Accelerating SAP Modernization in Hospitality with Lemongrass and AWS

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Radisson Hotel Group, one of the world’s leading hospitality brands, embarked on a strategic transformation to modernize its SAP environment. Faced with rising complexity, inflexible legacy hosting, and high operational costs, Radisson needed more than just a cloud migration—it needed a partner to help future-proof its digital backbone. Accelerating SAP Modernization in Hospitality with Lemongrass […]

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Accelerating SAP Modernization in Hospitality with Lemongrass and AWS

Working closely with Lemongrass and AWS, Radisson achieved a complete SAP migration in under six months, dramatically improving visibility, agility, and platform stability, while reducing downtime in migration and cost. The project not only addressed immediate pain points but laid the foundation for long-term innovation across data, AI, and automation.

Challenge

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Radisson’s SAP systems were previously hosted in an SAP HEC environment, which had become a significant barrier to growth. The platform offered limited visibility, slow responsiveness, and high total cost of ownership. According to Carlos Violero, Head of SAP BASIS Operations at Radisson, the cost of running SAP in that environment was more than double what they pay today on AWS. “We can now do more with less,” he said, “and that’s a win both for the business and for IT.”

Beyond cost, the existing hosting setup lacked the flexibility to support Radisson’s rapidly growing and innovation-driven hospitality model. Meanwhile, SAP powered critical front and back-end services across the guest experience—from check-ins to bookings—making downtime a major risk. Any disruption would translate directly to lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction.

Solution

Radisson selected Lemongrass as its transformation partner following a competitive evaluation. AWS was chosen as the preferred cloud platform, based on its maturity, cost efficiency, and proven track record for SAP workloads.

Lemongrass quickly immersed itself in the business, working shoulder-to-shoulder with Radisson’s internal team to design a migration approach that balanced speed with caution. Despite the complexity of the SAP landscape, the teams delivered the full migration in less than six months—a timeline that is typically closer to 12–18 months in projects of this scale.

“In the past, I couldn’t sleep at night. Now I can. We know we’re supported, and we’re in control. Without Lemongrass, some of our projects simply wouldn’t be possible.”

Carlos Violero, Head of SAP BASIS Operations, Radisson Hotel Group

A phased migration approach and close collaboration helped minimize business risk. Although the initial cutover was forecasted to require up to 18 hours of downtime, the team ultimately completed it in just four hours, ensuring continuity for critical business operations.

Following the migration, Lemongrass continued to support Radisson with advanced automation, enabling near-zero downtime patching and system changes, allowing the internal team to shift focus from firefighting to forward looking initiatives.

Impact

Since moving to AWS, Radisson has seen substantial improvements in performance, agility, and operational control. The SAP environment is now 99% stabilized, providing a reliable foundation to scale services up or down in response to real-time business needs—whether it’s a seasonal booking spike, a global marketing campaign, or an unexpected surge in demand.

Radisson has also achieved significant reductions in total cost of ownership, and gained the ability to plan and execute IT operations more strategically. Maintenance that once required reactive, manual coordination is now fully automated and planned up to a year in advance.

Despite a small core internal SAP team, Radisson now benefits from the scale and expertise of a 30+ person operational support model when combined with Lemongrass’s managed services team. This hybrid approach allows them to run a global, mission-critical SAP environment 24/7—with the confidence to innovate rather than simply maintain.

Why Lemongrass

From the outset, it was clear there was strong alignment between Lemongrass and Radisson—both technically and culturally. Rather than taking on the role of a typical third-party vendor, the Lemongrass team worked side by side with Radisson’s internal teams, embedding into day-to-day operations and acting as a true extension of their organization. This close collaboration was key to ensuring a complex migration could be delivered smoothly, with minimal disruption.

That level of partnership and trust proved essential throughout the project. Lemongrass took the time to understand the nuances of Radisson’s business and adapted to their priorities and pace. It’s this collaborative approach that helped move critical projects forward—projects that may not have been possible without such a close working relationship.

Carlos emphasized that this level of partnership was rare, describing Lemongrass as a trusted team that understood the nuances of Radisson’s business and worked tirelessly to help it succeed.

What’s Next

Radisson is now focused on expanding the value of its cloud-native SAP landscape. The team is evaluating SAP’s evolving product roadmap and preparing for the transition to new data and AI-driven architectures. With Lemongrass’s support, Radisson is exploring AI-powered tools to analyze custom code and prepare for a clean core strategy—minimizing technical debt and maximizing agility.

Radisson’s transformation journey is far from over. But with a modern, stable, and scalable SAP environment now in place, it’s no longer constrained by outdated systems. Instead, it’s positioned to lead—adapting to change, driving innovation, and staying ahead in an increasingly dynamic hospitality market.