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SAP on Azure: What you should know about moving to the cloud

Let Dimension Data help you successfully move to the cloud through their Embrace initiative.

Johannesburg, 02 Mar 2021

SAP and Microsoft have joined forces to move on-premises SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) and SAP S/4HANA customers to the cloud with an initiative called Embrace. But what are the reasons for this and why should SAP customers consider the move?

Cloud adoption has reached a tipping point, with more deployment happening in the public cloud than on-premises, and this includes business-critical workloads like SAP.

As organisations look to modernise and transform their business processes to support digital commerce, they’re also discovering that the agility, flexibility and durability of Azure are essential to support these initiatives.

Because SAP is at the centre of the data processing capabilities of many organisations, it’s a priority for SAP to move to Azure as part of the digital transformation process.

Consider the following if you’re weighing up the decision:

  • Agility

The ability to quickly deploy and decommission cloud infrastructure means that organisations can move more rapidly in business ventures with less risk of project disruption.

  • Innovation

Microsoft innovates Azure services at a rapid pace, which is unmatched by most organisations. This means that the presence in Azure allows organisations to utilise these innovations while focusing on their innovations for industry/market-differentiating products and features.

  • Management

Using managed services to keep the SAP landscape running at maximum efficiency means organisations can focus on business activities that add more value.

  • Integration

Cloud residency means that organisations can more easily and rapidly integrate between their systems as well as with industry-leading software as a service offerings.

  • Future SAP transformation

For organisations that are still running on legacy ECC systems, being resident in Azure means a far less risky and more cost-effective application migration to S4.

  • Complexity

Moving complex and critical workloads to the cloud is not a trivial task and requires careful analysis, planning and execution. This means skills and experience in migrating SAP and migrating to the cloud are crucial.

  • Commercials

Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is never cheaper on a server-by-server basis, so both architectural and other adjustments need to be made to justify the move.

  • How can Dimension Data assist?

Dimension Data has one of the most experienced SAP migration and managed services teams in Africa and the Middle East and has migrated and is operating more than 20 SAP clients in the cloud.

It has tried-and-tested migration and operational methodologies and prides itself on the resilience and quality of its managed services. Dimension Data is a premier partner of SAP and Microsoft, with global certifications for managing SAP in Azure.

It is ideally positioned to assist organisations realise the benefits of moving – namely an improved total economic impact, greater business agility, reduced operational and platform risk, increased ease of transformation and on-demand access to a larger service and technology ecosystem.  

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