There’s no doubt about it: The future of enterprise IT is on the cloud. The cloud offers unprecedented flexibility, scalability, and opportunities for innovation—all critical capabilities needed to navigate today’s fast-changing business landscape and maintain a competitive edge.
Getting there, however, is a complex process that can be fraught with unexpected costs, disruption, and other business risks. Enterprises need the right expert support services and technology tools to navigate these challenges with confidence and optimize transformation value.
Protera’s VP of Application Transformation, Binoy James, and CTO Nick Militech recently partnered with AWS Senior Solution Architect Archana Kuppuswamy to discuss how organizations can enhance and accelerate cloud migration by utilizing RISE with SAP on AWS, and modernizing business processes with SAP’s Business Technology Platform (BTP).
They also outline how Protera’s comprehensive SAP and cloud support services help to deliver seamless migration experiences and enable clients to maximize value on their SAP investments.
This article will recap their discussion, its key takeaways, and important considerations for IT leaders who are currently considering or actively planning an SAP cloud migration.
Want to watch the full webinar? Access it here.
Quick Takeaways:
-
AWS has the longest track record for supporting SAP in the cloud; it hosts more BTP services and has more publicly available regions supporting BTP on AWS than any other cloud provider.
-
AWS provides direct funding for qualified enterprise clients to get expert RISE with SAP on AWS migration support.
-
SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is the ultimate platform for driving enterprise innovation and is a timely investment as SAP PI/PO approaches end-of-life in 2027.
-
Protera offers industry-leading RISE with SAP migration services and supports BTP-led innovation via SAP managed services, serving as a liaison between SAP, AWS, and the client at every stage.
-
Protera elevates SAP value by offering holistic support for hybrid infrastructures that include RISE with SAP, cloud-native SAP, and non-SAP components.
Strategic Alignment of RISE with SAP on AWS
SAP and AWS have a longstanding working partnership that has been a cornerstone of enterprise cloud transformation for more than a decade. Today AWS's global presence, coupled with SAP's robust ERP capabilities, create a powerful synergy that benefits thousands of businesses globally.
AWS is now committed to helping SAP organizations modernize via RISE with SAP, as demonstrated by the dedicated funding they provide for expert third-party migration support from AWS and SAP corporate partners. That’s where Protera comes in—providing industry-leading, comprehensive services for migrating SAP ERP systems seamlessly to the AWS cloud.
Protera’s extensive experience and working partnerships with both SAP and AWS ensure enterprises can manage their ERP migrations with confidence at every stage, mitigating common IT risks while optimizing time and cost efficiencies and reaching peak performance potential.
Protera’s Approach to SAP Cloud Migration
The value framework for cloud transformation via RISE with SAP is rooted in the flywheel model. It emphasizes continuous innovation adoption to “push the flywheel” and build momentum to accelerate and compound strategic benefits to the company.
Protera’s methodology is designed to align with this framework, reducing operational costs at every turn and streamlining historically hard-to-manage aspects of enterprise IT like vendor management, software maintenance, IT service costs, and system upgrades.
Protera also automates critical processes around security and compliance, data management, business continuity so IT teams can stay laser-focused on strategic innovation.
A typical RISE with SAP migration with Protera takes about 6-9 months, depending on the client’s current state and specific needs, and it happens in the following stages:
Contracting and Business Alignment
-
Initial Engagement: Begins with a comprehensive consultation to understand the client's specific needs, objectives, and existing IT landscape..
-
Alignment: Ensure both Protera’s and the client’s teams are aligned on the goals, timelines, and responsibilities for the migration project.
-
Contract Finalization: Formalize agreements and establish a clear project plan, including key milestones and deliverables.
Discovery and Planning
-
Detailed Assessment: Conduct an in-depth analysis of the current SAP environment, including all associated systems and workflows.
-
Architecture Design: Design a tailored cloud architecture that meets the unique requirements of the client’s operations and strategic goals.
-
Migration Strategy: Develop a detailed migration plan, incorporating risk assessments, resource allocation, and contingency plans.
