SAP is going into the Linux appliance business.

It expects its OEM friends and IHVs to sell a quad Xeon-based server that Intel’s put together for it that’s got SUSE and SAP’s own MaxDB database and Business All-in-One software pre-installed.

The appliance, which the German company has been showing off at CeBit in prototype on a 45nm NEC system, is meant to appeal to the mid-size company and widen SAP’s sphere of influence.

NEC calls the thing a FlexPower Server and says it can support up to six compute nodes, 14 SAS 2.5-inch hard drives and integrated SAN.

SAP’s been developing widgetry to fan out from the Fortune 5000 for a while now. Its particular targets with the appliance are the manufacturing, service and trade industries.

Historically SAP has had a reputation for being nasty and complicated to get up and running. The appliance, an understandable twist, promises SMEs a quick and easy, scalable implementation at a low TCO.

Novell says that 35% of the 700 midsized companies already running SAP applications on SUSE use the SAP-optimized MaxDB.

Users get a cost estimate of what the whole system will run once they configure what they want from the All-in-One portfolio, which includes stuff like CRM, ERP, lifecycle management, supply chain management and supplier relations. SAP thinks it’ll work out to a 45% savings on implementation and 25% on TCO.

The kit is “part of a series of planned partnerships with multiple hardware vendors,” SAP said, “to offer solutions for mid-sized companies.”

SAP also said that 21 IT service providers in China, France, Germany and the UK would be pushing SAP’s newfangled low-end Business ByDesign on demand widgetry.