SUSE Studio started out as an online service in 2009 and then expanded it with an on-premise version for enterprises and software vendors in 2010. For on-premise users, the technology was known as the SUSE Appliance Toolkit and included the SUSE Lifecycle Management Server (SLMS).
With SLMS an ISV can manage software licenses and entitlements as well as distribute software patches and updates. With the SUSE Studio 1.2 update, the on-premise suite will only have the SUSE Studio name and the Appliance Toolkit name is being dropped. Instead, there is now the SUSE Studio Standard and Advanced Editions. The key addition with the advanced edition is that it enables users to build Linux appliances that will run on IBM’s System Z mainframe.
Sabine Soellheim, senior marketing manager at SUSE, told InternetNews.com that the mainframe use case is a valuble one. Soellheim noted that now mainframe users have the ability to easily move their application workloads from x86 to mainframe without the need to port application code. A SUSE Studio user can simple create an appliance image that will run on System Z.