SUSE SA has acquired StackState BV, a venture-backed startup with a platform for fixing malfunctions in Kubernetes environments.

The Linux distributor announced the deal today at its annual SUSECON conference. During the event, executives also previewed an upcoming software offering designed to ease the task of running artificial intelligence models.

Luxembourg-based SUSE provides a popular Linux distribution of the same name. The platform is available in multiple specialized editions geared towards running SAP applications, powering connected devices and other use cases. SUSE provides its operating systems alongside a tool designed to reduce the amount of work involved in maintaining Linux environments.

The company also sells a second set of software products for managing Kubernetes environments. This product portfolio is headlined by Rancher Prime, a platform that makes it easier to deploy and operate Kubernetes clusters. The acquisition of StackState that SUSE announced today will help expand Rancher Prime’s feature set.

StackState has developed a software tool that administrators can use to troubleshoot Kubernetes environments. According to the company, its software reduces the average time it takes to fix malfunctions by 84% in some cases. Speeding up the troubleshooting workflow helps cut the duration of application outages, reducing their impact on a company’s business operations.

Many of the most common technical issues that affect Kubernetes clusters are caused by configuration errors. To ease the detection of such errors, StackState provides a capability called Timeline as part of its feature set. It allows administrators to examine how a Kubernetes’ configuration settings changed in the weeks leading up to an outage, which makes it easier to identify the specific modification that caused the malfunction.

A Kubernetes environment can comprise upwards of hundreds of containers and other software components. StackState’s interface visualizes those components in a map that shows how they interact with one another. When a container experiences technical issues, administrators can use the map to determine what other workloads might be affected by the malfunction.

“Cloud workloads are getting more complex by the day,” SUSE Chief Executive Officer Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen wrote in a blog post today. “Applications are distributed into so many different elements that you need to understand. You need to have a way to monitor in real time how they are interacting with each other.”

SUSE plans to integrate StackState’s capabilities into Rancher Prime. Later down the road, it plans to make the observability tool’s code available under an open-source license. Separately, SUSE will explore opportunities to extend StackState with additional features for tasks such as troubleshooting internet-connected industrial equipment.

Rancher Prime is a core component of SUSE AI, a new offering that the company announced in conjunction with the acquisition. The offering combines the Kubernetes management platform with two other products: SUSE’s Linux distribution and its NeuVector cybersecurity tool. The latter product, which SUSE obtained through a 2021 acquisition, can scan a company’s containers for software vulnerabilities and block cyberattacks.

SUSE AI is designed to provide a software foundation for powering generative AI models. According to SUSE, the offering will reduce the costs associated with running such models. Additionally, it promises to simplify the task of securing a company’s AI workloads against cyberattacks and ensuring regulatory compliance. 

SUSE AI is currently available through an early access program. The offering is expected to launch later this year.

Photo: SUSE