Adfinis provides SUSE-driven cloud transformation for Aussie Broadband

Aussie Broadband said it has achieved up to 30 per cent improvements in operational efficiency following a major private cloud platform implementation delivered by open source specialist Adfinis using SUSE technologies.

The fifth-largest retail internet provider in Australia partnered with Adfinis to consolidate its fragmented technology stack into a modern, cloud-native environment built on SUSE Rancher Prime, SUSE Virtualisation and additional SUSE components.

Ben O'Shea, general manager transformation and cloud at Aussie Broadband, said the telco faced significant operational challenges as it expanded through organic growth and acquisitions.

"As a telco, we're classified as an essential service, so any downtime within that ISP network is a big deal," O'Shea said.

The transformation came at a critical time, as Aussie Broadband's VMware renewal approached, presenting an opportunity to replace proprietary solutions with open source alternatives.

After evaluating options from Red Hat, VMware and Canonical, the telco selected SUSE, with Adfinis providing implementation expertise to build the new platform.

"We did a stringent evaluation," O'Shea said.

"We looked at a number of open source and commercial vendors, and the customer references for SUSE and their support were exceptional, and that was a big part of the decision going forward."

The Adfinis implementation consolidated virtual machines and containerised workloads onto a unified platform using SUSE Rancher Prime as the control plane, built on RKE2, SUSE Virtualisation, SUSE Linux Micro, and SUSE Security.

This consolidation has dramatically improved service delivery time frames across the organisation.

"Delivering new virtual machines or new container instances can take anywhere from one to two days," O'Shea said.

"With the automation that we've been able to achieve on top of the SUSE platform, we've got that down to one to two hours."

The infrastructure changes have delivered meaningful cost reductions across hardware, power, and software licensing by retiring VMware and streamlining the data centre footprint.

To support the transformation, Aussie Broadband also adopted SUSE Consulting Services and SUSE Platinum eLearning alongside Adfinis's expertise to ensure enterprise-level support throughout the process.

The benefits are already reaching Aussie Broadband's 650,000 residential broadband users, with applications supporting customer connections now more reliable and efficient.

"It directly impacts those end customers and translates into a more positive customer experience," O'Shea said.

Looking ahead, Aussie Broadband is continuing to expand its Kubernetes footprint across more than ten facilities in five states, while exploring SUSE Telco Edge solutions and AI capabilities with the SUSE AI platform.

Ben Henshall, general manager for Australia & New Zealand at SUSE, said the project exemplifies the potential of open source in telecommunications.

"This is exactly the kind of transformation we love to support," Henshall said.

"Simple, scalable, and built for growth, Aussie Broadband is showing how open source can power smarter telco operations."