Accelerated, secure cloud migrations

Companies are increasingly turning to cloud technologies and applications to aggressively drive business growth while achieving sustainable efficiency and agility benefits. The cloud migration momentum is growing steadily, especially in the SAP community, not least due to cloud offensives and initiatives from SAP, such as "Rise with SAP".

Whether in the context of public cloud, private cloud or hybrid cloud deployment: technology is not everything when using cloud services, but without proven cloud technologies everything is nothing, one could say. That is why it is by no means sufficient, for example, to conclude a tried and tested subscription contract with a hyperscaler for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) server services for the use of SAP workloads. Rather, various technological complexes or problem-solving issues must be scrutinized and worked through. This is the only way to implement a cloud deployment that functions as optimally and securely as possible and meets the individual requirements and expectations of a mission-critical IT deployment.

For some time now, the SAP community has been very keen to obtain the aforementioned SAP workloads or HANA server services from a hyperscaler in the form of IaaS services. Or, to put it the other way around: SAP On-
Premises services to a public cloud or to migrate the operation of entire systems there. On the one hand, these are SAP S/4 HANA-DEV, TEST, or QA systems; on the other hand, there have long been complete S/4 system landscapes, including PROD systems, which are available from the various public cloud providers.
cloud service providers perform their services.

On Azure, Google and AWS

In order for SAP customers to be able to use IaaS cloud services (and possibly others such as PaaS or SaaS) in conjunction with mission-critical SAP enterprise applications quickly, securely and on demand after a free choice of hyperscaler, the long-standing and close SAP partner SUSE set the course years ago together with SAP as well as the "SAP HANA hyperscalers". 

For example, the SLES for SAP Applications operating system platform from SUSE, which is preferred and recommended for S/4 HANA operation, is available on Microsoft's Azure cloud as well as on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Cloud AWS. And with the same technologies as well as extensive functionality and designed for the special needs of SAP deployment as in the on-premises environment. In addition, SLES for SAP Applications includes advantageous dedicated features for the respective public cloud environments Azure, GCP and AWS.   

As in the SAP on-premises environment, customers can benefit from SLES for SAP-
Applications when it comes to cloud adoption, there are several value propositions: One is SUSE's sustained commitment to a deep and 20+ year understanding of the dedicated needs and concerns of SAP applications, such as S/4 HANA, to an underlying -mission-critical infrastructure, reflected in numerous joint distinctive developments with SAP and in in-house developments and the use of innovative open source technologies. 

For example, in the SAP HANA High Availability environment with the SLES for SAP High Availability Extension or as part of SAP IT operations management with various cloud readiness elements. For example, in the public cloud environment, SUSE ensures that defined infrastructures are reliably executed and implemented by IaaS providers as specified. Furthermore, SUSE takes care of the storage of setups, for example, so that they can be reused at practically any time - even after subsequent adjustments. Various efforts that would otherwise be incurred in provisioning and deployment in connection with cloud use are thus significantly reduced. Or: in the area of configuration. With SUSE and integrated open source solutions, entire software packages can be installed, configured and deployed automatically.

Added value in cloud operation

The Walldorf-based software group uses SLES for SAP Applications from SUSE itself, for example in the HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC). SUSE was involved in the architecture of the HEC, which also forms the basis for "Rise with SAP". Moreover, SUSE Enterprise Linux Server for SAP Applications is the market-leading operating system platform across the entire SAP ecosystem.
environment (SAP Classic with Any DBs and S/4 HANA as well as HANA-based SAP solutions). This is supported by the fact that SAP users can rely in particular on high investment security and further or new developments as well as innovation capability at a high level.

In the context of cloud-for-SAP deployment, SUSE provides valuable support to SAP customers, with the best-
in-class operating system platform SLES for SAP Applications, but moreover with a kind of blueprint including software deployment for an accelerated migration of "SAP S/4 HANA in the Public Cloud" and best practices procedures. 

The step-by-step blueprint specifically describes the technology deployment as well as the necessary cloud operations management. It covers several important cloud operations topics: Provisioning, Deployment, Operate, Optimize and Transform as well as Monitoring and Reporting. On the solution side, SLES for SAP Applications (including integrated open source software and other standard components from Microsoft or SAP, for example) and SUSE Manager (for enterprise management) are used. 

Here, too, the many years of cooperation with SAP and the necessary requirements for the use of SAP infrastructures in cloud consumption have been incorporated. And that is to provide SAP users with solutions and technologies that simplify their chosen SAP cloud concepts and underpin them reliably, efficiently and cost-effectively - along with a high degree of automation - with profitable benefits. More information at: www.suse.com/cloud-for-sap