Migrate and Manage
-
Sandbox Testing: Initiate the migration with a sandbox environment to test and validate the migration strategy, identifying any potential issues early.
-
Mock Production Run: Execute a mock migration in a controlled environment to ensure all systems function correctly and to refine the process before the final cutover.
-
Production Cutover: Perform the actual migration during a planned downtime, typically over a weekend, to minimize business disruption.
-
Post-Migration Validation: Work closely with SAP to validate the migrated systems, ensuring all functionalities are intact and performance standards are met.
-
Disaster Recovery Testing: Implement and test disaster recovery processes to ensure robust business continuity measures are in place.
-
Ongoing Support: Provide continuous support and management services to maintain optimal system performance and address any post-migration issues promptly.
At every stage, Protera serves as a liaison between the client, SAP, and AWS. This takes the burden of oversight from the client, keeps planned migrations on track, and addresses issues before they arise to accelerate value realization.
Reimagining Business Processes with SAP BTP
Cloud migration is only the first step in an ongoing commitment to IT innovation—one that can be enhanced using SAP BTP to reimagine and modernize business processes and drive innovation through BTP’s key areas of focus:
-
Application Development: BTP allows businesses to expand and customize applications outside the core SAP S/4HANA system, enabling tailored solutions that meet specific business needs.
-
Automation and Workflows: With tools like RPA and other workflow automation capabilities, BTP helps automate the functioning of SAP systems.
-
Integration: BTP replaces legacy PI/PO systems, offering seamless integration with both external and internal systems, including business partners.
-
Data Analytics: BTP provides powerful data analytics capabilities, enabling businesses to extract data from SAP systems and make it available across multiple data solutions.
-
Artificial Intelligence: SAP BTP leverages AI and machine learning to power next-level business operations and decision-making processes within SAP systems.Adopting SAP BTP is crucial and timely for SAP organizations as SAP PI/PO nears its end-of-life in 2027, necessitating a well-planned replacement strategy. The SAP Integration Suite on BTP offers a logical transition, and Protera provides essential support services related to integration, extensibility, and data management on the platform.
Must-Have Services to Support RISE with SAP and BTP on AWS
Protera brings significant experience in implementing SAP systems on RISE with SAP as well as BTP for all your integration, extensibility, and data needs. This is supplemented with our SAP and BTP monitoring platform as part of our SAP managed services, providing customers with complete peace of mind knowing their critical IT and business systems portfolio is in good hands. These services include:
Holistic Support for Non-SAP and Hybrid
Protera elevates SAP services by offering enhanced support for hybrid infrastructures that include RISE with SAP, cloud-native SAP, and non-SAP components. This level of holistic service offering is particularly critical for clients with complex infrastructures because it bridges gaps between SAP standard support and more nuanced client needs. It ensures SAP environments not only run smoothly and efficiently, but are aligned with each organization’s unique business requirements.
Protera Watchdog
Protera Watchdog is an AWS- and SAP-certified monitoring and cloud automation platform that provides robust tools for managing and maintaining IT environments. Features include:
-
Reporting and Alerts: Monthly and quarterly reporting, customized alerts aligned with business requirements, detailed landscape information, and real-time daily checks.
-
Deployment and Ease of Use: RISE with SAP certified, with ease of configuration, trend analysis, and auto-fix capabilities for preemptive issue resolution.
-
Security and Audits: Comprehensive audit and compliance checks, including change reports, security notes, and certificate validity checks.
-
Single Pane of Glass View: Ability to monitor RISE, native cloud, and on-prem environments through a single interface, providing a holistic view of the entire IT landscape. This includes customized dashboards tailored to each customer’s specific environment.
By leveraging the full capabilities of Protera’s RISE with SAP and BTP, supported by AWS infrastructure and utilizing Protera’s expert services before, during, and after migration, enterprises can transform their IT ecosystems to achieve the innovation and agility required to thrive in competitive environments.
Gain deeper insight into these topics by watching the full webinar on The Power of RISE with SAP and BTP on AWS.