BMW and Audi car makers rely on Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Edition Server (SLED) for maintaining their data center. BMW Group combined SuSE's Linux with the Xen virtualisation software on its servers equipped with Intel x86 dual-core processors. As the results seemed to be highly promising so far, BMW stated that it also considers taking a chance on Novell ZENworks Orchestrator, for managing its virtual data center system.

"The BMW Group is taking advantage of what the market is just discovering, that Xen open source virtualisation software fully integrated in SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is a viable alternative to proprietary virtualisation solutions, providing high performance at a lower cost ... Integration ensures all pieces of the solution work well together, and as is the case with open source software, it eliminates vendor lock-in and enhances customer choice." stated Roger Levy, vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions with Novell on this occasion.

Audi AG in its turn has also considered SuSE as the most suitable solution for its 80 dual-Opteron servers. Audi's development strategy relies very much on the IT side. The company needed a powerful operating system to be able to withstand its complex and innovative ideas meant to cut down possible physical costs for different testing prototypes. Therefore, solutions such as computer-aided engineering, including crash simulation, virtual wind tunnels and other computational fluid dynamics models, needed to be implemented and moreover, it also needed work on a reliable and stable system.

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server's impressive computational performance along with the improved price-performance were the main reasons which made Audi stop to it. SuSE managed to provide Audi the possibility of running more detailed computational models within shorter timeframes. Each design cycle was able to take in more details and more iterations, enabling engineers to optimize their designs without interfering in the production start of new vehicles.