Skip to Content

Why there has never been a better time to migrate SAP to the AWS cloud

Jason Hatch
2018-06-04

What is holding you back? It’s a question we often ask our clients as they consider the next steps for their SAP environments and cloud adoption strategy. The responses often fall between:

  1. “ … it is such a vital IT landscape for us … we cannot afford any downtime or security failures”
  2. “ … we are worried about what will break during the move … ”
  3. “ … How much and what kind of resources will I need, how do I size this …”

No more excuses

You have probably spent years or even decades stabilizing SAP systems and you are probably not anxious to disturb them. But based on a study from former SAP analyst Derek Prior, who spent decades covering SAP for Gartner, more than 50% of SAP customers did not achieve the desired results across time, budget and value factors. And yes, upgrading or implementing SAP does introduce uncertainty across cost, effort, security, downtime, resources, etc. And yes, the transformation is complex and can be costly – unless it is done right – then it is completely worth it.

Capgemini was one of the first global system integrators to migrate SAP on AWS around 2011. Seven years later, and we now have established specific migration approaches for SAP environments – whether it be a homogenous or heterogeneous system migration. On the other end, AWS has the largest portfolio of certified SAP offerings and the most complete set of HANA-certified offerings of any cloud provider. They have the security, SAP certifications, infrastructure, and customer support. They provide the ability to provision environments in minutes/hours and consume them in an on-demand payment method that provide the desired results across the above factors.

Combined, Capgemini and AWS understand your business processes end-to-end and make sure you have all the systems, people, process and technology enabled to achieve the desired results on above mentioned factors.

The 2025 dilemma

There is also pressure coming from establishments for transformation. In addition to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into force on May 25, SAP’s mainstream maintenance of Business Suite (and Business Suite on HANA) will soon come to an end. In fact, they recently announced a new strategy for innovation that requires customers to move their existing deployments to the new platform and in-memory database and associated platform and technology by 2025. This means that 100% of existing SAP customers are now making decisions about how they will move to the new SAP offerings before they lose support – and most of these are looking to move to AWS. Why? AWS currently has thousands of SAP customers running SAP on AWS. They have hundreds of global and multi-national customers running mission-critical SAP production workloads on an enterprise scale including Seaco, Lockheed Martin and Tata Motors, Liberty Mutual, Lion’s Gate, Kellogg’s, Bose, Zappos, Brooks Brothers, GE Oil & Gas, etc…

The real benefits

Still not convinced? Perhaps we need to take a step back and look at the benefits – the real benefits – of making the big jump. When we hear why clients want to migrate, we hear about cost savings. While that is absolutely an important factor to consider, there is so much more to it. As there is an overall improvement on how your business is run, certain benefits such as scalability, speed and flexibility start to emerge.

  1. You will be able to scale systems accordingly, without having to worry about how to accommodate growth.
  2. You will see an increase in performance
  3. You will be able to add users, functionality or applications to your system without having to worry how it will impact your timeline
  4. You will be able to spin up, spin down or change the configuration of your environment seamlessly
  5. You will have a stable platform for future growth options in the areas of IoT, ML, AI.

It really is a no brainer at this point

Making the move

How to start is always difficult. But with Capgemini supporting your migration, the “how” is easy. We have an end-to-end portfolio of services to guide your migration journey, quickly and securely. Our approach is clearly appreciated as our receipt of the 2018 SAP Customers’ Choice Partner of the Year Pinnacle Award and AWS SAP Competency testifies to. We’re also positioned as a Leader in Gartner’s 2018 “Magic Quadrant for SAP Application Services, Worldwide.”

