In normal times, asking the chief executive officer of a major technology company what keeps him or her up at night would generally elicit responses ranging from profitability and customer growth to innovation and the pursuit of digital transformation.

But these are not normal times.

“What keeps me up at night now and how I wake up every morning is wondering about the health of my employees,” said Melissa Di Donato (pictured), chief executive officer of SUSE Group. “For us, this is nothing new, and we were really fortunate that we had the mechanisms in place to handle the pandemic first in China and then as it came across Europe and the U.S.”

Di Donato spoke with Dave Vellante, chief analyst at SiliconANGLE sister market research firm Wikibon and co-host of SiliconANGLE Media’s video studio theCUBE. They discussed SUSE’s early response as the coronavirus started in Asia, the importance of consistent communication, and how the open-source spirit of collaboration is helping support efforts to combat the pandemic.

Early start in January

SUSE got an early start on preparations for the coronavirus pandemic because it already had 250 employees in China where the outbreak began, according to Di Donato.

“Taking more than a hundred employees in China and being able to empower and enable them to work from home nearly overnight was no short task,” Di Donato said. “We got all of that learning back in January, and then we were able to respond as other countries fell ill and government requirements went into place around the world.”

As one of the world’s largest independent open-source software companies, SUSE already had 38% of its employees working remotely. Yet, the transition to having nearly all of the company’s employees contributing from home added a new dimension to communication from the top.

“Being proactive and being communicative right now has never been more important,” Di Donato said. “Every Monday, I give them a business update. I tell them what’s happening in the industry, what’s happening with SUSE, what’s happening with our customers.”

Open-source support

What’s happening with SUSE, and open source in general, is growing interest in the software to address a global pandemic. There are a number of open-source projects designed to tackle issues surrounding coronavirus.

CHIME is an open-source project that allows hospitals to input patient and facility information for predicting new admissions and plan capacity accordingly. Nextstrain is an open-source-driven tool for real-time tracking of a pathogen’s evolution. It was one of the earliest predictors for how the coronavirus was shared in the Seattle area back in January.

“As the pandemic continues, and in any crisis for that matter, open-source adoption is going to accelerate,” Di Donato said. “Open-source adoption will accelerate digital transformation efforts and will definitely speed up organizations to respond to the crisis because they’re able to utilize all of the technology innovation of Linux and other open-source technologies from anywhere.”

SUSE is making its own contribution to the cause as well. The company has a large installed base for its software within the medical device community, and in late March SUSE announced it would offer free services for its open-source operating system and container solutions to help speed time-to-market for manufacturers.

“Most of the machines being used in the U.S. today to combat many diseases are running on the SUSE operating system,” Di Donato said. “We’re giving them free software and support to run and develop technologies associated with solving this pandemic.”

Ethos of sharing

Behind the role of open-source at such a critical time in the world’s history is an ethos of sharing and collaboration for the common good. An example of this can be found in Ireland where a community discussion on a Facebook group several weeks ago spawned Open-Source Ventilator.

The project has drawn from a worldwide team of engineers, designers, and medical practitioners to develop new, low-resource equipment in a time of urgent need. Recent reports have indicated that the group’s work is receiving fast-track review by Irish regulatory authorities.

“The link to the world and this business being successful is our people,” Di Donato said. “Because we’re community based in open source, it’s really important that we continually collaborate.”

Di Donato joined SUSE as its chief executive less than a year ago after holding senior-level positions with SAP and Salesforce Inc. She may not have counted on having to deal with a global pandemic in her first few months at the helm, but Di Donato is “all in” when it comes to embracing the spirit of the open-source community.

“People have been working from home, working in their community, being transparent and collaborative regardless of where they sit,” Di Donato said. “I wouldn’t want to run any other company besides an open-source business right now.”

Here’s the complete video interview, one of many CUBE Conversations from SiliconANGLE and theCUBE:

Photo: SiliconANGLE