Retail chain LuLu Group International has revealed that it has opted an open source way and migrated to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. The new development is aimed to help business managers with faster identification and response to new opportunities and competitive threats.
For the entire 124 outlets and operations in 31 countries around the world, LuLu Group has migrated its Unix-based SAP for the retail landscape from Solaris to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. The hypermarket chain and retail distributor had previously deployed the SAP HANA database to improve its existing business reporting and analytics operations.
“We decided to deploy SAP HANA both for business intelligence and as the operational database for our complete SAP landscape,” said Madhav Rao, CIO of LuLu Group, in a statement. “Given our experience of the availability, flexibility, scalability and ease of management of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications, this was the logical platform on which to deploy our new SAP HANA software.”
High availability in a short time frame
LuLu Group has leveraged the bundled SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension to receive high availability for its SAP landscape. This solution will start bringing the result of the retailer in just two years of its deployment. Additionally, there is a special kernel-tune option to enhance SAP performance by conserving less-used memory.
“Our initial migration from Solaris to the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform reduced our total operational costs for the SAP landscape by at least 20 percent. However, the increases in performance and availability are more important to the business because these help us to ensure excellent customer service at all times. We trust SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to provide extreme stability for our mission-critical SAP ERP and SAP HANA landscapes,” Rao added.
The deployment of both its core SAP ERP and the new SAP HANA landscape running on SUSE’s offering lets LuLu Group gains with optimal performance, easy management, seamless scalability and low-cost ownership.
Retailers’ focus on open source
Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Group is not the only retail chain that developed the open source strategy. US retail giant Walmart is maintaining its open source OneOps platform since 2011 to enable provision and management of applications in the cloud. Just recently, Walmart’s OneOps got OpenStack integration to deliver a full-fledged cloud solution to worldwide retailers.
