SAP Cloud Computing as a Language Barrier

Without spoiling the story, it was ultimately about perspectives, definitions, and language. It is well known that Swiss Post operates one of the largest and most successful SAP BRIM systems. The SAP partner responsible is proud of the project and struggles to gain recognition from SAP - because it is an on-prem system. This success story does not fit into SAP CEO Christian Klein’s world view. Even with the initial support of his fellow board member Thomas Saueressig, the BRIM installation at Swiss Post failed to achieve any lasting PR success. Unfortunately, Thomas Saueressig always promises a great deal, but then hardly ever delivers—here, too, does there appear to be a formidable language barrier.

Cloud computing suffers from language barriers. Many IT vendors claim the buzzword for their own products, but only a few software vendors can truly call themselves "cloud native"—and SAP is not among them.

SAP BRIM and Microsoft Azure

In the specific case of SAP BRIM and the Microsoft Azure cloud, there is a language barrier surrounding the buzzwords "lift and shift". What is cloud computing? When an application has been designed for the cloud architecture—i.e. is cloud-native—or when any application is positioned in the cloud using IT tools. The difference is significant and can be seen very clearly in the example of SAP BRIM.

Following my comment that BRIM is a successful on-prem product and that SAP is contradicting itself when it pushes cloud only, a Microsoft employee countered with the example that he had actually deployed SAP BRIM from the cloud as part of a project.

As often happens in life, both things are true. Of course, BRIM is not cloud-native, but the IT architecture required to run BRIM successfully can be replicated in a cloud environment such as Microsoft Azure. This means that not only SAP BRIM, but also any R/3 and ERP/ECC system can be moved to the cloud. Experts then talk about lift and shift, which clearly shows that this is a linguistic definition problem. There is no universally accepted definition of cloud computing.

For a hyperscaler, everything that moves in its territory is cloud computing. SAP CEO Christian Klein's "cloud-only" approach is a quite different cloud computing strategy: SAP wants to master and control the ERP operating model.

An on-prem SAP operation is primarily based on purchased licenses, which may or may not be subject to annual maintenance—similar to a cloud subscription model. Third-party maintenance is also available. Ultimately, an SAP on-prem customer has a greater degree of freedom than a user in the SAP public cloud. For predictable operations and maximum value, the best business model—for SAP—is the public cloud.