Get in touch

I am happy to talk to you about including cloud as part of your SAP adoption strategy! For more information, read our Point of View: Get Ahead, Stay Ahead

        <div class="pf_forms__container ">
                        <form id="pf_form_356660" class="pf_form__form" action="" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
                        <div class="pf_field pf_field--text pf-required" data-validate="text">
            <label for="_pf_356660_7453">First Name                 &nbsp;<span class="pf-required--symbol"> * </span></label>
            <input type="text" id="_pf_356660_7453" class="pf_field__input empty" name="_pf_356660_7453" required="">
        </div>
                <div class="pf_field pf_field--text pf-required" data-validate="text">
            <label for="_pf_356660_5974">Last Name                  &nbsp;<span class="pf-required--symbol"> * </span></label>
            <input type="text" id="_pf_356660_5974" class="pf_field__input empty" name="_pf_356660_5974" required="">
        </div>
                <div class="pf_field pf_field--text pf-required" data-validate="text">
            <label for="_pf_356660_6249">Company                    &nbsp;<span class="pf-required--symbol"> * </span></label>
            <input type="text" id="_pf_356660_6249" class="pf_field__input empty" name="_pf_356660_6249" required="">
        </div>
                <div class="pf_field pf_field--email pf-required" data-validate="email">
            <label for="_pf_356660_2070">Corporate Email                    &nbsp;<span class="pf-required--symbol"> * </span>              </label>
            <input type="email" id="_pf_356660_2070" class="pf_field__input empty" name="_pf_356660_2070" required="">
        </div>
                <div class="pf_field pf_field--tel " data-validate="tel">
            <label for="_pf_356660_1262">Phone                                  </label>
            <input type="tel" id="_pf_356660_1262" class="pf_field__input empty" name="_pf_356660_1262" pattern="^[0-9-+s()]*$">
        </div>
                <div class="pf_field pf_field--country pf-required">
            <label for="_pf_356660_5707">Country                    &nbsp;<span class="pf-required--symbol"> * </span>              </label>
            <select id="_pf_356660_5707" class="pf_field__input empty select2-hidden-accessible" name="_pf_356660_5707" data-validate="select" required="" tabindex="-1" aria-hidden="false">
                                        <option value=""></option>
                                        <option value="AF">Afghanistan</option>
                                        <option value="AX">Aland Islands</option>
                                        <option value="AL">Albania</option>
                                        <option value="DZ">Algeria</option>
                                        <option value="AS">American Samoa</option>
                                        <option value="AD">Andorra</option>
                                        <option value="AO">Angola</option>
                                        <option value="AI">Anguilla</option>
                                        <option value="AQ">Antarctica</option>
                                        <option value="AG">Antigua And Barbuda</option>
                                        <option value="AR">Argentina</option>
                                        <option value="AM">Armenia</option>
                                        <option value="AW">Aruba</option>
                                        <option value="AU">Australia</option>
                                        <option value="AT">Austria</option>
                                        <option value="AZ">Azerbaijan</option>
                                        <option value="BS">Bahamas</option>
                                        <option value="BH">Bahrain</option>
                                        <option value="BD">Bangladesh</option>
                                        <option value="BB">Barbados</option>
                                        <option value="BY">Belarus</option>
                                        <option value="BE">Belgium</option>
                                        <option value="BZ">Belize</option>
                                        <option value="BJ">Benin</option>
                                        <option value="BM">Bermuda</option>
                                        <option value="BT">Bhutan</option>
                                        <option value="BO">Bolivia</option>
                                        <option value="BA">Bosnia And Herzegovina</option>
                                        <option value="BW">Botswana</option>
                                        <option value="BV">Bouvet Island</option>
                                        <option value="BR">Brazil</option>
                                        <option value="IO">British Indian Ocean Territory</option>
                                        <option value="BN">Brunei Darussalam</option>
                                        <option value="BG">Bulgaria</option>
                                        <option value="BF">Burkina Faso</option>
                                        <option value="BI">Burundi</option>
                                        <option value="KH">Cambodia</option>
                                        <option value="CM">Cameroon</option>
                                        <option value="CA">Canada</option>
                                        <option value="CV">Cape Verde</option>
                                        <option value="KY">Cayman Islands</option>
                                        <option value="CF">Central African Republic</option>
                                        <option value="TD">Chad</option>
                                        <option value="CL">Chile</option>
                                        <option value="CN">China</option>
                                        <option value="CX">Christmas Island</option>
                                        <option value="CC">Cocos (Keeling) Islands</option>
