Accelerate your Business - Simplified SAP S/4HANA Transformation

Keyword SAP-certified IT infrastructure for the migration to SAP S/4HANA. Why is this plus a flexible and scalable IT infrastructure an advantage?

Wilcox: The migration to SAP S/4HANA proves to be a significant project for almost every SAP user company - both at business and application level. As a result, there are many uncertainties for users that are often not known in advance.

Therefore, a Nutanix infrastructure layer, which is inherently flexible and agile, can help manage these uncertainties with less complexity. For example, customers need to deploy multiple test systems to validate certain functionalities.

They may not be sure of the scale requirements and can start small within their Nutanix-based infrastructure and grow as they need more resources. An infrastructure that can grow with business needs and provides a simple management layer for multiple systems also simplifies the underlying infrastructure to better manage the migration process.

Why does an HCI offer the greatest advantages?

Niopek: Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) is an ideal solution for SAP customers because both the SAP workload and Microsoft applications, for example, can be mapped flexibly and easily scaled on a shared operating platform.

Wilcox: An HCI based on Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Software brings together the entire data center stack - including compute, storage, networking and virtualization - and offers control of the entire stack with a single management layer. This simplifies management, reduces overall costs and consolidates resources. 

There are many SAP customers who choose a hybrid approach. What added value does Fujitsu offer there?

Niopek: The Cloud Bridge from Fujitsu is an important component here. It paves the way for automated SAP workloads, such as an SAP test system, to be made available in the cloud at the touch of a button. Other important application scenarios include, for example, moving copies of SAP systems to the cloud or moving SAP systems from on-premises to the cloud and back again. This results in dynamic coexistence for the SAP workload on-premises as well as in the cloud, manual effort is extremely minimized and the TCO is significantly improved.

What impact does this have on the time required for a migration?

Wilcox: The time savings in migration projects, the acceleration of the deploy-
ments and the management of test and development systems can help reduce overall testing time and often reduce the risk of delivering systems that have not been fully tested due to a lack of resources and time. Older legacy systems consist of separate storage, servers and networks.

These silos are more unwieldy and inflexible in terms of management, sizing and cost during the migration process, which sometimes leads to delays in such migration projects. In addition to the reduced operational overhead and complexity, there is a significant reduction in risk and an improvement in security when deploying SAP on Nutanix. Automated software and firmware updates with integrated compatibility checks drastically reduce the time and effort required to keep a Nutanix infrastructure secure and fully functional.

How does the cooperation between Nutanix and Fujitsu complement each other?

Niopek: The SAP certification program for HCI provides for a large number of rigorous tests that are certified together with the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Software. Fujitsu complements this with its best-practice implementation services and integration services. In addition, Fujitsu offers a unified service concept for the entire Nutanix solution stack from a single source. 

How can the cloud offerings for SAP S/4HANA from SAP be integrated into the HCI-based Nutanix stack for SAP S/4HANA? For example, a database, i.e. HANA, on Nutanix applications from the SAP cloud?

Wilcox: Nutanix supports the standard SAP S/4HANA and SAP HANA offerings for on-premises data centers. In addition, Nutanix supports a more integrated, hybrid approach for customers in their migration and with the SAP offerings available in the public cloud. The collaboration with Fujitsu also allows us to jointly deliver a service-based approach that focuses on the most important aspects of data management during such migrations.

How does Fujitsu help customers on the path to SAP S/4HANA transformation?

Niopek: Fujitsu supports them on the path to migration or on the S/4HANA journey. For this purpose, Fujitsu has developed its own tool, SAP System Inspection, which offers significant added value compared to SAP tools. System Inspection is used to analyze the entire data of the infrastructure landscape, regardless of the manufacturer, and also measures the entire SAP application landscape.

Based on this sound data, we make recommendations for action for the SAP target scenario of the future. The tool also offers the option of generating root cause information and analyzing and evaluating performance and load peak problems. This has recently been supplemented by the addition of HANA Insight Analytic metrics. Fujitsu can provide customers with comprehensive support from the initial architecture workshop and preliminary study through to implementation and operation.

Wilcox: Migration is a complex process and each user organization should work with the right consulting firms and their own internal team to achieve this. While Nutanix offers services to support and advise on the optimal design of a Nutanix infrastructure for SAP, customers requiring specialist migration services should work with Fujitsu to deliver a complete solution. The migration of core business processes, core cleansing tasks usually requires the use of a specialized SAP S/4HANA migration team from a certified vendor.