Cloud Power

Handelsblatt quoted the German Federal Minister of Economics, Peter Altmaier, as saying that Gaia-X is nothing less than a European moonshot in digital policy. Gaia-X is not only a European cloud project, but also proof of the general sustainability of cloud computing. This technology is no longer a gimmick of IT innovators, but a substantial building block of any future IT structure. SAP is therefore also one of the founding members of this idea. The project is open to all companies, including the participation of global hyperscalers and international IT groups.

In addition to consolidating technical expertise with regard to data security and data protection, Gaia-X is also intended to prove that cloud computing is relevant for every company size and business application. Cloud computing will cover the entire SAP spectrum in the future, which SAP CEO Christian Klein also emphasized in his interview for the American SAP User Group (ASUG) in mid-November: "Our ERP customer base is moving to the cloud. The S/4 Hana cloud solution will have 80 percent of the functionality of the on-premises solution next year."

For existing SAP customers, there are many options for an S/4 Hana release change: The path to the cloud of a hyperscaler is a challenge. From NetApp's and Google's perspective, what are the most important arguments for an SAP system on the Google Cloud Platform?

"In our opinion, there are many arguments".explains César Cernuda in an E-3 interview, "but the most important ones are: Cost minimization through pay-as-you-go models instead of large investments. Maintenance and orchestration costs can also be reduced."

And Cernuda stresses the importance of efficient, performant and reliable data storage. "Current cloudnative storage offerings don't provide the same level of service as NetApp"César Cernuda knows from many successful NetApp projects. Data security and data availability are also high priorities for the NetApp Manager: "If those two criteria were missing, cloud would not be an option."

In addition, the two topics of time to value and time to market are important for Cernuda: The provision of efficient development and test environments for the rapid creation of prototypes, smooth implementation and the resulting and shortened time to value are important parameters for SAP existing customers. Likewise, projects can be realized faster due to a shortened time to market. This increases product quality, which also contributes to risk minimization.

Rob Enslin needs no introduction in the SAP community. He was the mastermind behind the cloud-first initiative at SAP. For many years, as a member of the SAP Executive Board, he was responsible for all aspects of cloud development and positioning. The successful move to Google was a logical step in this extraordinary IT career, so the response from Google's President Cloud Sales comes as no surprise:

"First, we are very excited about the value Google Cloud is creating for many SAP customers today. Large companies such as Rémy Cointreau, Carrefour, Kaeser Compressors and Multipharma are choosing to run SAP on Google Cloud. And while many of these companies have already started migrating SAP to the cloud, it's worth noting that the majority of companies using SAP are still running it on-premises - so there's a tremendous opportunity to bring these customers into a modern cloud environment."

The cloud in its various stages of evolution has been available for 15 years. Solutions, technologies and operating models are developing with high dynamics. The use of the reference models of IT and technology has become increasingly differentiated in recent years. There is no question that this trend will continue in the coming years. Currently, 46 percent of companies in Germany are in an advanced phase of cloud use, i.e., they are using the cloud extensively across multiple workloads. This advanced use is possible on the basis of a modernized IT architecture, transferable solution approaches and comprehensive policy and provider management.

"The cloud does not coexist with IT, but is increasingly becoming an integral part of the IT landscape"Matthias Zacher, Senior Consulting Manager and Project Manager at market researcher and analyst IDC, knows this.

Intelligent infrastructure

Because SAP workloads are increasingly moving to the cloud, there are some important considerations, explains Rob Enslin:

"First, businesses need smart, reliable infrastructure. Unplanned downtime is not an option. This is an area where Google Cloud customers see great value and was particularly relevant in 2020. As the global pandemic overloaded some networks and infrastructures, we kept SAP customers up and running with Google Cloud's scalable, elastic and global network."

Likewise, Google President Enslin knows from his SAP past and current work that, second, companies are looking for ways to extract value from their SAP data. There is no company today that doesn't want to get value out of data, and SAP data is no exception.

"Third, SAP customers must minimize any risks associated with moving business-critical workloads from one environment to another or during planned events such as hardware upgrades"Rob Enslin emphasizes in a joint E-3 interview. "The ability to maintain business continuity as circumstances change is critical for our customers, and our live migration capabilities that keep virtual machine instances running while workloads are migrated help mitigate risk as customers migrate to the cloud."

IDC analyst Matthias Zacher comes to a similar assessment: "The success and adoption of the cloud is highly dependent on how well business initiatives are supported."

35 percent of the IT users surveyed by IDC in Germany expect the cloud to provide greater scalability of the infrastructure, 33 percent expect faster provision of solutions and 32 percent expect improved IT security.

"The issue of security is thus apparently finally no longer a real hurdle to overcome and can be crossed off the Contra list"emphasizes analyst Zacher. "On the contrary, with a modern infrastructure and automated processes such as those offered by the cloud, IT operations become more secure and less prone to failure. Companies have obviously recognized this -business added value and are learning to appreciate it, especially in difficult times such as during the current pandemic."

S/4 Transformation

The SAP community is in the midst of a Hana and S/4 conversion and a challenging digital transformation. For the transition from on-premises to the cloud, the existing SAP customer needs a roadmap. Where are the challenges?

