Now, with the introduction of the public cloud (IaaS), these time-tested criteria are no longer relevant in helping clients assess each alternative.
There are many relevant aspects to consider choosing the best cloud for SAP implementations. The following are a few essential aspects SAP clients have to take into account while evaluating hosting solutions.
Cost
In just about all circumstances, the cost is one of the most important considerations. Successful businesses are cost-efficient. While choosing the right cloud you have to consider several other factors such as migration funds, discounts, and business contracts that will affect the price.
Understand how your Hyperscaler views cost before committing as this also helps you get a better picture of future costs. Metered pricing on the hyperscale infrastructure is a massive advantage. However, make sure you’re properly tracking and controlling these variable expenses.
Reliability
Users view the cloud to be more robust than on-premise solutions. However, as far as applications like SAP are concerned all clouds are not the same.
Looking into the hyperscalers’ total downtime during the last 12-18 months will give you a better idea about future performance than SLAs.
So, choose the most stable service that can withstand unplanned downtime. Currently, AWS and Google Cloud Platform are on-par and both are superior to Azure.
Speed of innovation
Cloud infrastructure is undergoing rapid changes to accommodate the rapid data influx. IT strategies of businesses must foresee at least 10 years into the future. Any long-term strategy choice must consider the most innovative system.
AWS is now the pioneer in bringing fresh ideas and technologies to market promptly. Some claim that AWS is now one to two years ahead of its rivals. This means that by the time it reaches other cloud providers, the technology they deploy will have already run its course and been discontinued.
Azure describes itself as one of the market’s “rapid followers,” which is a significant yet secure position.
Despite being excellent at what it does concerning data services and other areas, Google does not have the same level of innovation and market devotion in its cloud operation as its competitors.
Performance
One of the main issues end users generally face with SAP is inadequate performance.
Providing adequate performance when required is one of the key advantages of an IT department. Thus it is crucial to incorporate your systems with the right performant platform.
When it comes to both computing performance and storage, AWS has always been at the forefront. AWS incorporates the nitro hypervisor, which provides superior performance. Additionally, AWS is also rolling out its own high-performing and cost-efficient chipsets.
All of this is a testament to AWS’s superior performance.
Ecosystem
The open API feature of the public cloud lets developers from around the world code in the application programming interface. This goes on to show the innovation hyperscalers provide for their customers.
With AWS, users have access to third-party capabilities. AWS built their ecosystems using the “network effect” which refers to the improvement done on the platform due to the high number of customers.
Automation
Automation makes or breaks the deal and deserves more importance than almost all the other factors. Automation lets you complete tasks quickly, remotely, and automatically with the best quality.
The best way to avoid manual errors is through automation. It’ll get rid of human mistakes and make sure there is a dependable and repeatable method for creating and maintaining the SAP infrastructure.
This higher quality ensures that you can reduce the noise in the environment and reduce the amount of work and cost to maintain the system.
Furthermore, automation also improves agility.
