VMware versus SAP

SAP has an unofficial strategy and vision that originated over ten years ago. Two outstanding events should be mentioned here that many E-3 readers will probably still remember - my column did not exist at that time:

Linux will become another operating system platform for R/3, along with Microsoft Windows and the Unix derivatives. And former Chief Technology Officer Shai Agassi presented SAP's NetWeaver middleware in New York City.

Linux has grown into a broad open source movement in Walldorf, and Linux is the singular operating system for Hana and S/4, giving SAP a lasting blow against Windows Server and Unix.

Microsoft has made excellent progress in developing a stable operating system for the data center after the first attempts with Windows NT. Windows Server is enterprise-ready.

Too late? Too slow? The fact is that future S/4 data centers will use Linux exclusively. This is not a victory for the Walldorf-based company that brings in a lot of revenue, but it is an outstanding, strategic victory.

Will we see a similar repeat with Hana against IBM DB2, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server? Probably yes - similar to how NetWeaver triumphed over IBM WebSphere.

And the new topics are already visible on the horizon: The open source project Ceph will stir up the storage sector. EMC (now Dell) and NetApp will react in a wait-and-see manner.

In summary: SAP has a good strategy to completely take over the IT stack - either through its own products (NetWeaver, Hana, SolMan) or through partnerships with smaller companies (Red Hat, Suse Linux, etc.) or communities (open source).

There are exceptions:

Intel was, is and will remain an important and powerful ally of the Walldorf-based company. The same applies to IBM. Here it is naturally a bit ambivalent - there DB2 Blu versus Hana; here Power on Hana (HoP).

We now have our first dedicated power servers for Hana and I hear nothing but good things from the base. The performance is significantly better than Intel Xeon, so I asked my Head of CCC to create a TCO.

My experience tells me that IBM will win the race against Intel here. At our global SAP Center of Excellence kick-off, the sympathy for HoP was clear.

Surprisingly, the biggest drag is IBM itself. Obviously, the management is not quite sure about the strategy with (HoP) or against (DB2 Blu) SAP - two souls seem to be wrestling in IBM's chest.

After the liberation from Intel servers, consolidation stalled. When IBM is in our house, it always leaves a chaotic picture: Many cooks spoil the broth!

SAP, on the other hand, currently knows exactly what's hot: all power to Walldorf and more revenue via higher and new licenses - as well as the conquest of the entire IT stack.

But the first obstacle is already looming. A year ago, there was still the bold plan to build a virtual base landscape for the Hana platform with Linux and Xen or KVM - but VMware is not backing down.

After harmonization, consolidation, automation, and virtualization, the latter has a completely different strategic significance in our data centers than ERP, CRM, SCM, etc. A consistent virtualization architecture affects the entire IT infrastructure and not just the SAP part.

The whole counts more than the individual. I can't see us abandoning our holistic VMware architecture in favor of a Linux/Xen or KVM solution preferred by Hana.

In the future, SAP will have to share the IT stack with another powerful IT provider. And this means that SolMan will also be adapted a bit.

The new SolMan version 7.2 clearly shows the strategy and legacy of Gerd Oswald.

I happened to attend an internal basic lecture at our US headquarters because a visit from Apple Computer was cancelled. I don't know much about SAP system administration anymore, but I was interested to see the increased functionality of 7.2 and the elimination of external tools.

This SolMan relaunch will also be the topic of our SAP regulars' table because it has lasting business and strategic significance. Of course, SolMan will remain in the territory of the respective CCC leader, but functions such as testing, BPM, documentation, etc. will require combined teams. A bimodal transformation should then be completed in the SolMan environment.

To this end, I have assigned two student workers to harmonize DevOps and SolMan infrastructure. I am confident, even though I see further dependency on SAP.

VMware versus SAP will require a compromise, but with the new SolMan, the Walldorf-based company is capturing another big piece of the IT pie. We remain vigilant!