"Companies are under enormous pressure to digitally transform aspects of their businesses - including SAP"Rob Enslin reports from conversations with Google customers. He knows that the time to plan their SAP cloud migrations is now.

"It's important for executives to have a clear picture of the business benefits and goals they need to achieve, and then create an S/4 Hana roadmap based on that." Enslin explains. "Typically, cost savings and risk management are two of the first concerns. Our Cloud Acceleration Program can help minimize the costs associated with SAP migrations."

Choosing a cloud provider with a reliable, elastic infrastructure as well as live migration capabilities is important to mitigate risks. It is also important that companies choose the right partners to help them with S/4 modernization. Rob Enslin:

"Our partners like Accenture, Deloitte, HCL and many others have set up dedicated teams and resources to help customers run SAP on Google Cloud. Sustainability is another key concern for customers as they lay a foundation for the future. Google has a long track record of clean energy, and today Google Cloud is the only major cloud provider that buys enough renewable energy to cover all of our operations. Earlier this year, we committed to fully decarbonizing our power supply by 2030, which means powering our data centers with zero-carbon energy 24/7."

Christian Klein also emphasized this desire for change in the ASUG interview in mid-November: "The technology is there, the added value of S/4 Hana is there. The question is how to get there. We want to make it even easier to make that transformation. We can do better and we will do better."

Rob Enslin says of the path both companies are taking: "Google Cloud and SAP have a broad technology partnership focused on helping customers efficiently and effectively modernize their SAP environments on Google Cloud and helping our joint customers leverage Google Cloud capabilities in AI, ML and analytics. Earlier this year, SAP announced a data center based on Google Cloud. This means customers can run SAP applications in an SAP data center, leveraging Google Cloud's powerful and reliable network."

There are still some challenges ahead for all cloud providers in the SAP community, as Christian Klein knows when he says in the ASUG interview:

"The biggest challenge in transforming our customers is not technology, but process redesign. This is where we want to do a better job. That's what we're going to focus on on the service side - there are already a lot of services out there, but we can do better."

Cloud roadmap

NetApp President César Cernuda says in an interview that Cloud Volumes Ontap enables customers to move into hyperscale clouds. Workloads such as test or development environments, backup or disaster recovery-as-a-service, and all non-production workloads can be easily deployed.

"Cloud Volumes Ontap can manage all workloads including Hana production environments as it delivers high performance data storage with the required SLAs"Cernuda emphasizes.

Hybrid services are part of a data fabric delivered by NetApp. Customers can choose what they migrate to the cloud and for how long, and the NetApp president specifies:

"Cloud is therefore not a one-way street. File share and databases, production, test/dev, backup workloads, DR purposes, either on-premises or in the Google Cloud - it's all possible. Third-party solutions, for example from CommVault, Veeam or Libelle, are included through extensive API support. Our GSI and smaller system integrators, for example Accenture, Atos, All4One or Arvato, offer implementation services and managed services."

Across the street on the S/4 roadmap to the cloud you'll find Google, and Rob Enslin explains:

"We have a close partnership with NetApp, and that includes helping SAP customers move to Google Cloud. For example, NetApp Cloud Volumes Service is certified for use with Hana in Google Cloud."

Data and workloads

This means that NetApp will provide data management capabilities that customers need to run production workloads on Google Cloud. As a result, existing SAP customers will also be supported to leverage Google Cloud's AI, ML, and analytics capabilities. Furthermore, service providers can offer complementary cloud migration, implementation, operations and digital transformation in the SAP community.

"I'm proud of the ecosystem of Google cloud partners that are available to support SAP customers"Rob Enslin emphasizes. "These include service partners such as Accenture, Atos, Deloitte, NTT and Wipro, as well as technology partners such as NetApp and solution providers such as SNP, Gekkobrain, Datavard and SpringML. These partners can provide key services and technologies at virtually every stage of the journey to the cloud - from planning through migration and implementation to the productive deployment of SAP in the Google Cloud."

Why do existing SAP customers choose a Hana and S/4 system together with NetApp on the Google Cloud Platform?

"Customers wanted the enterprise data management capabilities of NetApp's Ontap software, but they wanted it as a native storage service directly from Google Cloud, not as a third-party service"explains NetApp President César Cernuda. NetApp Cloud Volumes was created to meet this requirement.

The best: NetApp and Google

NetApp and Google Cloud engineering teams worked together to integrate NetApp's enterprise data management capability into Google Cloud.
Cloud platform to create a native Google Cloud file storage service offered like other Google Cloud services and supported by Google Cloud. For existing SAP customers, NetApp complements Google Cloud to accelerate projects, protect SAP environments, and significantly simplify storage operations.

"In this combination, Google and NetApp deliver leading innovation for SAP in Google Cloud deployments - supported by long-standing mutual relationships and partnerships with SAP. NetApp, for example, has a strong innovation partnership with SAP that now spans two decades, with SAP itself being one of the largest SAP-on-NetApp customers"César Cernuda knows.

Google President Rob Enslin adds to NetApp President César Cernuda's statement in an E-3 conversation:

"For mission-critical applications and workloads like SAP, reliability, security and data protection are always top priorities. Our offering is backed by highly reliable infrastructure and a high-performance network to ensure our customers' business continuity even during a global pandemic, and we provide multi-tiered, high-availability infrastructure and data centers around the world."

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