OpenSUSE :: Suse Update Service For Enterprise Version?

Last winter we had the intention of using VMWare branded Novell Suse Enterprise as we were going to be getting the licenses/subscription through the purchase of Vsphere. Since that time we have set up 4 VMs, and have been testing an application that will soon be going into production status. However a new issue has arisen. As we are over budget we will not get the Vsphere license (which included Suse subscription). We also found that the added features of a Vsphere license do not really add anything over the free ESX hypervisor.

On the one hand these servers have all been configured precisely, on the other hand we have no update service from which I understand we would need a Novell subscription. Most of the repositories we have added are external to Novell, meaning they are community ones. So my questions are this:

1.) Can we use Opensuse community repositories for the Online Update?

2.) If not is there a way to easily 'convert' Enterprise Suse to Opensuse?

Obviously what we first want to avoid is having to do a brand new install of Opensuse and spend the time moving data from the old to the new. One of the issues that has caused the delay and over runs is that the application we will be deploying has not lived up to its promises, and has caused considerable amount of time configuring, tweaking, and de-bugging.