SUSE, a global leader in true open source innovation, today announced it has closed the acquisition of Rancher Labs, the market leader in Kubernetes management. The combined company brings together a best-in-class Linux operating system, a market-leading Kubernetes management platform, and a host of pioneering edge capabilities that will give enterprises the power to innovate everywhere.
“Our customers have made it clear they want powerful technology that is both leading-edge and reliable to accelerate business transformation,” said SUSE CEO Melissa Di Donato. “We have historically delivered innovative solutions that anticipate what enterprises need, and today with Rancher, we are set to make history again. With our powerful and modular approach to open source software, our customers can count on reliability and unmatched agility to innovate everywhere – from the data center, to the cloud, to the edge and beyond.”
Innovate Everywhere through the Power of Many
SUSE and Rancher, in collaboration with a broad open source community, bring the best of innovation and stability for the enterprise.
SUSE, backed by a strong 28-year history and dedication to open source innovation, powers mission-critical applications and systems and is embedded in many devices like automobiles and medical devices around the world. Rancher was recently named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Multicloud Container Development Platforms, Q3 2020 report and delivers open source software that enables organizations to deploy and manage Kubernetes at scale, on any infrastructure across the data center, cloud, branch offices and the network edge.
Rancher’s equal commitment to the open source community is backed by its support for multiple Kubernetes distributions and operating systems. With no vendor lock-in or limits on where computing takes place, enterprises can seamlessly innovate across their business from the edge to the core to the cloud. Together, the two companies will develop solutions that address today’s complexity for enterprises with a focus on new innovations in edge computing.
“I knew SUSE was the right company for us because of our shared ethos, viewpoint and philosophy of open source driving value to business leaders,” said Sheng Liang, former Rancher CEO and, as of today, the new President of Engineering and Innovation at SUSE. “Together, we are committed to making a significant impact on enterprise business across the globe, supporting each and every customer as they navigate cloud solutions and modernize infrastructure in a way that makes sense for their workflows.”
Bringing the ‘Open’ Back to ‘Open Source’
A shared commitment to the true ethos of open source and the greater community is what brought these independent companies together, and what will set SUSE apart as IT leaders across the globe evaluate options for business transformation.
SUSE and Rancher’s mutual customers and partners agree.
“Some open source companies are more open than others. In my experience, SUSE and Rancher are good examples and willing and able to work to deploy and service technology solutions that are truly designed to meet the needs of our business and that is incredibly refreshing,” said Frank Strecker, SVP, public cloud managed services and big data at T-Systems.
“We need to innovate in the data center and the cloud, and in order to be agile, we cannot commit to a single, heavy vertical stack. Only SUSE and Rancher deliver a truly open approach to open source software that can respond to the ever evolving, digital needs of the UK citizen in a rapid and consistent way,” said Jason Daniels, CTO, Law & Order Portfolio at Fujitsu.
Di Donato underscores these points. “Only SUSE and Rancher will provide the vision and expertise to power the future of the enterprise. Our independent approach gives customers the agility to tackle workflow challenges today, and the freedom to evolve their IT strategy and solutions tomorrow.”
SUSE most recently announced a successful fourth quarter which saw continued global growth. Cloud ACV (annual contract value) bookings continued to thrive with 87% growth, achieving 15 consecutive quarters of year over year cloud ACV increase. SUSE also saw a 21% increase year over year in customer deals worth more than $1 million.