                                        <option value="CO">Colombia</option>
                                        <option value="KM">Comoros</option>
                                        <option value="CG">Congo</option>
                                        <option value="CD">Congo, Democratic Republic</option>
                                        <option value="CK">Cook Islands</option>
                                        <option value="CR">Costa Rica</option>
                                        <option value="CI">Cote D'Ivoire</option>
                                        <option value="HR">Croatia</option>
                                        <option value="CU">Cuba</option>
                                        <option value="CY">Cyprus</option>
                                        <option value="CZ">Czech Republic</option>
                                        <option value="DK">Denmark</option>
                                        <option value="DJ">Djibouti</option>
                                        <option value="DM">Dominica</option>
                                        <option value="DO">Dominican Republic</option>
                                        <option value="EC">Ecuador</option>
                                        <option value="EG">Egypt</option>
                                        <option value="SV">El Salvador</option>
                                        <option value="GQ">Equatorial Guinea</option>
                                        <option value="ER">Eritrea</option>
                                        <option value="EE">Estonia</option>
                                        <option value="ET">Ethiopia</option>
                                        <option value="FK">Falkland Islands (Malvinas)</option>
                                        <option value="FO">Faroe Islands</option>
                                        <option value="FJ">Fiji</option>
                                        <option value="FI">Finland</option>
                                        <option value="FR">France</option>
                                        <option value="GF">French Guiana</option>
                                        <option value="PF">French Polynesia</option>
                                        <option value="TF">French Southern Territories</option>
                                        <option value="GA">Gabon</option>
                                        <option value="GM">Gambia</option>
                                        <option value="GE">Georgia</option>
                                        <option value="DE">Germany</option>
                                        <option value="GH">Ghana</option>
                                        <option value="GI">Gibraltar</option>
                                        <option value="GR">Greece</option>
                                        <option value="GL">Greenland</option>
                                        <option value="GD">Grenada</option>
                                        <option value="GP">Guadeloupe</option>
                                        <option value="GU">Guam</option>
                                        <option value="GT">Guatemala</option>
                                        <option value="GG">Guernsey</option>
                                        <option value="GN">Guinea</option>
                                        <option value="GW">Guinea-Bissau</option>
                                        <option value="GY">Guyana</option>
                                        <option value="HT">Haiti</option>
                                        <option value="HM">Heard Island &amp; Mcdonald Islands</option>
                                        <option value="VA">Holy See (Vatican City State)</option>
                                        <option value="HN">Honduras</option>
                                        <option value="HK">Hong Kong</option>
                                        <option value="HU">Hungary</option>
                                        <option value="IS">Iceland</option>
                                        <option value="IN" selected="selected">India</option>
                                        <option value="ID">Indonesia</option>
                                        <option value="IR">Iran, Islamic Republic Of</option>
                                        <option value="IQ">Iraq</option>
                                        <option value="IE">Ireland</option>
                                        <option value="IM">Isle Of Man</option>
                                        <option value="IL">Israel</option>
                                        <option value="IT">Italy</option>
                                        <option value="JM">Jamaica</option>
                                        <option value="JP">Japan</option>
                                        <option value="JE">Jersey</option>
                                        <option value="JO">Jordan</option>
                                        <option value="KZ">Kazakhstan</option>
                                        <option value="KE">Kenya</option>
                                        <option value="KI">Kiribati</option>
                                        <option value="KR">Korea</option>
                                        <option value="KW">Kuwait</option>
                                        <option value="KG">Kyrgyzstan</option>
                                        <option value="LA">Lao People's Democratic Republic</option>
                                        <option value="LV">Latvia</option>
                                        <option value="LB">Lebanon</option>
                                        <option value="LS">Lesotho</option>
                                        <option value="LR">Liberia</option>
                                        <option value="LY">Libyan Arab Jamahiriya</option>
                                        <option value="LI">Liechtenstein</option>
                                        <option value="LT">Lithuania</option>
                                        <option value="LU">Luxembourg</option>
