SUSE has announced updates that transform container management into automated infrastructure operations. SUSE Rancher Prime now includes an open ecosystem for AI agents, providing businesses with new automated operational tools. Additionally, SUSE Virtualization provides a solid foundation for modernizing legacy infrastructures and further unifies VM and container management, reinforcing a comprehensive approach to VM management in hybrid environments.
“Our open approach to AI and the unification of VM and container management allows customers to harness the potential of AI and redefine their own operational simplicity, giving them flexibility, choice and control,” said Peter Smails, general manager of Cloud Native at SUSE. “SUSE’s mission is to be the open infrastructure platform for modern workloads, and today’s updates significantly advance our strategy around VM management.”
“The software-defined computing market is undergoing significant change as enterprises look to modernize their infrastructure amid disruption of the traditional virtualization market,” said Gary Chen, research director for software-defined computing at IDC.
“While containers are the new standard for AI and modern workloads, virtual machines remain essential in the enterprise environment. Infrastructure platforms that can unify these environments while delivering automated AI-powered operational tools will be key to helping organizations navigate this transition and achieve greater operational efficiency, especially around VM management.”
Native operations in AI
Building on its existing management platform, the latest updates extend SUSE Rancher Prime as the central management layer across an organization’s entire infrastructure, providing deeper integration and control across hybrid environments and streamlining the management of VMs alongside other resources.
Main news:
• Infrastructure-Specific AI Coordination: Liz, a contextually aware AI agent built into SUSE Rancher Prime, now coordinates a group of specialized agents that provide Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and operations teams with automated insights into their entire environment, including VM management.
• First open agent-based AI ecosystem: Thanks to the Model Context Protocol (MCP), Liz allows organizations to connect external services without the need for custom code. This ecosystem allows Liz to retrieve and process data from third-party tools directly, without additional integrations, improving efficiency in managing VMs and other systems.
Unifying VM and container management
As an open alternative to hypervisors, the latest version of SUSE Virtualization strengthens VM management with new capabilities and includes:
• NVIDIA MIG (Multi-Instance GPU) support: This gives SUSE Virtualization the ability to use enterprise-level GPUs, increasing hardware efficiency for AI workloads and optimizing VM management in demanding environments.
• Advanced operational tools: Includes VM Auto Balance for automatic load distribution, Live Storage Migration to move data without downtime, and granular upgrade controls, all geared toward more efficient and automated VM management.
Empowering developers with secure access to AI
As part of SUSE Rancher Developer Access, SUSE Rancher Prime now includes expanded capabilities to streamline the path from development to production, also integrating improvements in VM management within the workflow.
Key updates:
• Early supply chain security: SUSE offers immediate access to its portfolio of more than 140 enterprise-ready applications, including Base Container Images, PostgreSQL, Redis and Penpot, for the developer community to build more secure applications with trusted foundations, supported by robust VM management.
As an open alternative to hypervisors, the latest version of SUSE Virtualization strengthens VM management with new capabilities
• Maximizing GPU usage through Virtual Cluster Multi-Tenancy: The new Virtual Clusters provide developers with a large-scale sandbox environment. Teams can provision fully isolated, self-service Kubernetes control planes, allowing them to experiment with AI models and complex loads without impacting the rest of the organization or competing for shared GPU resources, all complemented by efficient VM management.
SUSE Rancher Prime’s AI capabilities are available now, with AI assistant enhancements in Early Access. SUSE Virtualization with NVIDIA MIG multi-tenancy and update control is also available, with VM Auto Balancing and Live Storage Migration. Virtual Clusters are production-ready and generally available, cementing a modern, scalable approach to VM management.
