S/4HANA in the public cloud
At the latest since the introduction of S/4HANA the use of SAP is inextricably linked with the question of suitable hosting. The cloud-native orientation of the ERP suite is forcing the replacement of previous on-premises structures, but which cloud should it be? For a long time, IT managers had an ambivalent relationship with the public cloud. It often served as a flexible test environment, but the operation of the ERP system via the servers of AWS, Microsoft, Google and Co. was viewed rather skeptically.
That has changed: Companies are increasingly using S/4HANA in the public cloud. This brings them a whole range of benefits - but also requires detailed planning to avoid unpleasant surprises.
The advantages: Availability, flexibility, scalability and services
For operation in the Public Cloud The first arguments in favor of S/4HANA are infrastructural: As the central hub for all ERP processes, S/4HANA in the public cloud can be scaled easily and quickly as needed; reserved instances ensure that sufficient capacity is always available, and dynamic pricing models provide for usage-based billing instead of rigid flat rates.
Availability also plays a key role in productive systems. Internationally active companies benefit from global access to a uniform cloud platform, which brings the individual locations closer together via a globally used, uniform ERP system and creates enormous optimization potential for all processes.
Another advantage: The ERP environment becomes more flexible and efficient. The service portfolio of the hyperscalers enables the automation of system operation and processes, and in the public cloud environment, new function modules for S/4HANA can be tested, deployed and rolled out company-wide even faster.
But in addition to improved infrastructure and cost-effectiveness, the public cloud offers one thing above all: innovation potential. Numerous platform services from hyperscalers, some of which are tailored to SAP solutions, help companies to improve their ERP processes with the aid of technologies such as IoT, machine learning, AI or Analytics continuously optimize and derive maximum benefit from their S/4HANA data.
The challenges: Effort, complexity, expertise
S/4HANA is the platform on which all important business and planning processes converge. Migrating this "control center" to the public cloud involves an enormous amount of work that has to be monitored at every stage of the project - especially in terms of costs. As efficient as operation in the public cloud can be, the calculation of the total expenditure for the move is often not transparent. In addition to external costs such as consulting services and internal resources such as personnel expenses, this should ideally also take into account later usage models. This is because special regulations often apply in connection with SAP with regard to regular benchmarking or service level agreements.
The topic of "costing" reveals a fundamental problem: Many companies use S/4HANA on a daily basis, but "only" at the end-user level. When it comes to migrating the ERP suite as a complex overall structure, internal IT quickly reaches its limits. That is why it is advisable to work with an experienced service provider such as Syntax, which has extensive SAP and cloud expertise. Together with the customer, the service provider develops a comprehensive strategy, because the public cloud is much more than just a new operating environment for ERP software - and must be planned accordingly for the long term.
S/4HANA in the cloud - a practical example
Smart Press Shop (SPS) recently set up the world's most modern press store for car body parts with support from Syntax. The forming specialist is using a combination of SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud for Execution and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Essentials. Since both solutions run entirely in the cloud, SPS does not need its own server capacity or an on-site IT team. And because Syntax takes over the operation of the systems as part of managed services, SPS can concentrate fully on its core business - the production of car body parts.
More information about the project is available here.
