate where the electrical outlets are. Good thing I get paid for using my brain my wife says.

Next time I’ll call the experts. And if you need to bring high quality integrated systems to market in a cost effective and timely manner, I encourage you to call the experts too – SUSE and Dell OEM Solutions.

Many articles and blogs have covered the great features and updates to be found in openSUSE 12.1. I’m not going to repeat that here but you can find great coverage from The Register, Network World, ZDNet, Linux.com , TechCrunch and Ars Technica and many others. And after using openSUSE 12.1 myself, I have to say it is quite an impressive release and I particularly like the integration of Btrfs and Snapper with YaST and also the integration with ownCloud. As an openSUSE user, I’m finding a lot to like!

12.1 is the first openSUSE release since new SUSE business unit was created following the acquisition of Novell. In those few months SUSE and openSUSE have been very engaged. I am really happy with the degree of communication, collaboration and mutual support we’ve created. The recent openSUSE conference is a great example. As openSUSE becomes an even more dynamic project comprised of a growing, global contributor base, the possibilities for new innovation are unlimited – ARM, Cloud, development tools etc.

SUSE, as the primary sponsor, is completely committed to the continued growth of the openSUSE project. We are just as passionate about its success as the many people who personally use and contribute to the project.

As an independent community, openSUSE contributors innovate and build what they’re passionate about and enjoy doing it. This innovation isn’t directed or controlled by SUSE – it’s a free and open project. In fact, that’s exactly why the relationship between openSUSE and SUSE works so well and part of why openSUSE is such a great project for contributors to join.

So, after this great milestone release, I’d like to re-iterate my congratulations and look forward to what’s next in openSUSE as the project and community continues to grow!

In November 2006, Microsoft and Novell signed an interoperability agreement and an innovative laboratory concept was created — a place where architects and developers from both companies could now share experiences, as well as source code, while improving interoperability between Windows and Linux.

When Microsoft Hyper-V was still in development, the laboratory facilitated the joint development and testing of a suite of integration components for Linux servers allowing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to use the high performance features of the soon-to-be-launched Microsoft virtualization platform. Also on the laboratory agenda were cross platform management, identity federation and document interoperability.

Five years later, the Microsoft and SUSE alliance is still moving forward full throttle on the technical and business fronts. The original integration components, now called the Linux Integration Services, have become a part of the Linux kernel, and collaboration efforts have expanded to include new projects that address the market demand for mixed-source private and public cloud scenarios. More than 800 customers worldwide have benefited from the success of the interoperability lab and leveraged the resulting solutions to improve performance and decrease costs associated with running a heterogeneous data center.

In these years, the collaboration between Microsoft and SUSE has evolved and so have the technical engagements. As compute environments have gone largely distributed and cloud based, so now has the interop lab. Most importantly, it has a challenging new agenda: helping customers get the most benefit out of cloud computing by addressing the interoperability needs it introduces.

This new, virtual interoperability lab is now where Microsoft and SUSE engineers still work jointly, envisioning, developing and testing solutions for cloud computing, virtualization and cross-platform management. Though the physical lab has evolved into a distributed virtual lab, our goal is the same as it was in 2006; making heterogeneous computing easier, whether in the data center or in the cloud.”

… IBM Lab Boeblingen in the category of “RAS” (Really Appealing Series) for their Linux on IBM System z videoclip. First time I saw this “feature” was back in June. I just rediscovered it on YouTube and I wanted to share it with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i7kBnhN3Lg

Some of you might know that I have an affinity to the cinema, as I have also a masters in science of mass media, cinema and theater. Don’t laugh, it isn’t that ridiculous as it might seem: the industries of the movies and of IT are quite similar. Both be brutally expensive, are fast-moving and consistently changing, and absolutely merciless if you strike the wrong note or do one wrong step.

No worries, our friends from IBM did all things right here. As leading actors we do not see professional comedians but the IBM heroes Siegfried Langer, Wilhelm Mild, and Hans-Joachim Picht. But the results are impressive – already about 3,500 views on YouTube. And a message well transported. Even if it starts with some kind of “once upon a time”, this movie is not a fairytale, but a documentary on how a vision becomes reality. A platform under suspicion of being moldy and old-fashioned demonstrates its cutting-edge nature. Many technologies now being “hyped” originally had been or born or early adopted on the mainframe – think of virtualization, think of “cloud readiness”, think of “business continuity”.

There is one thing that could be done even better next time. For your next movie, plan also with minimum a supporting if not a leading role for Geeko – and you bet you will sweep the board in the most important categories for IT customers: you´ll hear the “and the Oscars for the categories Best TCO and best ROI go to IBM System z running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z”.