SUSE aiming to contribute more to AI development in Asia Pacific

“Whether it’s app modernization, making the most of cloud investments, or increasing productivity through and with AI, SUSE and our partners are here to support,” said Vishal Ghariwala, Senior Director and CTO, Asia Pacific at SUSE.

Open source continues to play an important role for tech development in organizations in Asia Pacific. As businesses continue to build and test AI workloads, in 2025, organizations are expected to deploy more of these workloads to finally see some returns from their AI investments.

The open source service market is expected to reach US$40.87 billion in 2025. It is also projected to reach US$88.84 billion by 2030, according to statistics from Mordor Intelligence. While open source continues to be dominated by the big players, other vendors are also enhancing their capabilities to ensure they can provide customers with what they need most in open source.

When it comes to developing AI, the developer community believes that moving in the direction of open sourcing AI presents an opportunity for transparency, democratization, and community-driven innovation. However, the challenge with this is ensuring data privacy and security.

According to Vishal Ghariwala, Senior Director and CTO, Asia Pacific at SUSE, companies adopting AI technologies face numerous security challenges, including GenAI privacy and data protection concerns, as well as vulnerabilities within the AI supply chain.

“To address these risks, the adoption of private AI platforms is set to grow. These platforms can empower companies with full control over their data, safeguarding their operations against increasing threats such as unauthorized data sharing, regulatory non-compliance, and the proliferation of “shadow AI” usage,” said Ghariwala.

For Ghariwala, there are multiple options available today to run GenAI and other types of AI workloads. Over time, he expects more companies to create a standard operating environment for AI use cases.

“Such an environment will comprise a common AI platform that is highly scalable and provides common modules and services required by AI workloads such as a curated set of LLMs, data privacy and security, observability etc. A standard operating environment also ensures consistent governance, efficient workflows, and optimized resource usage, thereby contributing to reduced CO2 emissions,” he explained.

In 2025, Ghariwala foresees organizations that prioritize digital resilience, security, and innovation will be well-positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities and navigate the challenges of the digital age.

SUSE AI and open source

Looking at the Asia Pacific region, Ghariwala pointed out that open source is no longer a novelty for APAC organizations in the region. Today, there are already AI use cases that are not only enhancing productivity and efficiency but also contributing to humanity.

For SUSE’s customers in the region, the ability to vet data sources and build a private and secure AI platform will remain a big part of the conversation, which is where SUSE AI comes in. An open source platform for deploying and running GenAI applications, SUSE AI helps businesses run private AI workloads while ensuring data privacy and compliance with regulations.

“SUSE is of the view that one company should not be synonymous with open source - more choice and more participation from a cross section of open source participants and contributors ultimately means greater flexibility and agility for all. That includes our customers, as well as the partner ecosystem. AI provides more opportunities for developers to be more efficient and precise but does not replace the human component of the open source developers that ultimately form our communities,” explained Ghariwala.

According to Ghariwala, SUSE currently operates in relatively nascent areas where open source is being applied in novel ways, such as automotive, manufacturing, and retail. He also mentioned that cloud native is a priority for customers in the region as it enables application modernization and new use cases across hybrid and multi cloud IT estates.

Interestingly, Ghariwala also stated that many customers continue to struggle with cloud native as it is inherently complex and requires deep practitioner level skills to implement. This is where SUSE’s cloud native platform is designed to simplify the complexities, enabling customers to achieve success with cloud native more quickly.

Another area in which Ghariwala sees growth is in edge computing. Given APAC's geographical dispersion and multitude of devices, he pointed out that SUSE does not see technological singularity per se, but interoperability will be vital in the age of multiple devices and their end points.

“Zero trust will also continue to be a big area of focus for SUSE and our customers. Observability of those environments will be key to ensuring that people are able to harness the full benefit of technology - increasing an organization’s security posture and resilience while freeing up teams' bandwidths to truly innovate and build better products as well as solutions to serve their constituents,” added Ghariwala.

The partner ecosystem

Just like most tech vendors in the region, SUSE also relies heavily on its partners to ensure they are capable of getting the right customers and providing them with the best service possible. As such, SUSE continues to enhance its partner program for the region which Ghariwala believes partners are responding enthusiastically to.

“Partners have been part of SUSE's solution mix and ecosystem since our foundation and nothing we do would be possible without close integration and collaboration with partners. In APAC for example we have recently announced new (or in some cases deepened) partnerships with the likes of VSTECs in Malaysia, Palsys in Taiwan, TechData in Singapore and so on,” said Ghariwala.

SUSE also works with all the major hyperscalers such as Google, AWS and Microsoft. With most of these hyperscalers announcing major cloud and AI investments regionally, there is even greater hype in the partner ecosystem as it creates opportunities to contribute to technology development and solutions for this fast-evolving and dynamic region.

“We are hearing from partners that open source choice, capability and expertise is needed, and that’s where SUSE is also excited to contribute. Ultimately, freedom of choice and integration with an ecosystem of players will be instrumental as APAC organizations continue to drive innovation. Whether it’s app modernization, making the most of cloud investments, or increasing productivity through and with AI, SUSE and our partners are here to support,” he concluded.