A recent article published at SAP News highlighted How the Cloud Changes the Business Transformation Mindset. The point of the article was that true business transformation in the cloud requires a comprehensive approach that brings together strategy, organization, process, and technology. The reason behind this comprehensive approach is that organizations are struggling to bridge the gap between cloud technology and their digital transformation aspirations. We talked previously about the type of transformation that organizations are completing, but what does SAPinsider research show about how and why cloud adoption is happening?

Where is Cloud Adoption for SAP Workloads?

SAPinsider research has shown that 88% of respondents to our most recent Enterprise Cloud Deployment report were running at least some SAP workloads in the cloud. But what does that really mean from a cloud adoption standpoint? Most of that cloud usage comes from cloud-native applications like SAP Concur, SAP Ariba, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Fieldglass. These are also likely the applications that SAP thinks about when it talks about cloud solutions. But SAP also defines the cloud as covering a lot more than just these software-as-a-service applications. Solutions like SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud (SAP HEC), platform-as-a-service offering from SAP that is specifically targeted at SAP S/4HANA, are also major parts of SAP’s cloud revenue and offerings. Similar to SAP HEC is the infrastructure component of RISE with SAP which is the first part of the offering that many of those adopting it are leveraging. These are some of the many things that SAP considers to be the cloud. Based on SAPinsider research, the workload that was most likely to be running in a hyperscaler, or public cloud, environment was SAP S/4HANA. Nearly half (49%) of the respondents to the research mentioned above said that this was the infrastructure that they were using. This may in some instances be the software-as-a-service version of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, but is more likely to be organizations leveraging an infrastructure-as-a-service or platform-as-a-service environment from large public cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure. There were no other solutions more likely to be running in a hyperscaler environment. Older SAP solutions like SAP ECC, SAP BusinessWarehouse, and manufacturing and planning solutions were much more likely to be running on internal infrastructure, which makes sense given that those solutions are likely still using the infrastructure on which they were originally implemented. In an interesting correlation to the SAP article, the primary reason organizations gave for moving these workloads to the cloud was a business focus on digital transformation requires cloud-based deployments. This suggests that, even though business transformation in the cloud requires a comprehensive approach, performing this type of transformation is the most important reason that organizations have for moving to the cloud.

What Does This Mean for SAPinsiders?

Moving to the cloud is no longer just about infrastructure, as I mentioned in a previous article. It is much more about transforming your business, building a environment that is not just about sustainable applications but sustainable in a more global sense, using your data as the key to your future, and having a relationship with your cloud provider to make all this happen. But when you are looking at cloud adoption for your SAP workloads, what should you focus on?

• Ensure that your cloud adoption is part of a long-term strategy, not just immediate needs.
• Establish a relationship with your cloud provider on which you can build the innovation your organization needs.
• Develop a comprehensive strategy that not only includes the long-term strategy for transformation, but your business units and users, updates the processes you use, and establishes the technology you need for the future.