SUSE Linux Enterprise the Platform of Choice for Many Top Retailers

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- (SUSECon 2013)-- SUSE® Linux Enterprise continues to be the preferred Linux operating system for retailers, running on a variety of hardware platforms. For retailers of all types, SUSE Linux Enterprise offers reliability, lower costs and greater security, from Point of Service (POS) to data center.

"Today's IT departments are saddled with an outdated hodgepodge of systems, licensing fees, maintenance and multi-year rollouts," said Meike Chabowski, product marketing manager at SUSE. "So it is important, now more than ever, that retail systems from data center to point of sale are built on a solid, secure, flexible and cost-efficient platform, which is why SUSE is ideal for retail success today and in the future. SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service allows retailers to focus on what matters most – their customers."

With SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service, SUSE delivers the only enterprise-class Linux solution tailored specifically to the unique needs of the retail industry. The recently released SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service 11 Service Pack 3 not only consolidates patches and updates, but it also delivers additional enhancements to help retailers optimize their IT environments. Enhancements in Service Pack 3 include improved reliability and security, simplified management, wireless operation of POS clients, and tight integration with SUSE Manager.

Benefits of SUSE Linux Enterprise for retailers include:

• Uptime – SUSE Linux Enterprise offers continuous uptime due to the stability of the Linux 3.x kernel and open source code. For retailers who conduct thousands of transactions within a short period of time, peace of mind from continuous uptime is invaluable during peak sales periods.
• Scalability – As retailers respond to the ebb and flow of seasonal shopping traffic, SUSE Linux Enterprise allows each retailer to adapt to an elastic sales cycle, which is easily attainable in an open source IT architecture.
• Efficiency – SUSE Linux Enterprise has helped more than 19,000 customers transform and modernize their data centers for future growth and innovation through UNIX-to-Linux migration, Linux support standardization, mainframe Linux workload consolidation and by simplifying administration.

Many significant retailers and SUSE partners rely on SUSE to build future-proof data centers. A few of them include:

La Curacao
"With our previous operating system, it became the norm to experience unplanned downtime which often lasted up to four hours," said Eryk Szachniewicz, software development manager for La Curacao. "We eventually realized we needed higher availability for our mission-critical systems to support our 11 department stores in California and Arizona. We saved at least $150,000 in software and hardware costs by choosing open source software and buying four 64-bit, x86-chip servers. For more than seven years SUSE has provided the best platform for us and our customers."

National Vision
"We chose SUSE Linux Enterprise because we believed SUSE understood the retail market and our business," said John Vaught, CIO at National Vision. "They put us in touch with several other retail companies that were running their Point of Sale infrastructure on SUSE Linux Enterprise, and provided a terrific support and consulting team, which in turn helped us design a very flexible solution tailored specifically to our needs."

Novacoast
"As a premier SUSE partner, Novacoast helps customers succeed with their SUSE implementations through their deep technical knowledge and commitment to problem solving," said Dan Elder, Linux Services manager for Novacoast. "Novacoast's support of retail SUSE customers has allowed them to deliver the best possible solution at the lowest possible cost to give them a competitive edge in the marketplace. SUSE is the platform of choice for Novacoast's Linux implementations as it provides the right combination of functionality, stability and security that customers need to run their business."

PCMS
"Using the SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system provides customers with a stable and well-supported system for running all their business needs," said Tony Espley, technical consultant, Data Centre, Managed Services, for PCMS. "With SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service, this support is extended to Point of Sale devices. Our customers are experiencing higher uptime and greater flexibility with enhanced functionality built into the core product. The solution and support have been an ideal fit with our Java-based POS Client system BeanStore."

Peerless Clothing
"SUSE Linux Enterprise allows us to leverage inexpensive mid-range commodity hardware, and by using VMware to virtualize our Linux servers, we can quickly respond to the needs of the business by adding new servers in no time," said Joffrey Bienvenue, IS infrastructure and operations manager at Peerless Clothing. "Our IT staff now has a solid development platform and can take advantage of open source tools and applications."

For more information about SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service, visit www.suse.com/products/linuxpointofservice.

About SUSE
SUSE, a pioneer in open source software, provides reliable, interoperable Linux and cloud infrastructure solutions that give enterprises greater control and flexibility. More than 20 years of engineering excellence, exceptional service and an unrivaled partner ecosystem power the products and support that help our customers manage complexity, reduce cost, and confidently deliver mission-critical services. The lasting relationships we build allow us to adapt and deliver the smarter innovation they need to succeed – today and tomorrow. For more information, visit www.suse.com.

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