The future belongs to intelligent networks

With Ariba, the SAP acquired a company dedicated to cloud-based commerce between business partners in 2012. About the Ariba-Network buyers and sellers can contact each other by means of Cloud-network solutions.

According to the company, more than 100 million companies in 190 countries around the world are already using this method not only to process transactions, but also to initiate new business.

Web-based social networks have long been an integral part of everyday life for most people in the private sphere. It's high time for this development to extend even further into the business environment, says Bob Calderoni, CEO of Ariba.

The Key to this are intelligent networks, because today these offer numerous options and have Business processes The new technology will change production processes in industry in much the same way as the assembly line did around 150 years ago.

Today, companies of all sizes and from all industries can connect across countries to increase productivity and maximize profits. This creates complex networks in which business partners can coordinate their processes across different platforms to increase their revenues, Costs and to optimize its cash flow.

Business processes understand

A prerequisite for the smooth establishment and running of such business relationships is a secure Cloud-based Networkinto which all processes can be integrated.

Unlike in the USA or Asia, the enthusiasm for the Cloud in the European region was limited in the past. Resentment against the model was too high, reported Sven Denecken, at SAP as vice president for the strategy of the Cloud-solutions.

That has changed significantly in the past year, he says.

"Specifically, large companies that are in need of Cloud were very reluctant in the past, are now much more open to the topic."

One reason for this, he says, is specific requirements from the specialist departments that new Applications want to deploy faster to keep up with the ever more rapidly changing demands of the market.

The accompanying technical demands can be met by the in-house IT often not fulfilled in a timely manner, which is why the offers of Cloud-providers are becoming increasingly interesting.

Cloud-Solution made to measure

The Walldorf-based company offers its customers both private and public Cloud corresponding solutions, each of which is based on Hana. Hana Enterprise is used for the private Cloud and Hana Business Suite at the Public Cloud for use.

The Public-Cloudprocesses run over the high-availability SAP-data center and guarantee a modern IT-environment with the highest security standards. According to Denecken, customers not only want to know how secure their Data but where exactly they are located and how public-Cloud–Applications can be optimally integrated with their internal models so that there are no interruptions in the workflow.

The prerequisite for such an implementation, he said, is that a provider must not only be Business processes of its customers, but is also in a position to compare the internal solutions with those in the Cloud outsourced to create a productive environment and generate real added value for the company.

Scalability is therefore at the top of the list of requirements, along with safety.

The future belongs to intelligent networks

This model of hybrid Cloud is now favored by most providers, as it offers customers a high degree of flexibility. The leading market research companies also see this concept gaining ground in the business sector, because hardly any company will completely replace existing solutions that have been in use for years by Cloud-based replace.

According to Tim Minahan, chief marketing officer (CMO) and senior vice president responsible for Ariba's global network strategy, intelligent networks are the future because they connect environments and systems, while accelerating many operations and providing dedicated Analyses for a transparent presentation of the increase in value that can be Cloud-based processes can be achieved.

For him, such networks are virtually the "Rosetta Stone" that can be used to identify and classify processes.

"In the past, it was important for companies to connect with each other. But the future belongs to intelligent solutions that enable companies to expand their business options in a targeted and timely manner without much effort"

Tim Minahan says.

Petra Adamik lives and works in Munich. For 25 years she has been free Journalist in the field of Information Technology with a focus on enterprise software. She represents E-3 Magazine as a correspondent and also writes as an expert author for leading print and online media as well as agencies and industrial companies in Germany, Austria and the Switzerland.