Freedom of choice with SAP

The famous car manufacturer Henry Ford solved the choice in a very elegant way.

The following quote from him is known:

"Any customer can get their car painted any color they want, as long as the color they want is black."

In Walldorf, that means any customer can run their SAP ERP with any server, operating system and database, as long as it's an Intel x86 server, Linux operating system and the Hana database.

What used to be a matter of course for an existing SAP customer is now impossible: with the IT architecture and infrastructure supplier you trust, you build the data center of your dreams.

Today, many IT users dream of cloud cuckoo land. Cloud computing is the order of the day, and this is supposed to relieve the user of every worry and care about his data center.

But everyone doesn't trust the data centers in the global cloud. Security and intellectual property are serious issues.

Even those who rely on private or hybrid clouds end up back in their own data center at the end of the day.

The question of the optimal IT architecture is thus far from being solved.

The agony of choice is taken away from you by SAP. This positive message is countered by total dependency and conformity.

There may be a lot to be said for Intel x86, Linux, and Hana - but there is a difference between whether these IT components are chosen and designed voluntarily or dictated by the ERP vendor!

Freedom of choice is not only a physical process, but also a psychological well-being. Who likes to act under duress?

Respect for SAP: For years, the Walldorf-based ERP group allowed a colorful zoo of software and hardware combinations for R/3.

This approach was also retained for ERP/ECC 6.0 and SAP Business Suite 7 (S/7).

This is associated with an enormous administration and support effort. S/4, the new business suite based on Intel x86, Linux and Hana, is more modest - no more freedom of choice for software and hardware!

Or as SAP CEO Bill McDermott likes to put it time and again:

Run Simple.

But for SAP's existing customers, it is in no way "simple" to switch from the proven, successful and grown IT structures to S/4 and the monolithic architecture, Intel, Linux and Hana.

Freedom of choice doesn't necessarily apply to new customers, but giving it up is very challenging for existing customers. The first new car may have the color black.

But for anyone who has driven a green and red car alternately for decades, the loss of freedom of choice is a culture shock.