Power of Three

This positive development can now also be observed in the SAP partner community. AWS, NetApp and Public Cloud Group (PCG) have joined forces to form a service community with the aim of serving existing SAP customers.

The banal requirement that one plus one should naturally be more than two is well known. Easy to say! In day-to-day business, it is often very difficult to orchestrate users, providers and processes. Every existing SAP customer is familiar with the divergent wishes between the business department and IT. It is the art of every SAP manager to synchronize the organizational, business, technical and licensing requirements, specifications and obligations. The Power of Three, a group of companies comprising AWS, NetApp and PCG, is now helping existing SAP customers with the S/4 conversion.

What is the added value for existing SAP customers? "The implementation of NetApp technologies with the cloud provider AWS is a positive special feature," explains Begoña Jara Pascual, the new Vice President and General Manager for Germany, at the start of the E3 discussion. "The symbiosis between a service managed entirely by the cloud provider and the use of almost all of our technological functions has been particularly successful here. For existing NetApp customers, this means a low transition threshold."

Thorsten Raquet, CEO of the Public Cloud Group, shares this view: "As PCG, we see NetApp as an established partner in the area of data management, a topic in which trust plays a central role. NetApp is characterized by offering consistent data management functions that can be applied across clouds and therefore complement our hyperscaler-oriented portfolio approach. We don't see it as either a NetApp or hyperscaler decision, but as a sensible combination."

“Our focus is on providing infrastructure solutions and services for SAP S/4 Hana migrations.“

Thorsten Raquet,
Chief Executive Officer,
Public Cloud Group (PCG)

With the native cloud services based on NetApp technology, existing SAP customers and service providers have the opportunity to use the data management and data protection functions that have been successful in the on-prem area for over 20 years in the cloud as well. As a rule, customers benefit from three things:

Simple and demand-controlled operationThanks to full hyperscaler integration, customers can not only use these enterprise functionalities, but also fully automate them and scale capacities and performance as required during operation. And, of course, only pay for what they actually use.

Acceleration of projectsBy integrating with Hyperscalers' deployment capabilities and processes, deployment activities and subsequent customizations can be automated. This leads to fewer errors, saves customers time and allows them to grow their environment over time without having to pay for it upfront.

Data backup with low recovery timesThe integrated snapshot and replication options of NetApp services offer the unique advantage of very short backup and recovery times. Even with very large data inventories, these options result in short RPO and RTO times for customers in backup and DR scenarios. In addition, fast and virtually capacity-neutral system copies for SAP system refresh operations are among the added values that customers can benefit from. These also enable DR tests without interrupting replication. All of these added values can generally also be integrated into customers' existing backup tools.

Multifunctional cloud

AWS offers over 240 fully functional services in data centers around the world. AWS helps existing SAP customers migrate their business-critical applications to the cloud by enabling them to run Rise and S/4 on the world's most secure, reliable and comprehensive infrastructure.

"Working with SAP to help users achieve these results in the cloud is what excites me personally," describes Florian Böhme from AWS. "We want to be successful together with our customers by advising on how to unlock the full potential of the cloud for their SAP environments." In August 2022, Florian Böhme took on global responsibility as Account Director for SAP at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

“What excites me the most is working with SAP to make our joint customers more successful.“

Florian Böhme,
Account Director for SAP,
AWS

AWS offers sustainable added value for existing SAP customers. "Our customers turn to AWS to leverage the proven benefits of the cloud to help them improve reliability, performance, security and sustainability, increase agility, save costs and innovate faster in their business-critical SAP environments," says Florian Böhme, explaining his role in the SAP community. Existing SAP customers run their ERP environments on AWS and use the secure and reliable cloud infrastructure.

An IDC study found that S/4 customers who migrated from on-premises infrastructure to AWS experienced a 58 percent decrease in costly and unplanned downtime, 60 percent faster S/4 migrations and upgrades, 24 percent lower infrastructure costs, and a 500 percent ROI within three years, among other benefits.

A critical question from Begoña Jara, NetApp Vice President and General Manager for Germany: Why do we need NetApp services for general data management in the cloud in addition to the data services of the hyperscalers? "To be precise, not at all. Because the data services you are referring to are not services from the manufacturer NetApp, but native offerings from the cloud providers."

