Hybrid Cloud First

From movies you know the scene where in half-dark pubs half-naked women dance on poles and the grim looking door guard says "look yes, attack no".

As the best wife of all proofreads my E-3 manuscript again, she furrows her brows and asks reproachfully: "Where do you watch movies like that?"

I answer sheepishly and try to look bored: "On the flights to Asia, they always show movies like this in business class." Of course, my answer is unconvincing, much like the "America First" and "Cloud First" statements of Donald Trump and Bill McDermott in the U.S., from where I just returned - and not a statement about what movies Lufthansa offers in business class.

We had a global CIO meeting in Atlanta and one of the main topics was cloud computing. I brought along the latest issue of Blaupause, the association magazine of our DSAG.

On the cover, there was a clear warning to SAP: Cloud only is putting ERP in a dilemma! This is almost a declaration of war on the entire SAP Executive Board, because not only Bill McDermott constantly talks about "Cloud Only", but also his CFO Luka Mucic is always trying hard to make the cloud business look particularly attractive and radiant in his balance sheets, as is Technology Director Bernd Leukert, who obviously only knows the SAP Cloud Platform (SCP). What actually happened to HEC and HCP?

For my area of responsibility, I can also observe the move away from SAP cloud offerings and the combination of experienced SAP partners plus AWS or Azure in Europe - with one small difference: While this new cloud trend applies quite generally in North America, in Europe there is very much a differentiation between the various SAP applications.

In Europe, the core SAP system, primarily accounting and controlling (directed at my generation: R/3 FI, AM and CO), remains in the company's own data center or with the outsourcer. Analytics, machine learning, SCM, e-commerce, etc. are being moved to the cloud - either through in-house expertise or through the support of SAP partners.

SAP bet on the wrong horse! For a year now, I have been hearing the buzzword "multi-cloud", but the truth lies in hybrid cloud computing. The sensible combination of on-premise and on-demand is the answer to "cloud only leads ERP into the dilemma".

For the hybrid cloud concept, however, Bill McDermott would have to stop his inane talk about "cloud first" as well as "cloud only" and Bernd Leukert would have to reorganize his entire technology team: One half develops ERP/E

CC 6.0 with Abap continues (the S/4 core also consists exclusively of Abap - whether McDermott knows that?); the other half is allowed to evaluate adequate innovations in the cloud (see Leonardo) - and as a bonus task to Chief Technology Officer Leukert: Hana Cloud Platform must become part of the SAP universe again, without the sword of Damocles "indirect use".