Enterprise open source infrastructure solution provider, SUSE, has named Aptronics as its first Solution Partner in South Africa for the solution areas of SUSE Enterprise Linux and Storage.

Solution Partner is the highest tier in the SUSE Partner Program and is awarded to partners that demonstrate an acute understanding of the market plus the deep technical expertise to implement and support robust, highly available and high performing solutions.

Says Matthew Lee, country manager for SUSE Africa: “In the short space of time since Aptronics has come on board as a partner, we have been thoroughly impressed by their commitment and dedication. They leveraged their technical nous to quickly gain all the accreditations that we required so they could become fluent in SUSE’s technology. That, combined with their strong history as one of South Africa’s leading services and solution providers made it an easy decision for us to rapidly promote them as our top-tier partner.”

In addition to the technical skills and 25 years of experience, Aptronics is also deeply committed to giving back to the community. Aptronics has a black women economic interest of 67.5% and is proud to be a level one Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) contributor. It is fully committed to making a meaningful and sustainable contribution to the growth of the South African economy.

“Today’s business leaders are focused on transforming their ICT environments through agility, flexibility, automation and hybrid-cloud architectures and they’re looking for help from the right solutions provider to understand how to navigate this complex new world,” says Richard Blewitt, sales director for Aptronics. “This is exactly what Aptronics and SUSE is focused on and although we have only recently joined the SUSE Partner Program, with many areas of common focus from digital transformation, SAP and software-defined storage to our aligned desire to help customers get maximum benefit from the right open source technologies, it is little wonder that we have built up a formidable partnership.” 

In return for demonstrating commitment to and expertise in SUSE solutions, SUSE Solution Partners profit from deal registration and support on new business opportunities, campaigns and other initiatives, delivering significant competitive advantage to the partner.

SUSE is the world’s first provider of an Enterprise Linux distribution and has delivered ground-breaking innovations such as the highly scalable Enterprise software-defined storage solution built on Ceph, while keeping to the philosophy and approach of being the “open, open source company.”

“We are very pleased with the level of executive support we have received from SUSE management. Reaching the grade of Solution Partner means that we are not just a technically-certified organisation, but also one that is commercially grounded within SUSE’s local market approach. Already we see new opportunities opening up that will lead to increased revenues for both parties and even better results for our combined customers,” adds Blewitt.

“We at SUSE don’t lock customers into a particular stack. We believe open source should be truly open, and that ethos carries through to how we partner with companies like Aptronics. There is a shared appreciation and knowledge of open source, as well as the value and innovation which open source technology unlocks for customers and we look forward to kicking off 2018 with Aptronics,” concludes Lee.

Companies interested in becoming a SUSE Partner should visit the SUSE website to learn more about the benefits of Partner status.