Self-Discovery With RISE With SAP

SAP RISE contracts vs. SAP RISE technology

It is well known that there is no single, all-encompassing RISE contract at SAP. RISE with SAP is intended to pave the way to the cloud, but many hurdles lie ahead of the traveler. In simple terms, the S/4 release change under RISE consists of two sections: the migration request and the rental agreement. The first RISE contract regulates the conversion process, during which things can also go wrong.

The second part of the RISE contract covers cloud computing subscriptions. However, these subscriptions are completely independent of whether cloud space is obtained or used. In the worst-case scenario, this means paying expensive rent for unused cloud space after a failed S/4 conversion.

However, RISE contracts and RISE technology differ in other ways. While a RISE subscription contract is a new challenge for SAP on-prem customers, the ERP code remains largely identical. From a technical perspective, there is very little difference between proven ERP/ECC 6.0 code and S/4 code. A member of the SAP community wrote to E3 magazine: "The code line is the same. SAP RISE Private Cloud Edition has no cloud features whatsoever. There is no dynamic scaling, no containers, and no microservice architecture. It's managed hosting by SAP, which bypasses tendering processes when switching hosting providers."

SAP Cloud, on-prem or hyperscaler

What's the difference between RISE Private Cloud Edition, on-prem, and SAP ERP on Azure? The answer lies in the contractual conditions! SAP's internal attempt to consolidate the uncontrolled growth and chaos of previous ERP contracts is cloud computing. There are hardly any on-prem ERP contracts that are the same. Negotiations for SAP purchase agreements were highly individualized, with discounts of up to 90 percent.

Cloud computing and the new subscription-based contracts are a unique opportunity for SAP to address legacy issues and standardize contracts with customers. However, it's doubtful that SAP Public Cloud is really the best ERP operating model. However, for SAP, this standardization is a significant added value and a unique stroke of luck.

This means that on-prem operating models and hyperscaler scenarios will still be permitted at SAP in the future, provided that these ERP architectures are based on a cloud contract. This closes the circle, and the argument is: RISE with SAP. From SAP's perspective, RISE is a relaunch of all customer contracts; it is the comprehensive contract harmonization in the SAP legal department.

SAP RISE vs. on-prem and hyperscaler

RISE is an ERP contract status that grants customers numerous rights. RISE is not a business, organizational, or technical concept that goes beyond S/4 Hana. Here's another voice from the SAP community: "Technically unfounded restrictions, such as those in Joule, only exist for RISE with SAP but not for SAP on Azure, even if they run in the same data center. If you examine this in detail, it may even be anti-competitive in the EU."

Therefore, SAP RISE is an adequate contractual framework, but not a technical innovation that could deliver added value to SAP customers. SAP does not switch on more virtual CPUs in the event of bottlenecks. This has not been uncommon in SAP's own data center for decades. Many SAP customers already have more cloud properties than RISE Private Cloud Edition offers.