One of the most important question today we have migrating SAP from an existing On-Premise to the Cloud.  This article would address the following:

Background analysis – On-prem vs. Cloud

•  SAP – On-prem and Cloud

•  Reason to migrate your SAP Application to cloud

•  Best practices on migration

•  How Minfy can help?

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On-prem vs. Cloud

Previously, a managed captive data center was in vogue for some valid reasons, but today, with cloud computing readily available, on-premise infrastructure means huge cost, time and effort-taking investment. Given the competitive marketing landscape and pressure to align with changing technologies, companies are slowly but steadily moving to cloud – at their desired time; depending on specific business priorities

So while cloud is the new normal, not everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. Making a decision to move to the cloud is not easy, because it is always exciting to stay with your current setup that has been working for you over the years. More than that, the thought of change is fearful. Even if you made the migration, the real challenges come after that. Integrating your old system with cloud technologies, developing a pro cloud culture in your enterprise, and continuously enhancing with time are all huge concerns.

With trusted cloud computing partners like Minfy Technologies, you can seamlessly migrate to a favorable cloud landscape, and then thrive in it while addressing all the challenges that are waiting to be addressed.

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SAP – On-prem and Cloud

SAP S/4 HANA – the ERP business suite can be deployed using either of the two platforms: on-premise and in the cloud. Not one size fits all and so not one variant is the go-to product for all businesses. Both of these have their own advantages and limitations.  But there’s a reason many businesses are considering the cloud over its on-prem cousin. Read more as we explore the deployment models, and seek to find the best one for you!

The on-prem variant is deployed on your own servers and is managed by you. From the database, applications, OS, servers, virtualization, networking and everything else has to be handled by you.

SAP S/4 HANA cloud edition is its SAAS version. With access to it, users can benefit from much of its on-premise features while at the same time freeing themselves from the responsibilities and undesired costs associated with the on-prem model.

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Key Difference between On-Premises and the Cloud deployement models

ON PREMISECLOUDTraditional licensing modelSubscription-based licensing modelThe customer manages the deployment and maintenance of infrastructureSAP controls infrastructure and system maintenanceCustomer has better flexibility controlsLimited customization flexibilitiesTime and effort taking implementation. New features implementation require additional purchasesThe tested platform facilitates quicker implementationAnnual upgrades need to be maintained by the customer. The company can decide the frequency of upgrades, but it is a time-consuming activitySAP maintains the quarterly upgrades, and it informs the customers of an upcoming upgrade and the customer can set the desired time to implement it

THE PREFERENCE FOR CLOUD DEPLOYMENT HAS RAISED GRADUALLY, FROM 10 PERCENT IN 2008 TO 32 PERCENT IN 2014, GROWING BETWEEN 2 AND 7 PERCENT EACH YEAR.” ACCORDING TO SOFTWAREADVICE REPORT-2014

Benefits of SAP S/4 HANA to the Cloud –

• High-performance, quick deployment
• Higher cost control
• Agility flexibility and quicker upgrades
• Scale-up and down depending on requirements
• Move from large CapEx to stable OpEx
• Abstraction, Resiliency
• Cost control – Pay for the compute you actually use. Move from large CapEx to stable OpEx
• Agility – While on-premise, unexpected spike in resource demand affects system performance. Cloud makes SAP more agile – seamlessly handling any development and growth
• Scalability – Expanding geographically? Merging? Demand in AI, IoT projects? Cloud facilitates you to size system according to demands and evolving priorities
• Security – SAP on-premise can be extremely secure, but only specialized resources can do it properly. With cloud computing comes extensive standard encryption, built-in access control, and support for compliances and more – which means reduced security concerns
• Moreover, the cloud has cheaper disaster recovery systems, relieves you from costly hardware. So, if you are thinking to move SAP to the cloud, you are thinking it right. Time is now!
• Migrating SAP to Cloud, therefore, means increased financial benefits, reduced infrastructure and operating costs and higher flexibility over desired functions. But planning and readiness are two vital ingredients to achieve most of your investment

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Best practices on Cloud migration

Make a careful plan. SAP migrations should have proper backing of researched planning. Pinpoint your SAP landscape and decide what to migrate.

Prepare for a situation where lift and shift does not work. Many applications run on legacy systems and DB combinations that are not always available on the public cloud. So, in situations where lift and shift does not work, you need to alter the operating system and the database. Please note this process might incur more time and cost than initially thought of.

Infrastructure design, if not done thoughtfully, can incur huge performance issues and undesired overheads. Also, making sure business continues as usual, when maintenance activities are running is another priority during migration, other than ensuring top-level security backings.

Combine your enterprise IT skills with third party support for effective implementation for key best practices. In other words, a phase-driven migration strategy is important.

THERE ARE ONLY TWO VENDORS (AMAZON WEB SERVICES AND MICROSOFT) ACCOUNT FOR 75% OF THE GROWTH FROM 2017 TO 2018. AWS IS 100% CLOUD AND MICROSOFT DBMS GROWTH (WE BELIEVE) WAS ALMOST 100% CLOUD. CLOUD GROWTH IS DRAMATICALLY CHANGING VENDOR RANKINGS- ACCORDING TO GARTHER REPORT

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How Minfy can Help?

Over the past few years, we have successfully completed 30+ SAP HANA Migrations thereby helping businesses achieve continued business advantage. We are committed to delivering today’s best-of-breed cloud solutions to the organizations, we pioneered ourselves on SAP on the cloud, NextGen Managed Services, Dev-Ops, Microservices and CI & CD.

As a Key Differentiator AWS partner, Minfy Technologies placed itself in the market as a pioneer of Cloud Migration. We specialize in migrating petabytes/terabytes of data from SAP and Microsoft workloads to the Cloud. We support Data Storage solutions using AWS Snowball, S3, etc. Minfy has developed an exclusive product called CloudStorz, which can help in hospital-specific CLOUD-BASED OBJECT STORAGE AND COLLABORATION PLATFORM. We provide the most cost-effective, highly secure data transfer services that reduce your time of migrating from weeks to days.

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