Hosting and migrating highly critical and demanding workloads, such as SAP

The rapid evolution of technologies combined with the need for companies to constantly innovate, all in secure and sovereign environments, represent a multitude of major challenges for today’s CIOs. With the rise of cloud computing, more and more companies are migrating their mission-critical workloads to the cloud, but this requires, among other things, extensive groundwork and advanced technical skills.

Challenges customers are facing around SAP

Migrating and hosting workloads in the cloud comes with several challenges, in particular managing technical complexity, controlling risks and costs. For companies using SAP, there is also a need to anticipate the upcoming deadline of 2027, which marks the end of ERP ECC6, by organizing the conversion of their systems to the new version of ERP SAP S/4HANA.

This complete overhaul of the solution impacts both the functional structure of the ERP and the technological base on which it is based. Managing the obsolescence of infrastructures makes this task even more complex, adding to the already very demanding specifications. Choosing the right partner then becomes a crucial issue when it comes to converting an ECC6 system to S/4HANA and more broadly defining a new technological trajectory for the years to come for its information system.

Major Greenfield/Brownfield use cases

SAP ECC6 customers will need to migrate to SAP S/4HANA in the next few years and there are several possible approaches to perform this migration, addressing different objectives. The choice will essentially be made between the following two scenarios:

• Technical migration (Brownfield type project): using migration tools provided by SAP to migrate SAP ECC6 objects to S/4HANA. The objective is to carry out a technical migration with a functional iso-perimeter.
• New implementation (Greenfield-type project): installation of a new SAP S/4HANA instance, possibly with a recovery of existing elements in SAP ECC6 (configuration, specific programs, etc.).

It is then mandatory to master all the tasks necessary for the success of an SAP conversion project:

• Infrastructures: measure the impact on current infrastructures, size new infrastructures, propose new infrastructures in collaboration with the main manufacturers or hosts on the market, manage the relationship with the main SAP outsourcing companies, etc.
• Operating systems / database: master the roadmaps of the different publishers (Oracle, VMWare…), have expertise on the different versions in coherence with SAP, carry out OS/DB migrations…
• Configuration: master all the functional modules of SAP ERP to understand any regressions and highlight the functional benefits of new versions
• Developments: control the entire SAP Netweaver technological base to anticipate any risk concerning specific Abap or other programs in the context of migrations, manage interfaces with third-party solutions
• Management: rely on one or more project managers to anticipate risks and secure project schedules

Move2cloud migration strategy – methodology

To best meet all customer needs, the recommended approach is an adaptation of the 5Rs model to better embrace the technological specificities of SAP workloads, thus saving time on decision-making process, having better visibility of the methodology adopted and meeting technical, business or financial requirements.

Although it is difficult to generalize the application of a migration strategy, it is advisable to structure the approach according to four main distinct phases:

• Evaluate the workloads: this evaluation is key to estimate the costs, identify the axes of improvement and modernization of the infrastructure and to define the use of the deployment tools
• Plan the operations: the planning concerns the validation of all the technical prerequisites as well as that of the planning, the resources and the constitution of the teams
• Deploy: application environments are deployed or replicated in the cloud, according on the chosen method
• Put the workloads into production: the effort during this migration phase is critical for the governance, operations management and security teams in order to limit the workload as much as possible.

Very often in the context of an SAP migration project to the cloud, the lift-and-shift (or re-hosting) methodology proves to be the most appropriate because it is simpler, with a reduced migration time and above all less expensive.

Conclusion

Conducting SAP conversion projects, with database and infrastructure presents a real complexity that can only be delivered successfully by an expert team. Support from a consulting and integration company assures you of project management commitments and allows you to secure the timings and budgets of your projects.

Since the creation of its hosting division, Applium has supported many SAP customers in the cloud, whether for a partial or complete migration or landscape hybridization or simply for advice around the definition of their technological trajectories.

Applium offers a hosting and migration solution to the OVHcloud cloud that is suitable for the most critical and demanding workloads, such as SAP. This offer aims to meet the growing need of customers for the migration aspects of their applications in a sovereign cloud. Thus, Applium is involved in the entire chain of an SAP integration project, from the study phase to the operational application and operational conditioning of the solution.

Founded in 2002, Applium is a consulting and integration company dedicated to SAP solutions, capable of dealing with all the dimensions of an implementation project and covering the entire solution lifecycle, from initial design to maintenance. Applium’s 130 SAP consultants and experts cover several functional and technical areas. The strong expertise of Applium’s SAP consultants (15 years of experience on average on the SAP solution) allows to offer strong commitments on results and to provide advice with high added value.

Applium also offers SAP Publisher Maintenance, TMA and SAP outsourcing services through its shared Center of Expertise, certified by SAP (SAP PCoE Certification), the SAP Support and Maintenance Center (CSM). For several years, Applium has also offered SAP ECC6 or S/4HANA hosting solutions with OVHcloud.

Applium has been a partner and reseller of SAP solutions since 2008, and an Advanced Partner of OVHcloud since December 2022.

Applium teams are spread over 8 sites, in France (Clichy, Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Montpellier, Strasbourg and Rennes) and in Portugal (Lisbon).

To know more about Applium SAP hosting on OVHcloud, please click here