Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Implema is a leading SAP specialist dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Since 1998, the company has delivered business-critical projects, furnishing clients with advanced, future-proof systems and tools for enhanced market competitiveness through intelligent digitalization.
With a 200-strong workforce across 10 offices, Implema provides a spectrum of services encompassing consulting, implementation and SAP-certified operations for SAP S4/HANA and other applications. This holistic approach and devotion to service excellence affirm Implema’s reputation as a trusted ally for businesses in need of efficient SAP solutions.
At-a-Glance
Companies in Sweden and beyond trust Implema to run their most mission-critical business systems. With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications and SUSE Manager at the heart of its data center and cloud platforms, the company can provide customers with unbeatable performance, availability and security.
The journey to SUSE
Implema has provided SAP hosting services for nearly 20 years, initially hosting client systems in its own data center and, more recently, on the Microsoft Azure cloud. From the beginning, the company trusted SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications as its strategic operating system.
SUSE has been a part of Implema’s growth from a boutique consultancy to Sweden’s leading specialist in SAP and Microsoft Dynamics applications. Along the way, Implema has evolved to serve a broader range of clients and adapted to clients’ growing demand for faster, more efficient implementations.
To meet this need for greater speed and agility, the company has increased its use of cloud technologies. Peter Wiotti, business area manager for technology at Implema, explains: “Everything is going so much faster in terms of development and deployment today, and it seems like everyone wants to be in the cloud. This trend has led us to expand more into the cloud hosting space, with Microsoft Azure as our key platform.”
As Implema moves more workloads into the cloud, ensuring that its clients’ environments are optimally configured is more important than ever before. “Working with SUSE gives us a big advantage,” says Wiotti. “With SLES for SAP Applications, we know we have a solid foundation to underpin our clients’ SAP landscapes, whether hosted in our data center or in the cloud.”
“As we grow, the applications we run for our customers are also getting bigger and more complex. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications provides the scalability and performance that we need to keep everything running smoothly.”
Why SUSE solutions?
Implema started using SLES for SAP Applications around 10 years ago, when the SAP HANA database was first released. At the time, the company was eager to offer its SMB clients a cost-effective way to take advantage of SAP HANA’s capabilities. SLES for SAP Applications proved to be the ideal operating system for this purpose.
“A proven, low-maintenance operating system optimized for SAP software was exactly what we needed,” comments Wiotti. “We decided to make SLES for SAP Applications our strategic platform for SAP HANA.”
When it decided to start moving into the cloud hosting space, Implema took the “We continue to trust in SUSE because of its strong commitment to security, on top of delivering what is already a very stable and resilient platform.” Peter Wiotti Business Area Manager, Technology Implema time to reflect on its choice of underlying platforms. Once again, the company saw many compelling reasons to stick with SUSE as its Linux provider.
Wiotti continues: “We’ve enjoyed a great collaboration with SUSE over the last decade. We’ve built up strong expertise in SUSE solutions and a good working relationship. We wanted to keep building on that foundation. Whether it’s on-premises or in the cloud, SLES for SAP Applications is our go-to operating system.”
Today, the company operates a hybrid environment. Implema runs close to 100 SAP HANA instances in its data center on SLES for SAP Applications using VMware vSphere virtualization, hosted on HPE server and storage hardware. Azure remains Implema’s primary public cloud platform, with the company adding more workloads to the cloud on a regular basis.
Implema also uses SUSE Manager to manage, automate, and secure Linux systems across its virtual, physical and cloud environments.
Impact of SLES for SAP Applications
Delivers superior availability
Using SUSE technologies helps Implema ensure always-on SAP applications both on-premises and in the cloud. As well as delivering extremely high availability on a day-to-day basis, SLES for SAP Applications makes it possible for Implema to carry out maintenance without disrupting its clients’ operations. This creates a compelling value proposition for the company, helping it win over clients with very high demands around application availability.
“We enjoy close to zero downtime with SLES for SAP Applications,” says Wiotti. “That’s a big plus point for our clients. The fact that we can offer very high availability strengthens our proposal and helps us stand out from our competitors.”
Secures client systems
SLES for SAP Applications has proven to be a highly stable and secure operating system. The platform includes a comprehensive security package to protect systems from threats and cyberattacks, as well as a firewall solution specifically designed for SAP HANA in-memory data.
Wiotti says: “We continue to trust in SUSE because of its strong commitment to security, on top of delivering what is already a very stable and resilient platform. Keeping our clients’ data and applications secure has always been a top priority, now even more so as we run more environments in the cloud. SUSE helps us meet that commitment.”
Offers scale for a growing business
SUSE provides Implema with the scalability it needs to support both today’s customers and tomorrow’s demands to support larger, more complex workloads.
“Our business has more than doubled in the last decade, and we have a plan to triple within the next five years,” notes Wiotti. “As we grow, the applications we run for our customers are also getting bigger and more complex. SLES for SAP Applications provides the scalability and performance that we need to keep everything running smoothly.”
Impact of SUSE Manager
Implema uses SUSE Manager to simplify and automate Linux server provisioning, patching and configuration for faster, more consistent deployments and greater resilience.
Wiotti adds: “SUSE Manager is incredibly helpful when it comes to lifecycle management. We’ve used the solution to automate large parts of the patching and configuration process. We also really like that we can keep systems up and running while applying patches, so there’s no need for planned downtime.”
Impact of SUSE Premium Support Services
Responsive, professional support
Implema counts on SUSE Premium Support Services to keep its SLES for SAP Applications environment operating smoothly. Having access to a dedicated engineering support team means that on very rare occasions when Implema encounters issues, the company can depend on a prompt response from the SUSE team and ensure a rapid resolution.
“We’ve always had Premium Support from SUSE on all of our products,” notes Wiotti. “We rarely run into problems and are usually able to solve most things ourselves, but SUSE has helped out on a few projects over the years, and we’ve really appreciated the extra support.”
Up-to-date training
Implema regularly attends training sessions from SUSE, both online and in person. As a result, the company now has several SUSE experts on its team who stay up to date with the latest product developments and training.
Wiotti comments: “We have a few team members who have really become SUSE power users over the years. They keep up with SUSE training and then pass their learning on to others in the team.”
What’s next for Implema?
As it continues to add clients to its roster, Implema is starting to use Trento Premium, a SUSE-supported, open source, cloud native web console for monitoring SAP databases and applications. Trento is also a highly-intelligent complianceas-code solution that checks system and high availability configurations to identify potential problems and suggest fixes.
Wiotti says: “With the goal of further enhancing our service to clients, we will employ Trento Premium to help monitor SAP HANA databases and the broader SAP system in greater detail. For our clients, the most important thing is to ensure stability in their mission-critical SAP solutions. Working with SUSE helps us to deliver that stability.”