At KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026 in Amsterdam, Pete Smails, SVP and general manager for cloud-native at SUSE, sat down with The New Stack to discuss the company's strategic pivot. Smails outlined how SUSE is transforming from a traditional open source operating system vendor into an AI-native infrastructure platform, unifying virtual machines, containers, and AI services under a single open, enterprise-ready foundation.

From OS to AI-Native Platform

SUSE's journey begins with its core operating system, but the company now layers a world-class build system on top. “The bottom of our stack is still the OS, but above that we have a completely secure and robust build system,” explains Smails. “It might sound like boring plumbing, but it's surprisingly relevant in today's world of continuous integration and continuous delivery.” This foundation enables SUSE to orchestrate modern workloads across multiple clouds and data centers.

Unifying VMs, Containers, and AI

Smails emphasized that the modern infrastructure landscape demands unification rather than assimilation. “The world is rapidly evolving toward using multiple data centers across multiple clouds,” he noted. To meet this need, SUSE has developed a trichotomy of technologies:

• SUSE Virtualization – A stable platform for modernizing legacy VM infrastructure while bridging to container management.
• SUSE Rancher Prime – The container management and Kubernetes orchestration layer that enables cloud-native application deployment everywhere.
• AI Services – Integrated into the same orchestration layer, allowing teams to capitalize on AI potential while maintaining operational simplicity.

This fusion is designed to let software teams harness AI without sacrificing the robustness of traditional VM and container workflows.

What's New in SUSE Rancher Prime

Recent updates to SUSE Rancher Prime include an open ecosystem for AI agents, providing enterprises with new automated operational tools. This extends the platform's ability to manage both containers and VMs under a single pane of glass. Additionally, SUSE Virtualization serves as the bedrock for legacy infrastructure modernization, further consolidating management across all workload types.

Meet Liz: The AI-Powered Lizard

At KubeCon, SUSE introduced a giant fluffy green lizard named Liz. More than a mascot, Liz is a context-aware AI agent integrated into SUSE Rancher Prime. Smails explained: “Imagine Liz as one of your software engineering team members. Liz goes out searching across your deployment environment and might come back and say, 'You've got a couple CVEs – would you like me to go see if there are clean versions of these applications?'” This AI agent interacts naturally with engineers, scanning for vulnerabilities and offering automated remediation, all within the Rancher Prime environment.

Open Infrastructure for the AI Era

SUSE's mission is clear: be the open infrastructure platform for modern workloads. By unifying AI services, containers, and VMs on a single, secure, open-source foundation, the company positions itself as the infrastructure layer of choice for enterprises navigating the AI era. As Smails put it, “Ultimately, SUSE's mission today is to be an open infrastructure platform for modern workloads.”