                                        <option value="MO">Macao</option>
                                        <option value="MK">Macedonia</option>
                                        <option value="MG">Madagascar</option>
                                        <option value="MW">Malawi</option>
                                        <option value="MY">Malaysia</option>
                                        <option value="MV">Maldives</option>
                                        <option value="ML">Mali</option>
                                        <option value="MT">Malta</option>
                                        <option value="MH">Marshall Islands</option>
                                        <option value="MQ">Martinique</option>
                                        <option value="MR">Mauritania</option>
                                        <option value="MU">Mauritius</option>
                                        <option value="YT">Mayotte</option>
                                        <option value="MX">Mexico</option>
                                        <option value="FM">Micronesia, Federated States Of</option>
                                        <option value="MD">Moldova</option>
                                        <option value="MC">Monaco</option>
                                        <option value="MN">Mongolia</option>
                                        <option value="ME">Montenegro</option>
                                        <option value="MS">Montserrat</option>
                                        <option value="MA">Morocco</option>
                                        <option value="MZ">Mozambique</option>
                                        <option value="MM">Myanmar</option>
                                        <option value="NA">Namibia</option>
                                        <option value="NR">Nauru</option>
                                        <option value="NP">Nepal</option>
                                        <option value="NL">Netherlands</option>
                                        <option value="AN">Netherlands Antilles</option>
                                        <option value="NC">New Caledonia</option>
                                        <option value="NZ">New Zealand</option>
                                        <option value="NI">Nicaragua</option>
                                        <option value="NE">Niger</option>
                                        <option value="NG">Nigeria</option>
                                        <option value="NU">Niue</option>
                                        <option value="NF">Norfolk Island</option>
                                        <option value="MP">Northern Mariana Islands</option>
                                        <option value="NO">Norway</option>
                                        <option value="OM">Oman</option>
                                        <option value="PK">Pakistan</option>
                                        <option value="PW">Palau</option>
                                        <option value="PS">Palestinian Territory, Occupied</option>
                                        <option value="PA">Panama</option>
                                        <option value="PG">Papua New Guinea</option>
                                        <option value="PY">Paraguay</option>
                                        <option value="PE">Peru</option>
                                        <option value="PH">Philippines</option>
                                        <option value="PN">Pitcairn</option>
                                        <option value="PL">Poland</option>
                                        <option value="PT">Portugal</option>
                                        <option value="PR">Puerto Rico</option>
                                        <option value="QA">Qatar</option>
                                        <option value="RE">Reunion</option>
                                        <option value="RO">Romania</option>
                                        <option value="RU">Russian Federation</option>
                                        <option value="RW">Rwanda</option>
                                        <option value="BL">Saint Barthelemy</option>
                                        <option value="SH">Saint Helena</option>
                                        <option value="KN">Saint Kitts And Nevis</option>
                                        <option value="LC">Saint Lucia</option>
                                        <option value="MF">Saint Martin</option>
                                        <option value="PM">Saint Pierre And Miquelon</option>
                                        <option value="VC">Saint Vincent And Grenadines</option>
                                        <option value="WS">Samoa</option>
                                        <option value="SM">San Marino</option>
                                        <option value="ST">Sao Tome And Principe</option>
                                        <option value="SA">Saudi Arabia</option>
                                        <option value="SN">Senegal</option>
                                        <option value="RS">Serbia</option>
                                        <option value="SC">Seychelles</option>
                                        <option value="SL">Sierra Leone</option>
                                        <option value="SG">Singapore</option>
                                        <option value="SK">Slovakia</option>
                                        <option value="SI">Slovenia</option>
                                        <option value="SB">Solomon Islands</option>
                                        <option value="SO">Somalia</option>
                                        <option value="ZA">South Africa</option>
                                        <option value="GS">South Georgia And Sandwich Isl.</option>
                                        <option value="ES">Spain</option>
                                        <option value="LK">Sri Lanka</option>
