And the winner is: Azure

On-premise, the good old data center, is still an option. Because cloud computing can be anything: Reducing operational costs to exploding costs.

As many positive examples can be found for multi- and hybrid cloud, there are just as many horror scenarios in the SAP community. It is therefore surprising that there is a clear winner in cloud computing: Microsoft Azure.

The DSAG Investment Report 2019 answers the question: Is your company planning to invest in the following non-SAP platforms in 2019? 21 percent of DSAG members want to invest in Microsoft Azure, 4 percent in AWS, 0.8 percent in Google Cloud and 0.4 percent each in the Alibaba, IBM or Telekom Cloud.

This means that Amazon, Google, Alibaba, IBM and Telekom are sinking into insignificance. Only a miracle will save this company from its demise in the SAP community.

So why is Microsoft so successful? What is the secret? Technical expertise, a comprehensive offering and many years of relationship management: Microsoft is no newcomer to the SAP scene.

Older community members will remember MS SQL Server 7 for SAP R/3 - a disaster! But Microsoft learned from the disaster and did its homework. For many years, the Office and Windows group has been a loyal and constant companion to existing SAP customers.

And then came the cloud: Microsoft recognized the needs and quickly concluded a partner agreement with Suse Linux to offer the SAP Hana database an optimal place in the Azure cloud.

There is also Office 365, Business Skype etc. to meet the needs of existing SAP customers. Microsoft has invested a lot and is obviously now reaping the cloud rewards.