SUSE Edge 3.1: Scalable, secure platform that supports industry use cases

We are pleased to announce new cloud native, edge computing capabilities, as part of the general availability of SUSE Edge 3.1. Edge 3.1 enables enterprises to improve operational efficiency, modernize edge operations and deploy innovations to the edge faster. It also offers improved manageability while introducing longer-term support. 

Enterprises in retail, manufacturing, healthcare and government verticals are looking to accelerate transformation and deliver differentiation at the edge. They are extending their cloud computing capabilities to the edge of their networks to reduce latency, process data locally and gain real-time insights. However, several issues prevent them from maximizing the potential of the edge, including the lack of a consistent platform between the cloud, enterprise premises and the edge; the difficulty of managing the lifecycle of all aspects of edge devices at scale; and the need for data center-like security at the edge. They are stretched to meet the innovation demands from the business while maximizing the customer experience.

Despite the aforementioned management and scale challenges, IDC analysts remain very optimistic about the growth of the edge infrastructure market. According to the IDC Worldwide Edge Spending Guide, global spending on edge computing is estimated to reach $228 billion in 2024, marking a 14% increase from 2023. They also predict that the edge spend will grow at a double digit rate to $378 billion by 2028. Driven by AI-powered training, inferencing and services, industries such as retail, manufacturing, healthcare and utilities are expected to improve operational efficiency, reduce downtime, reduce fraud, and provide enhanced customer experiences.

SUSE Edge 3.1 is a purpose-built edge computing platform that is designed to address the challenges faced by enterprises. It offers data center-level security and supports a variety of use cases, target hardware platforms and deployment scenarios.

Benefits of Edge 3.1 include:

• Tailored validated designs: The SUSE Edge 3.1 solution provides a flexible, edge-optimized platform with validated designs tailored for industry use cases. SUSE Edge supports both x86-64 and Arm64 systems. The validated designs dramatically improve customer ramp-up time and ensure the consistent performance of edge deployments.
• Easily scaled and deployed: SUSE Edge 3.1 provides a management solution that equally scales to cover the full edge cloud stack, from OS to applications, and to handle operations in a fully automated manner. Edge 3.1 provides 24 months of long-term support.
• Best-in-class security and compliance: SUSE Edge builds on the integrated compliance and security capabilities and certifications of SUSE’s underlying platforms. It then extends the value, applying best practices in configuration, delivery and governance, utilizing these capabilities across the edge.
• Built for the edge: More than a decade of working as a supplier to large- and medium-sized enterprises means a mature high-performance edge runtime and a small footprint edge stack with components purposely built for edge computing.
• Better protection of customer investments: Using industry standard and vendor-neutral APIs for GitOps-based infrastructure and configuration management provides a higher return on investment.

“SUSE Edge 3.1 is a flexible, cloud native, edge computing platform designed to help enterprises manage the lifecycle of edge devices at scale and realize the benefits of distributed edge deployments,” said Keith Basil, GM of SUSE’s Edge Business Unit. “For example, by adopting SUSE Edge 3.1 across their edge footprint, a manufacturing enterprise would benefit from improved availability and reliability for sensors and cameras at their manufacturing plants.”

Accelerating Kratos’ journey to cloud native satellite services

Let’s look at a real-life deployment of SUSE Edge. Kratos recognized the need to support the next generation of satellite services while reducing cost and complexity. To solve this challenge, Kratos pioneered an open, software-defined solution: moving satellite functions to virtualized, cloud native services at the core, the gateway, and the edge of the network. To realize its vision, Kratos adopted SUSE Edge as a cloud native platform, capable of running in the data center and all the way in the edge. With SUSE’s edge and enterprise container management solutions, the company employed a turnkey software stack that dramatically reduces the complexity of orchestrating and scaling its virtualized environments.

The SUSE Edge solution, composed of Rancher Prime, K3s, SLE Micro and SLES for ARM, now form the basis for the Kratos offering, which transforms almost every component of the satellite ground station from hardware into software. SUSE Edge solution provides Kratos a secure, edge-native stack for hosting applications and containerized network functions.

“Kratos virtual ground solutions — underpinned by SUSE solutions — are critical for providing satellite services in the hardest-to-reach places and supporting the most critical defense missions”, said Kevin Tobias, Director of Product Management at Kratos Space. 

Kratos’ story is typical of the journey of many other enterprises in the retail, manufacturing, healthcare and utilities spaces: they seek to innovate at the edge to improve operational efficiency, shorten innovation cycles and improve customer experiences. They discover that a purpose-built edge computing solution will work best for their business goals. SUSE has been a trusted partner for such enterprises, offering a scalable, open and secure edge cloud platform. More importantly, SUSE also provides  world-class support  and  consulting services to simplify the deployment of edge cloud platforms and complement their resources. 

SUSE Edge 3.1 will be generally available in October 2024. Reach out to SUSE and explore how we can help you in your journey to implement edge solutions that work the best for you.

Meet us at KubeCon Salt Lake City

SUSE Edge experts will be attending KubeCon Salt Lake City, Nov 12 – 15, 2024, to showcase SUSE Edge 3.1. To learn more first-hand, we invite you to set up a meeting with SUSE experts at KubeCon or stop by Booth #D2.

Sponsor Co-Located Events: SUSE Day 2024

Co-Located Events: Kubernetes on Edge Day

Kubecon location: Booth #D2

Learn More

• Edge and Industrial IoT at Scale – Gorilla Guide
• Finding Value at the Edge – Webinar
• Gartner Report: How Enterprises are applying Edge Computing
• White Paper: Managing Edge Infrastructure at Scale with GitOps
• Edge Customer Success Stories
• Edge Corporate Blogs
• Edge Technical Blogs