Why SAP on Google Cloud Platform
Migration to the cloud requires planning and a thorough implementation strategy by establishing priorities and controlling the risks that this transition may involve. In this article we are going to give you the reasons why, at Intelligence Partner, we opt for Google Cloud as a platform to migrate your SAP systems to the cloud. We also break down the road map to follow to perform the migration with maximum efficiency.
SAP systems are leaders in the business application software market. In fact, “77% of the world’s revenue from transactions passes through a SAP system”, according to data offered by the manufacturer. However, many of the companies that have SAP technology haven’t taken the step to the cloud since they fear that this journey may paralyse their business.
This fear, which is understandable when people don’t have all of the necessary information, is underpinned by the fact that SAP ERPs are often the central tool for all types of businesses and industries. In order to help all of those companies that, like yours, have SAP solutions and want to move to the cloud, at Intelligence Partner we provide a large panel of experts certified in performing this transition of SAP systems through Google Cloud Platform, Google’s platform that, in our experience, best solves the complex transit and maintenance of the workloads on the cloud.
Reasons to choose Google Cloud Platform
Our commitment to Google solutions is based on many reasons. However, when we are talking about migrating SAP, the main reason is the collaboration that exists between Google and SAP to work together.
When SAP took the decision to design its solutions on the cloud, a competition opened up that Google won; and the result of this partnership is that the more than 20,000 SAP developers work and create code on Google’s platform, using thousands of virtual machines certified with SAP technology and a set of technologies that enable Google Cloud to offer unique features. In addition, Google has a Datacenter exclusively reserved for SAP.
But there are more reasons:
1. Guarantee of maintaining business continuity.
Fear paralyses and the dread that business continuity will be affected by a transition to the cloud slows down many operations. However, one of the advantages of Google Cloud Platform is precisely that it guarantees business continuity since Google’s cloud has the best reliability, network and performance during the time of activity.
2. Flexibility
Google’s platform offers bespoke virtual machines and SAP NetWeaver machines which are more economically competitive and perform better.
Google is the only provider that offers its customers SAP certified machines with bespoke configuration, more competitive and with a better performance, offering a better response and operation time for tasks such as:
- Rebooting of systems and loading into memory, 45 minutes per TB to reboot a HANA system, a system with 4TB of memory can be recovered in as little as 3 hours.
- Live migration supported for machines of up to 12 TB. Google is the only provider that has the technology and supports the live movement of certified SAP hardware.
3. Speed and agility
Another of Google Cloud Platform’s characteristics is its agility, possible thanks to:
- Unique and secure network. Own worldwide network. Encryption by default, better end-to-end performance of SAP.
- Zero downtime due to VM maintenance. Google’s Live Migration technology enables zero downtime when it comes to applying the maintenance of virtual machines.
- Grow as you go: commitment according to use per CPU and RAM. No need for advance payments or being tied to specific technology.
4. Innovation
Google enables SAP environments with DWA as-a-service to be downloaded, data to be exploited with Analytics tools, Machine Learning to be applied to business processes and SAP functionality to be presented with APIs.
Migration as a business opportunity
As you can see, the Google Cloud platform offers technical advantages that are difficult to compare to other clouds. That’s why, at Intelligence Partner, we want you so see migration as an opportunity and for you to take advantage of the disruptive times we are experiencing to carry out the transformation to SAP S/4Hana.
Before making a decision, you are likely to be plagued with doubts:
How can I reduce the total operational cost of my IT systems, including hardware and datacenters? How can I guarantee the security of my existing data and applications? How can I adapt the IT to the changing pace of the business?
Google’s capabilities on an infrastructure level do not currently have any competition on the market, they are capable of guaranteeing business continuity in practically any circumstance that may arise.
And as we said at the start of this article, to perform this migration it is important, in addition to choosing the most suitable technology, to have a plan that enables you to gain flexibility, improve your time to market, reduce costs and improve the security of your systems. Ultimately, it is about fitting all of the pieces together to ensure the ultimate success.
The roadmap from Intelligence Partner, a SoftwareONE company
In order to be able to establish your business’s priorities and guarantee a satisfactory execution, at Intelligence Partner, we suggest the following road map in 3 phases:
First phase: Assessment
In the prior assessment our experts analyse the situation, design the GCP architecture based on Google’s best practice, and present the costs and the machines the project requires. The assessment consists of monitoring, security and proof of concept.
Second phase: definition of objectives
Once the situation and priorities of each client have been analysed, we work on adapting the flexibility of GCP to the client’s situation in order to be able to start an integral transformation.
Third phase: yield a profit from your data
Once we have migrated your SAP to the cloud, we help you to exploit this data using all of the data analysis technology through machine learning, BigQuery, etc.
Some of the advantages of migrating SAP to Google cloud include:
- Optimising costs: reducing the cost of the infrastructure, preventing the over-supply of physical on-premise hardware, taking advantage of the flexibility and the OPEX consumption of the infrastructure.
- Increasing the agility of IT and reducing risks. It is possible to speed up the implementation of infrastructure while obtaining scalability and flexibility in accordance with the consumption requirements. This enables the migration risks and costs of continued support to be reduced.
- Pay per use model so that companies can reduce their costs, take advantage of the almost unlimited flexibility in terms of infrastructure design.
On the other hand, you shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that this paralysis, when it comes to
performing a migration as we were referring to above, has often been overtaken by circumstances. The outbreak of the pandemic has accelerated the transition to the cloud for many companies faced with total paralysis and that situation has led to being on the cloud becoming a differential value that affects a company’s competitiveness.
That said, once the crisis of survival is over, many organisations consider how to efficiently manage these workloads that they have stored on the cloud. At Intelligence Partner, we can also offer a service of accompaniment and optimisation of the cloud infrastructure.
An added reason: Cloud Acceleration Program for support
In addition to all of the reasons we have described above, Google offers the Cloud Acceleration Program of rewards, help with migrations, renewals and new SAP projects for companies who move to the cloud with Intelligence Partner.
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