Ready for hybrid cloud use

It is obvious that practically all SAP customers are dealing in one way or another with both the business suite technology successor S/4 Hana and its associated operating concepts. Many of them have already completed the ERP-ECC switch or have concretely started transition projects. And quite a few have also initiated or already partially realized their cloud journey during this shift. Whether it is the use of cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) or software as a service (SaaS).

The hybrid cloud operating concept is particularly popular with S/4 users. This allows them to determine which SAP systems or components are to be operated on-premises and which are to be operated in the cloud, for example as part of SAP cloud services or as part of a service purchase from public cloud providers such as Microsoft (Azure), Amazon (AWS) and Google (GCP).

Hybrid cloud platform

In order to now be able to put hybrid cloud operating concepts into practice in the context of S/4 Hana, it requires a suitable infrastructure platform for this type of Journey or for this Journey leap. One does not go too far when one puts it like this: SAP users who choose Suse are on the safe side. And for several reasons.

First, important CIO conditions are met. The following is of particular relevance: Investments including support or contracts in on-premises use remain intact with cloud use. Furthermore, business continuity or operational stability is ensured. It also makes it possible to introduce a DevOps strategy for SAP. And on top of that, the adaptation of an SAP deployment based on the respective business or market conditions can be realized.

Interlocked development

The above is backed up by tangible or concrete evidence. First, existing on-premises technology can be transferred to cloud deployment through the one-platform approach. With the Hana operating system platform Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications, there is technology consistency both on-premises and in the cloud. The same applies to the Live Patching option or the Suse Manager solution. Or with solutions that are still to come.

Second, SAP and Suse solutions are dovetailed. For example, SAP High Availability/Disaster Recovery uses a reference architecture that was developed jointly by SAP and Suse in the SAP Linux Lab. And is taken into account in the Suse solution SLES for SAP HAE (High Availability Extension), for example. Third, features and components are provided to ensure an agile developer framework. This enables faster time-to-market and more agile IT systems.

And last but not least, multi-cloud usage is supported. Which accommodates scalability or some kind of elasticity for growing or changing business environments.

To sum up, technology-consistent infrastructure solutions that can be used both on-premises and in the cloud are indispensable for the increasing use of S/4 hybrid cloud. Incidentally, they have long since passed their baptism of fire in practical use by SAP customers of different sizes and from different industries. This means that there is really nothing standing in the way of productive use in your own operating landscape.