The services of the individual cloud providers Azure NetApp Files (offered by Azure), Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP (offered by AWS) and Google Cloud NetApp Volumes (offered by Google Cloud) include NetApp's enterprise data services, but are offered, sold and supported as a first-party service. "The hyperscalers have recognized that they need to expand or complete their storage portfolio with an enterprise file or storage service because they cannot map the extended storage and data management functionalities themselves," says Begoña Jara, explaining the complex interaction between SAP partners and she knows that customers are asking for precisely these options. "They have decided to use the technology of the market leader NetApp for reasons of time, but above all for reasons of know-how - instead of relying on Built Your Own," Begoña Jara knows from her professional experience.

"With the hyperscalers, we have created the option of linking public cloud services with on-prem NetApp environments.“

Begoña Jara Pascual,
Vice President and
General Manager Germany,
NetApp

The Hyperscalers' native services based on NetApp technology are primarily geared towards the public cloud. "However, together with the hyperscalers, we have of course created the possibility of linking these public cloud services with existing on-prem NetApp environments in order to optimally support existing NetApp customers in a transformation towards the public cloud," emphasizes NetApp VP Begoña Jara. "This means that we can make back-up and DR scenarios, as well as migrations, easier with our technologies. This means that these services can also be a component of hybrid architectures, just as the customer wishes."

On-prem or cloud

When existing SAP customers decide to migrate their ERP environment from on-prem to a hyperscaler platform, it is important that it runs smoothly. For an ERP lift-and-shift migration, PCG uses the technology of its partner NetApp if NetApp is already in use. This consistency of data management tools reduces the complexity of the S/4 migration.

As a Premier AWS Partner, how does PCG explain the benefits of NetApp cloud services? "For SAP customers, the use of NetApp cloud services with hyperscalers, especially Amazon FSx ONTAP in AWS, means a considerable simplification of migration processes, as they can easily move their SAP applications to the cloud using the familiar ONTAP interfaces," says PCG CEO Thorsten Raquet, who has worked on many successful customer projects. At the same time, data management increases efficiency and helps to reduce storage costs thanks to integrated functions such as snapshots, clones, deduplication and compression. This ensures high availability thanks to the robust AWS infrastructure.

"Thanks to the scalability of the SAP landscape, our customers can flexibly adapt their resources to their business requirements," emphasizes Thorsten Raquet. In addition, optimized performance characteristics ensure that the storage options are specifically tailored to the needs of SAP workloads, which significantly improves the speed of response.

PCG stands for Public Cloud Group, which in turn is to be understood as a 100% focus on the leading hyperscaler platforms from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google. "We underline this focus with the highest partner status and with over 400 experts in Europe," says the PCG CEO, defining his company. "PCG is therefore the partner for customers who want to get started in the public cloud, i.e. transform from on-prem to the public cloud, or expand their existing hyperscaler platforms. As experts in all relevant hyperscalers, we like to talk about our customers' cloud journey. This includes not only the migration to the cloud, but also the sensible and above all strategic combination of solutions from the portfolio areas of security, data and AI, SAP cloud services and cloud-native development."

The cloud journey of PCG customers is crucial, even when it comes to selecting the right hyperscaler. "Every cloud journey, i.e. a customer's journey to the cloud, through various solutions, alone or in combination with each other, as well as their continuous optimization and operation are individual," Thorsten Raquet knows from his professional practice. "We always advise and support our customers based on their existing infrastructure, requirements and objectives. There are often clear preferences, as part of the existing environment is already built on a hyperscaler platform. Sometimes there are requirements for the project that point in the direction of a hyperscaler, or we test various scenarios in the form of proof-of-concepts. Fundamentally, we and our experts always focus on one thing: the customer's result."

The added value of Power of Three also lies in the orchestration of the services, even if this challenge is sometimes complex: "The services are not NetApp offerings, but are offered, operated and supported by AWS. That is why they are not a competitor, but a useful addition to the AWS portfolio. I should mention that AWS decided on its own initiative to include NetApp technology in its portfolio in order to close a gap that it could not close with its own resources," explains Begoña Jara and she adds in the E3 interview: "Of course we are very honored by this, but it also shows the technological advantage of NetApp. Of course, there are other storage services in the AWS service portfolio that support SAP operations. This is also confirmed by our joint customers." When selecting a cloud provider for business-critical SAP environments, it is important to harmonize business and technical parameters. Demanding existing SAP customers are looking for a cloud provider that can help them accelerate their move to ERP in the cloud, maximize performance and business reliability, and help them innovate and transform their business faster. Moving to the cloud while minimizing downtime is a top priority for any business. "We help our customers move to cloud ERP with expert support from 90 AWS SAP 'Competency' partners and AWS Professional Services, free AWS training, best practice workshops and targeted financial support to offset migration costs," says Florian Böhme, describing the comprehensive AWS offering to the SAP community.

