SUMMARY: Navigating SAP cloud hosting options isn’t an all-or-nothing approach; there are multiple options to consider. Rising hardware costs, subscription models and vendor deadlines call for a pragmatic roadmap tailored to operational realities. A hybrid setup lets organisations keep critical, time-sensitive workloads local, and recycle legacy hardware, while hosting Production in the cloud. It’s important to focus on business requirements, and keep your options open. Assess your IT landscape, harmonise data and archive historical records with Archive Central to reduce your migration footprint and recurring costs.
If you’ve been to any technology conference, networking event, or roundtable lately, you’ve probably noticed a common theme. Every conversation seems to revolve around huge digital transformations, full cloud migrations, and anything and everything AI. When you’re consistently hearing peers talk about rebuilding everything in the cloud, it’s easy to feel the pressure; if you aren’t completely transforming your infrastructure overnight, your business is already falling behind.
But the reality is that you can take a breath! There are multiple options you can consider. In a recent virtual roundtable, I chatted with Ludi Nel, iSphere Cloud Lead at EPI-USE Labs, about why navigating cloud hosting options is actually about building a pragmatic roadmap tailored to your actual operational realities today.
The realities of on-premise technology
Clinging to legacy on-premise hardware often feels a lot like holding on to a reliable old hatchback: you delay selling it because you aren’t quite sure what to buy next, but waiting too long turns a simple upgrade into quite an expensive leap. Hardware availability and costs are becoming increasingly challenging, with prices quadrupling in recent months amid global supply bottlenecks, and an AI-fuelled buying surge that has pushed lead times beyond 12 months.
To make matters a little harder, the licensing rules of engagement are also shifting. We all feel some nostalgia for the days of buying a software license once and owning it forever… these days are disappearing in favour of subscription models with strict minimum commitments. On top of that, shifts in the regional vendor landscape are prompting organisations to re-evaluate infrastructure setups they’ve comfortably relied on for years.
Even if you manage to navigate the hardware quotes and delivery queues, you still have to actually run the environment. Managing modern cloud architecture requires a different playbook than maintaining traditional infrastructure. This leaves internal IT teams needing to reskill ‘overnight’, while trying to keep the everyday lights on.
The ‘all-or-nothing’ cloud myth
Despite what you may have heard, adopting the cloud isn’t a strict, all-or-nothing approach where you’re forced to convert every single piece of your IT stack. You can still get plenty of ROI out of those older assets by recycling them for testing environments, internal training, or disaster recovery. Reducing your legacy hardware while hosting Production in the cloud gives you a hybrid setup and an opportunity to still use current equipment.
Besides, real-world operational latency can be a dealbreaker that often gets brushed aside. If you operate in mining, manufacturing, healthcare, or financial services, a microsecond delay can halt a production line, delay vital medical messages, or open the door to transactional fraud. For these industries, keeping critical, time-sensitive workloads local is essential risk management.
This is why workload repatriation has become a reality across the market. Driven by a dose of initial FOMO (Fear of missing out, if you wondered!), organisations may have rushed headfirst into migrating everything to the public cloud, only to realise down the line that certain workloads actually perform better, and cost less, when kept on-premise.
Managing the upcoming deadlines
Vendor deadlines, like the 2027 and 2030 mark, tend to trigger a collective surge of panic across IT departments, making leaders feel like they’re being backed into a rushed, expensive migration. But evaluating an SAP landscape transformation or navigating the RISE with SAP journey doesn’t mean dragging twenty years of digital clutter into your shiny new environment. Upgrading legacy database versions to newer platforms is actually the perfect excuse to clean house. Taking time to assess your environment beforehand lets you harmonise your data, separating the essential operational records you need active today from the historical records that are just taking up space.
Instead of paying premium rates to migrate and host data nobody has looked at for ages, solutions like EPI-USE Labs’ Archive Central let you safely archive historical data. This slims down your migration footprint, reduces server requirements, and keeps both your infrastructure expenses and recurring licensing costs down. Plus, if your organisation is navigating system mergers or acquisitions, that transition provides a natural opening to step back, re-evaluate your IT footprint, and harmonise data across all combined entities so you can build a lean, unified setup for the road ahead.
Finding the sweet spot
Hosting models are far from one-size-fits-all. Plenty of organisations jump in only to be caught off guard when traditional, hands-on partner support changes into something far more rigid.
Take a breath and start with an assessment of where your IT landscape stands right now. Focus on what your business requires today, plot out a flexible hybrid roadmap that leaves room to pivot, and remember that keeping your options open is always a smart cloud strategy.
Watch our virtual roundtable if you’re interested in hearing the full discussion and to get all the insights on navigating your cloud hosting options at your own pace.
Learn more about our flexible, secure Private Cloud Hosting solutions to see how you can maintain full operational control without the usual infrastructure challenges.
