E3 Roundtable: Cloud vs. on-prem. An SAP community discussion about public, private and hybrid cloud.

For existing SAP customers, the path to the cloud is like a forced journey without a return ticket, with the ERP group from Walldorf dictating the route, although the reality in the data centers often speaks a completely different language. While SAP CEO Christian Klein tirelessly preaches the mantra „Cloud Only“ and sees the future of the Group almost exclusively in the public cloud, users often cling to their tried-and-tested on-prem fortresses, as these guarantee stability and control. The discrepancy is obvious: SAP is trying to use marketing vehicles such as “Rise with SAP„ to force customers out of the ownership of their licenses and into a rental model that robs them of autonomy over maintenance cycles and leads to a vendor lock-in without a clear exit strategy. Technically, this cloud compulsion often turns out to be a mere “lift and shift„, in which old legacy systems are merely shifted to the hyperscalers“ servers instead of offering genuine architectural modernization. The threat from the SAP Executive Board to reserve essential innovations such as artificial intelligence or the Green Ledger exclusively for cloud customers in future is less of a technological incentive than a strategic coercion that shakes trust in the partnership. But for many, their own data center - or at least a private cloud under their own control - remains the only acceptable location for business-critical data and processes that must not be disrupted by external maintenance windows. The only sensible answer to this dilemma is therefore not „cloud only“, but hybrid. Many existing SAP customers urgently need the flexibility to protect sensitive core data locally and at the same time selectively connect scalable cloud services. Even SAP CEO Thomas Saueressig warned of a „Frankenstein architecture“ if modern AI is wired up with outdated on-prem technology, but overlooks the fact that these hybrid scenarios represent the reality for customers. In this area of tension, the "sovereign cloud" is becoming a lifeline for compliance requirements. SAP has recognized that European customers need guarantees that their data will not leave the jurisdiction and will be protected from access by the US Cloud Act. Investments in sovereign cloud offerings or partnerships show that SAP is responding here to maintain digital sovereignty and offer customers a choice beyond the US hyperscalers. But critically, this often seems like a belated admission that the unconditional embrace of the US hyperscalers for the European market was naïve. The best ERP architecture for S/4 Hana is therefore not a dogmatic decision in favor of the public cloud, but a pragmatic, hybrid approach that combines the stability of the on-prem core with the agility of the cloud and leaves sovereignty over the data with the customer.