SUSE aims at rival Red Hat with growth push

Open source vendor looks to outgrow its rival and claims its renewed channel focus will help achieve its goal

Open source vendor SUSE Linux has claimed its strategic partnerships with Microsoft and VMware will help it see off competition from rival Red Hat as it eyes market growth.

The vendor – which is an autonomous business unit of the Attachmate Group – claims to have grown its business annually by 40 per cent last year and said that, while it is aiming a little under that figure for 2013's growth, it still plans to outgrow both the market and its closest rival.

At the end of 2011, SUSE said it was heavily reducing the number of UK partners which it manages directly, and today claimed the figure has fallen from 122 to just 12. It said that the bulk of resellers are now served via its distributor partners Arrow and Interactive Ideas, and that the move has allowed it to put more focus and energy on its smaller base.

Brian Green, the vendor's UK managing director, outlined SUSE's ambitions for the future.

He said: "We really want to unleash the gekko [the firm's logo] as it were, and make ourselves more available to customers and the channel. The growth target given to me is less than last year's 40 per cent, but we have a highly motivated sales team who are keen to repeat that success.

"The market is growing at 16 per cent according to analysts, and I will be disappointed if we don't grow faster than the market. And, regarding our friends in Farnborough [Red Hat], my ego takes over and I want to grow faster than them."

SUSE reseller partner Linux IT's managing director Peter Dawes-Huish said the company still has a mountain to climb to catch up with the open source giant.

He said: "SUSE has had a mixed reception in the UK over the years... but now it has a better-engineered product and is better placed to work in the competitive landscape. The interoperability with Microsoft is a significant differentiator for it, too.

"We have a good relationship with SUSE, and the hope is that we will see it as a credible competitor in the market, but it has a big mountain to climb. It only has a fraction of the UK market, but it is a credible alternative and will pick up market share as it develops."

Red Hat was unavailable for comment.