"No other cloud operator offers so many regions with three or more availability zones, which are connected by low latency, high throughput and highly redundant networks. Gartner recommends the AWS region and availability zone model for running enterprise applications that require high availability," says AWS manager Böhme, defining the technical parameters. This sophisticated approach to infrastructure design can make a difference, says Florian Böhme: "As I mentioned earlier, a recent IDC study found that SAP S/4 Hana customers who migrated from on-premises infrastructure to AWS saw a 58 percent reduction in costly unplanned downtime."

"Our commitment to providing high-performance instances is reflected in the fact that SAP itself has chosen to support SAP Hana Cloud with AWS Graviton processors," says AWS manager Böhme, reporting on the collaboration with SAP. "By migrating from SAP Hana Cloud to AWS Graviton-based Amazon EC2 instances, SAP was able to achieve up to 35 percent better price-performance for the analytical workloads."

With SAP systems running reliably in the cloud, customers are often looking to innovate and extend their SAP systems to redesign business processes, create new revenue streams, increase efficiency and delight customers. "AWS offers 60 percent more services and 40 percent more capabilities within those services than any other cloud provider, including the latest capabilities in generative AI, IoT, analytics and automation," defines Florian Böhme. "This makes it faster, easier and more cost-effective for SAP customers to develop almost anything they can imagine while leaving their core SAP ERP system untouched. AWS offers more than 1400 solutions developed by us and partners in the AWS solution library."

SAP is one of the largest "SAP on NetApp" customers. However, there is not only a customer relationship but, more importantly, a close technology partnership that has been maintained continuously for over 20 years. "A dedicated, globally distributed SAP account team together with the SAP Alliance division at NetApp takes care of this partnership for the benefit of our joint customers," says Begoña Jara, describing the successful constellation.

As already mentioned, AWS has added NetApp's ONTAP technology to its portfolio. This results in close cooperation. Like any other native AWS service, NetApp technology is offered, supported, integrated and further developed by AWS - and ultimately also priced and sold. This means that it is not only SAP customers who receive NetApp technology from AWS without having to contact NetApp in any way. "Nevertheless, we at NetApp support customers with our detailed knowledge if necessary or desired. This is particularly the case when an on-prem environment is to be linked with AWS or a migration is planned. And of course, the respective employees on both sides know each other at all levels, for example sales, channel and technology," says NetApp manager Begoña Jara, explaining the orchestration.

"Our focus is on providing infrastructure solutions and offering services relating to SAP S/4 Hana migrations and managed services. Together with our partners, however, we also offer the transformation of applications and core processes," says Thorsten Raquet in the E3 interview, defining the PCG offering. "With Blackwyse GmbH, for example, we have a very experienced partner who has already managed and successfully implemented many large S/4 transformations. We work closely with our partners to ensure a smooth transformation project."

A significant part of PCG focuses on software development, the optimization and modernization of the application landscape in the cloud as well as infrastructure-as-code and the development of data and AI use cases, such as SAP CoPilot. "In this role, we not only advise customers, but also develop solutions together," explains Thorsten Raquet. "Our focus in development projects is on the SAP Business Technology Platform, BTP. However, our focus is not on Abap programming or its management."

PCG's expertise in SAP combined with its competence in all three major hyperscalers makes the Public Cloud Group a frontrunner in cloud transformation. "As long-standing SAP professionals, we are the ideal partner for customers who want to make the leap to the cloud with S/4 Hana. We offer a range of advanced management tools such as Alpaca and customized consulting and managed services. Our Rise-certified SAP specialists and close cooperation with SAP itself ensure that our customers have a direct line to the latest best practices and innovations," says PCG CEO Thorsten Raquet, summarizing the Power of Three once again.