SAP's Cloud Strategy Requires Provider Management

No doubt about it. The cloud is unbeatable when it comes to flexibility. Need more resources? No problem. Procurement processes and costs? Negligible. Just a few mouse clicks and the Hana database has 20 percent more capacity, while four new S/4 Hana instances halve the response times of power users. Hyperscalers have made setting up and expanding infrastructures for even the most demanding enterprise applications an online shopping experience. This also means less administration.

Flexibility and simplicity

Brave new world. Or not quite? The fact is that the advantages such as flexibility, simplicity and ease of use come at a price. Although many tasks for the SAP Basis team are eliminated, they are not without replacement. Regardless of whether existing SAP customers decide to operate their S/4 Hana system in the SAP cloud or with one of the well-known hyperscalers, new tasks are involved. And these not only need to be mastered, but also learned and managed.

Most existing SAP customers have already taken this path - usually outside of the SAP Basis team. They are using more and more peripheral systems and services in and from the cloud - a data lake for IoT data at one hyperscaler, Salesforce at another, SuccessFactors and BTP in the SAP cloud, Git and GitHub for the development department, various cloud services, for example for current exchange rates or weather data, etc. - and soon S/4 Hana too.

Cloud IT landscapes are more complex to administer. The reason is simple: offers in and from the cloud are worthwhile for providers if they cover the lowest common denominator of customer requirements, no less, but also no more. But every company is unique. That is precisely what makes the difference in competition and ensures success.

In the on-prem world, this uniqueness is mapped in the SAP system. In the cloud world, existing SAP customers must increasingly close the gap between individuality and standard outside of SAP. Whereas they were previously able to design the lifecycle of their individual SAP landscape themselves, in future the control will lie with the providers. Consequently, it is important to know, manage and optimally coordinate the lifecycles of all components of the IT landscape.

Test, test, test

To do this, they use a separate ticketing tool for each individual component - including their own. They have to keep an eye on all deadlines, keep up to date with changes to the provider's offering and, above all, test, test, test. Because every change made by a provider or every new in-house development can lead to interfaces no longer working and entire functionalities and processes failing.

IT teams also need to organize monitoring for the entire IT landscape across the cloud in order to ensure the required performance and security, but also to monitor the agreed SLAs. Finally, they need to maintain personal contact with the provider service, as not every request can be handled via self-service.

Provider Management

SAP customers should prepare for these scenarios and tasks today rather than tomorrow. They can use their existing knowledge of cloud services and, above all, their management to train their SAP administrators. They should acquire new know-how, whether through training, new personnel or with the help of partners who can help them implement successful provider management. Partners who host complex SAP landscapes and therefore act as providers themselves are particularly suitable for this.

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