What to expect from SUSECON 2020
UPDATE: Since this post was first written, SUSE has canceled the SUSECON 2020 due to the Coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak — we will aim to report on whatever virtual resrouces are made available in place of the conference.
Come to Dublin for SUSECON 2020 they said.
Ah, now, you’re alright, we’ll pass this year, we said.
What are ya like? Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on – ah go on, they said.
Well, since you put it like that, ah go on then, we said… and so it came to pass that the Computer Weekly Developer Network and Open Source Insider team signed up for SUSECON 2020 in Dublin’s fair city.
SUSE, or occasionally, SuSE (pronounced soo’-sah), is a German Linux distribution provider. SuSE is an abbreviation for “Gesellschaft f|r Software und Systementwicklung mbH”, which loosely translates to mean ‘Software and System Development Company’.
The company assembles open source components for the Linux operating system and related programs into a selection of distribution packages that can be purchased — and, going deeper, it offers solutions that helps its customers, partners and communities simplify, modernise and accelerate their business through enterprise Linux, containers, hybrid and multi-cloud and edge computing.
Baile Átha Cliath
So as we head off to Baile Átha Cliath this year, what can we expect?
The SUSE team tell us that we can expect keynotes (obviously), but also 150+ breakout sessions with lots of focus on certification opportunities.
“Expect the latest innovations in Linux, Ceph, Cloud Foundry and a host of other open source technologies now available from SUSE and from our technology partners,” notes SUSE, in a preview statement.
Keynotes will of course include sessions from new SUSE CEO Melissa Di Donato (prior to SUSE, Di Donato was chief operating officer and chief revenue officer at SAP) as well as Thomas Di Giacomo in his role as SUSE president of engineering & innovation.
You don’t necessarily need a Di (Italian for ‘of’) surname preface to work at SUSE (and Robert De Niro doesn’t qualify due to a skew in Italian-American spelling conventions), but it helps.
Celebrity speaker? Well, there always is one these days isn’t there?
SUSE has gone for Lewis Pugh (endurance athlete)… Pugh is a regular on the tech keynote circuit (he cropped up at Splunk .conf last year, or was it UiPath Forward?) and he will no doubt deliver his How I Swam The North Pole talk, which, in fairness, has a strong climate change message (Pugh is UN Patron of the Oceans) and can certainly hold up to more than one listen.
Partners attending include technical experts and what SUSE has called ‘thought leaders’ from SAP, Microsoft, Fujitsu, Dell, IBM.
“SUSECON is an opportunity to not only learn about the most important open source innovations all in one place, but also how [developers] can successfully apply them to their organisation’s [IT stack],” said Ivo Totev, chief product and marketing officer at SUSE. “We look forward to welcoming a passionate group of innovators, experts and change-makers to Dublin and working with them to solve the world’s biggest business problems and turn purpose into action.”
Readers may also note that last year at SUSECON 2019, the now-retired CEO Nils Brauckmann noted that with an increased level of growth in software-defined infrastructures, there will be more focus on SUSE application delivery solutions in the coming weeks, months and years.
Press pack pick ‘n’ mix
The best compendium of links for 2019 trends at SUSE (many of which we will see further developed in 2020 no doubt) is Brent Smithurt’s excellent collection of press angles and analyses which is linked here.
If the strain of Enterprise Linux, storage and application delivery all gets to be too much, attendees can join the mass yoga event (the company has called it SUSE Tech Stretch, because what else would sound so good?), which aims to raise funds and fight homelessness.
(Ed – eww, geeks in lycra, really?)
There are also initiatives to support the Women in Technology and Pride networks.
… and if all of that’s not enough for you, there is that one other thing you can do in Dublin isn’t there?
