Trip report: SUSE Summit Sydney 2026

Michael Warrilow
3 hours ago
2 min read

Disclosure: the following is offered purely for informational purposes. It is 100% independent analysis without any form of remuneration. SUSE is not a client of Virtified...and it wouldn't matter if they were. Our research and insights are self-funded and 100% independent of vendor influence.

After travelling to Mumbai, Geeko^ came to Sydney on 11 August 2026...with plans to visit Melbourne two days later.

Hello Asia

These locations are a long way from Europe, where SUSE is more commonplace and generally better-known. And this is part of their challenge.

Success in Asia will continue to be a function of SUSE's commitment to the region, which is currently insufficient.

The example that demonstrates the current situation for SUSE was the relatively small number of attendees in Sydney (sub-100). With that said, there were some good local customer references (including Aussie Broadband and iag participating in a panel discussion). Getting customers to get up on stage is becoming a greater challenge so we'll just say that several other local customers were awarded for their efforts but we'll keep their names confidential. Additionally, by way of geographic balance, SUSE's private ownership will appeal to those wishing to reduce their dependence on US technology companies.

Offerings

From a technology and product perspective, SUSE hit most of the key topics for modern infrastructure (from AI and edge to containers and virtual machines). In fact, the keynote drifted toward being a productfest (SUSE Linux Micro, SUSE Industrial Edge, Rancher, AI factory and more).

Several sessions, not surprisingly, focused on VMware migration. Two customers, a telco and an MSP, shared their migration experiences. As examples of early migration, they are a promising sign for SUSE Virtualisation...but Virtified notes neither was a classic enterprise environment with all the inherent variation and complexity. In fact, the majority of reference customers had a standardised estate (examples: auto manufacturer, telco, digital bank).

SUSE's proposition for enterprise infrastructure is better suited to modern infrastructure rather than legacy virtual environments

Virtified would therefore advise that SUSE is currently a stronger fit for new projects rather than legacy migration. Likely candidates would be custom containerised apps, edge and inference (AI). Look for production examples at your scale and level of complexity.

Ticking compliance boxes

Given their European heritage, it wasn't a surprise to see SUSE's strengths in compliance (including sovereign). Virtified has previously applauded SUSE's investments in this space, including SLES Designated as a Digital Public Good. Likewise, participation in industry initiatives such as margo show an understanding of enterprise technology requirements (both IT and OT). Common Criteria certification adds further strength as does hardening guidelines published by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).