Cloud computing (which later became known as just Cloud), one of the technology trends since last few years, has become a game-changer. Cloud offered a platform for organizations not just to host their applications but also to maintain it / manage it and charge organizations on a pay-per-usage model. This translated into getting rid of the Capex (Capital expenditure on hardware/servers) and instead, opting for the flexible Opex (Operating Expenses) model which also helped organizations in slashing the manpower budget.

The biggest advantage of Cloud is its scalability – freedom to add/reduce storage/compute/network bandwidth as per the need within an agreed SLA-framework.

The rise of Cloud adoption led to two categories:

Cloud as a hosting platform
Cloud-based software/applications

Cloud as a hosting platform

This is more popularly known as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) wherein the service provider offers bundled services of Compute, Storage, Network & Security requirements.

Cloud providers deliver a computing platform, typically including operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. Application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.

Based on the deployment options, Cloud is classified under Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud, which vary due to security considerations.

Why AWS

With some PaaS providers like AWS, the underlying compute and storage resources scale automatically to match application demand so that the cloud user does not have to allocate resources manually. They use a load balancer which distributes network or application traffic across a cluster of servers. Load balancing improves responsiveness and increases availability of applications.

As per a 2020 IDC study, over 85% of customers report cost reduction by running SAP on AWS.

Get consulting support, training, and services credits to migrate eligible SAP workloads with the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP).

AWS has been running SAP workloads since 2008, meaningfully longer than any other cloud provider. AWS offers the broadest selection of SAP-certified, cloud-native instance types to give SAP customers the flexibility to support their unique and changing needs.

Whether you choose to lift and shift existing investments to reduce costs, modernize business processes with native AWS services, or transform on S/4HANA, reimagining is possible with SAP on AWS.

When you choose AWS, you will be joining 5,000+ customers who trust the experience, technology, and partner community of AWS to migrate, modernize, and transform their SAP landscapes.

AWS & Sify collaboration

While AWS has been a global leader in Public Cloud services, in India Sify Technologies (one of the pioneers in the ICT domain & India’s first SSAE-16 Cloud certified provider) had designed its own Cloud called ‘CloudInfinit’ way back in 2013 and since then has been helping diverse organizations in moving their ERP applications, especially SAP workloads to its Cloud, seamlessly.

With Sify’s cloud@core strategy, customers can enjoy all facets of Cloud with complete visibility and control.

SIFY’s SAP deployment flexibility ON CLOUD

SAP on AWS hybrid cloud solutions

Use Cases

Lifecycle Distribution: Separate Development and Test Environments
Workload Distribution
High Availability Deployments

Business Benefits

Best of breed performance with Hybrid Cloud configuration
Efficient integrations with extended ecosystems
Compliance with data sovereignty
Business continuity with resilience
Simplicity with self service
Operational efficiency with reduced IT administration
Cost reduction with on-demand bursting to public clouds

Migration methodology

For SAP Migrations from on-premises or from any other Cloud to AWS, depending on various parameters like Prod. database size, available downtime window, source/target operating system/database, connectivity/link speed etc., we have been using various ways for seamless migration briefly explained below.

SAP SYSTEMS monitoring

Once SAP workloads are moved to AWS, Sify’s Managed Services takes care of every aspect, including monitoring the Operating System, Database, Connectivity, Security, Backup etc. as per the agreed SLAs. It also monitors the mission-critical SAP systems closely as depicted in diagram below.

Conclusion

Cloud, the scalable, flexible and yet robust hosting platform allows you to use your ERP workloads as well as SaaS applications effectively. Going by the increasing number of customers moving to Cloud, it is certain that Cloud is not vaporware, it is here to stay and only to grow bigger and safer by the day! It would also necessitate organizations to chart out a Smart Cloud strategy.