A special challenge

The DSAG investment report from the beginning of this year clearly shows that existing SAP customers prefer the Microsoft Azure cloud. Marcus Sommer from Microsoft comments on the very pleasing result:

"We have to thank our customers and partners for this assessment. After all, our success is ultimately defined by our customers and partners. So let's take a look at what the important factors are.

On the one hand, it is the good interaction of our various solutions on the cloud platform, right through to the very relevant hybrid area. Here, our solutions enable good integration of existing IT landscapes with cloud-based solutions.

In addition, Microsoft has always cultivated intensive and long-term relationships with companies. We therefore offer our customers a personal point of contact at all times. This should not be underestimated.

However, we are also backed by a powerful partner system that brings together product expertise and industry knowledge. With this ecosystem, we not only offer the technology, but also support our customers' business requirements over the entire life cycle."

Shaping innovation together

Digitalization affects more than just the use of new technologies and encompasses almost all areas of a company. In order to meet the challenges ahead, companies need to increase their value creation and speed of innovation: this is at the heart of an "intelligent company".

Implementation in the cloud offers significant advantages: greater flexibility and efficiency, scalability and lower costs. According to a recent survey at the DSAG Annual Congress 2019 in Nuremberg, more than 50 percent of all existing SAP customers see Microsoft Azure as their preferred cloud platform for SAP workloads.

Using Azure as an infrastructure platform for SAP workloads is only the first step on the journey to the cloud. With S/4 Hana and the SAP Hana Enterprise Cloud (HEC), SAP offers the intelligent suite with which business processes can be digitized and automated.

The SAP Cloud Platform simplifies the orchestration of data as well as the integration and expansion of processes. SAP Leonardo provides intelligent technologies to recognize patterns based on data and prepare suitable measures.

Together with Microsoft's technology and solution portfolio, SAP and Microsoft offer a unique innovation platform for the path to the intelligent enterprise and the intelligent cloud.