Author: Thomas Herrmann, NetApp

Support for SAP ERP/ECC 6.0 will end as early as 2027. Therefore, existing SAP customers should take care of the necessary migration to the successor S/4 at an early stage. It could also be a replacement for their own on-prem solutions.

Organizations must be able to operate reliably, but at the same time be flexible enough to adapt to new innovations and changing market conditions.

If companies want to benefit comprehensively from the possibilities of SAP applications in the future, it is worthwhile for them to rely on hybrid cloud environments, at least in the medium term.

Technologies such as IoT, big data analytics and AI produce vast amounts of data that require cloud storage. Manufacturers like SAP are pursuing a cloud-first strategy. Enterprise applications are transforming to the cloud, creating complex distributed infrastructures.

Sapphire 2019 in Orlando in May showed that SAP has once again shifted into a higher innovation gear. And: The Walldorf-based software group has fully arrived as a cloud solution provider.

Cloud file storage and data management services are fundamental cornerstones for realizing beneficial SAP hybrid cloud computing with digitization. SAP customers benefit from a unified NetApp data management architecture.

NetApp, as a leading provider of data management solutions in the SAP environment, also makes virtually the same on-premise solution offerings available via public cloud service providers. For example, on Microsoft Azure.

Predictive maintenance is the ideal entry point for industrial companies into highly automated production based on Internet technologies and the Internet of Things.

The question of whether flash storage is worthwhile for an in-memory technology such as Hana comes up again and again in discussions with customers. In fact, there are many reasons to rely on flash here.

While the use of the public cloud for core SAP operations is currently not yet a real option, it is the projects in testing and development as well as the integration of the cloud into the backup and disaster recovery strategy that are particularly relevant for companies to improve efficiency and data security.

In-memory systems, such as SAP Hana, keep most of the data in the main memory. To ensure high availability, CIOs should critically analyze their existing backup and disaster recovery concepts and adapt them to the new technologies.