                                        <option value="SD">Sudan</option>
                                        <option value="SR">Suriname</option>
                                        <option value="SJ">Svalbard And Jan Mayen</option>
                                        <option value="SZ">Swaziland</option>
                                        <option value="SE">Sweden</option>
                                        <option value="CH">Switzerland</option>
                                        <option value="SY">Syrian Arab Republic</option>
                                        <option value="TW">Taiwan</option>
                                        <option value="TJ">Tajikistan</option>
                                        <option value="TZ">Tanzania</option>
                                        <option value="TH">Thailand</option>
                                        <option value="TL">Timor-Leste</option>
                                        <option value="TG">Togo</option>
                                        <option value="TK">Tokelau</option>
                                        <option value="TO">Tonga</option>
                                        <option value="TT">Trinidad And Tobago</option>
                                        <option value="TN">Tunisia</option>
                                        <option value="TR">Turkey</option>
                                        <option value="TM">Turkmenistan</option>
                                        <option value="TC">Turks And Caicos Islands</option>
                                        <option value="TV">Tuvalu</option>
                                        <option value="UG">Uganda</option>
                                        <option value="UA">Ukraine</option>
                                        <option value="AE">United Arab Emirates</option>
                                        <option value="GB">United Kingdom</option>
                                        <option value="US">United States</option>
                                        <option value="UM">United States Outlying Islands</option>
                                        <option value="UY">Uruguay</option>
                                        <option value="UZ">Uzbekistan</option>
                                        <option value="VU">Vanuatu</option>
                                        <option value="VE">Venezuela</option>
                                        <option value="VN">Viet Nam</option>
                                        <option value="VG">Virgin Islands, British</option>
                                        <option value="VI">Virgin Islands, U.S.</option>
                                        <option value="WF">Wallis And Futuna</option>
                                        <option value="EH">Western Sahara</option>
                                        <option value="YE">Yemen</option>
                                        <option value="ZM">Zambia</option>
                                        <option value="ZW">Zimbabwe</option>
                                </select><span class="select2 select2-container select2-container--default" dir="ltr" aria-hidden="true"><span class="selection"><span class="select2-selection select2-selection--single" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false" tabindex="0" aria-labelledby="select2-_pf_356660_5707-container" role="combobox"><span class="select2-selection__rendered" id="select2-_pf_356660_5707-container" role="textbox" aria-readonly="true" title="India">India</span><span class="select2-selection__arrow" role="presentation"><b role="presentation"></b></span></span></span><span class="dropdown-wrapper" aria-hidden="true"></span></span>
        </div>
                <div class="pf_field pf_field--textarea pf-required" data-validate="text">
            <label for="_pf_356660_2421">Message                    &nbsp;<span class="pf-required--symbol"> * </span>              </label>
            <textarea id="_pf_356660_2421" class="pf_field__input empty" name="_pf_356660_2421" required=""></textarea>
        </div>
                <div class="pf_field pf_field--recaptcha">
            <div class="g-recaptcha" data-sitekey="6Lc3OpIUAAAAADY4ErEHF0HF6Tr7vuknduDU-fbl"><div style="width: 304px; height: 78px;"><div><iframe title="reCAPTCHA" src="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/anchor?ar=1&amp;k=6Lc3OpIUAAAAADY4ErEHF0HF6Tr7vuknduDU-fbl&amp;co=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY2FwZ2VtaW5pLmNvbTo0NDM.&amp;hl=en&amp;v=6pQzWaE1NP-gB4FrqRViKjM-&amp;size=normal&amp;cb=vpr8eh5ubt1g" width="304" height="78" role="presentation" name="a-kbziidfwu0cs" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation allow-modals allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox" class="iframe_withoutcookies"></iframe></div><textarea id="g-recaptcha-response" name="g-recaptcha-response" class="g-recaptcha-response" style="width: 250px; height: 40px; border: 1px solid rgb(193, 193, 193); margin: 10px 25px; padding: 0px; resize: none; display: none;"></textarea></div><iframe style="display: none;"></iframe></div>
        </div>

        <div class="pf_field pf_field--submit">
            <input type="submit" class="pf_field__input" id="_pf_356660_5421" value="Submit">
        </div>
                    <input type="hidden" name="form_id" data-validate="number" class="pf_form__id" value="356660">
            <input type="hidden" name="form_title" class="pf_form__title" value="contact-the-cloud-choice-team-1563284565">
            <input type="hidden" name="wp_rest_nonce" class="pf_form__wp_rest_nonce" value="f824e0fa2a">
        </form>

        <div class="pf_form__success">
            Your form has been successfully submitted.<p></p>
        </div>
        <div class="pf_form__errors">
            <p>We are sorry, the form submission failed. Please try again.</p>
        </div>
                </div>

Jason Hatch

Expert in Cloud Assessment, Cloud strategy

I am responsible for developing Capgemini’s Cloud Solutions in North America, and advising our customers on how best to leverage cloud technology to support their business.