SAP S/4HANA Cloud Editions: Private vs. Public Cloud—which is right?

Posted By:

Ramesh Srinivasan 

Companies are constantly looking for ways to continue to be competitive and take steps for progress. Who would have predicted that SAP would change the world of enterprise technologies via its cloud solutions? Just think of a world where you can get the advantage of the cloud for your business without losing control or performance. With the cloud offerings from SAP S/4HANA – the intelligent suite as a viable passage to the cloud, enterprises can freely leverage the cloud for digital transformation knowing that they are both secure and ready.

SAP cloud services eliminate localized barriers that traditional on-premise systems have. With the cloud, businesses can fully embrace the flexibility and scalability of the omnipresent cloud. Whether it is the private cloud edition with more security and customization or the public cloud edition with cost-effectiveness and ease of deployment, SAP’s cloud solutions are tailored to the needs of every organization.

To achieve maximum benefits from the cloud, SAP’s products ease the operational burden, facilitate resource utilization, and open new doors for competent business performance. Real-time data analysis grounded in intelligent decision-making becomes a new way of doing business, allowing organizations to stay ahead of market trends and leading to quick responses when customer demand requires. Besides, integrated across a wide range of business processes, this creates a unified and coherent approach that promotes collaboration and drives productivity to new levels.

Deciphering RISE with SAP S4/HANA Cloud solutions: Private vs. Public

SAP being a leading enterprise solution provider, is at the forefront, it offers the latest technologies that are designed to make the enterprise resource planning (ERP) landscape more efficient. Entering the realm of RISE with SAP, enterprises are exposed to the most disruptive paradigm taking the business operations to the next level. Nevertheless, it is a fundamental choice between RISE with SAP S/4HANA Private and GROW with S/4HANA Public, allowing one to select editions according to one’s personal requirements and organizational needs. In this blog, we will go deeper into these editions and give you the insights you will need to make an informed choice that will suit your organization’s specific needs.

RISE with SAP stands for an all-encompassing and holistic way of a digital transformation: it means smoothly integrating a set of SAP solutions, services, and cloud solutions into a coherent package. At heart, this platform with its innovative nature, is designed to make the way to cloud simple and fast, enabling organizations to become more agile and digital-ready so that they are able to stay and prosper in the face of a fierce digital environment. Through the use of RISE with SAP, companies can achieve higher levels of operational efficiency, agility, and competitiveness, thereby, putting themselves in the forefront of their industries.

Now let’s delve into the most prominent SAP S4/HANA Cloud offerings in detail and explore how companies benefiting from these intelligent capabilities:

Rise with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition: Tailored for Your Unique Needs

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is a cloud-based ERP solution from SAP under RISE with SAP offering, which has been developed relatively recently. It is aimed at giving organizations a secure and mutually exclusive cloud infrastructure for conducting their business-critical SAP applications and processes.

What makes Rise with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private edition a good fit for an intelligent enterprise? Well, the Private edition provides the customer full control over their environment, enabling businesses to tap on core goals like greater customization, security, and compliance adherence.

Interestingly, this autonomy level helps forward-thinking organizations in strategic alignment of transformative SAP cloud ERP solutions with their unique business requirements and industry-specific needs. This results in seamless integration with existing systems and processes.

Here’s why migration to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition might be the right choice for your organization:

• Streamlined operations and optimized support:Moving to a cloud ERP system takes the pressure off you from the task of managing and maintaining the technical infrastructure and operations. When you transfer such responsibilities to SAP, a renowned leader in enterprise solutions, you then have the chance to concentrate your energies on driving home the core business objectives and the strategic initiatives.SAP being the expert in data centralization means that your operations can deliver as planned with their advanced infrastructure, robust security, and a 24/7 support team. This streamlined approach reduces the need for you to invest in dedicated personnel, hardware, and software for system maintenance, enabling you to optimally use your resources.
• Innovation at your pace:A cloud ERP solution ensures flexibility and control when you think of innovating your systems. The necessity of a minimum upgrade cycle of 5 years will give you a freedom to plan and carry out upgrades as it is required by your organization and its unique readiness level. This extended upgrade cycle allows enough time for the proper testing, training, and smooth integration with your current processes and systems.Moreover, there is a release of version upgrade once in two years and Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) providing an opportunity to adopt new features, enhancements and security updates without impacting the crucial operations. While providing this approach with helping you to be further to the front, it also decreases the potential cost and risk associated with significant upgrades without compromising the very crucial element of innovation and business stability.
• High availability of mission-critical systems:In the current business world which is moving at a fast pace the availability of mission-critical systems is the most important thing. The key issue, which is addressed by cloud ERP services, is the SLA of 99.7% availability. This loyalty is tailored to your business in such a way that you are able to continue with your day to day operations undisturbed thus minimizing downtime that would otherwise be accompanied by huge costs.Through the utilization of SAP’s cloud infrastructure, your organization gets the advantage of redundant systems, failover mechanisms, and proactive monitoring that guarantees high availability and resilience. At this level of reliability, you earn credibility from your customers, which makes you concentrate on delivering value to them and not worry about disruptions.
• Lower total cost of ownership (TCO):Rather than paying upfront for traditional ERP, the subscription model for the cloud allows organizations to switch from capital expenditures to operating expenses. This transition is not only cost-effective but also provides more flexibility in managing your organization’s financial resources.With the removal of significant capital expenditures like hardware, software, and infrastructure, your cash flow is better designed and allocated for other business aspects that matter. Further, the cloud ERP solution’s scalability involves the ability to add or eliminate resources at will, hence lowering expenses and closing the gap between costs and a changing business environment.

Grow with SAP S4/HANA Public Cloud Edition and embrace agility faster

The Public Cloud edition of SAP S/4HANA, also referred to as Grow with SAP, offers a standardized approach to digital transformation, leveraging SAP’s public cloud infrastructure and services. Designed for organizations seeking agility, scalability, and rapid deployment, the Public edition provides a cost-effective solution with built-in best practices and industry standards.

By harnessing the power of SAP’s public cloud platform, businesses can accelerate their journey toward innovation and efficiency while benefiting from continuous updates, innovation cycles, and global scalability. The Public edition of RISE with SAP offers agility and flexibility, enabling organizations to rapidly adapt to changing market dynamics.

Here’s why it might be the preferred choice:

• Embracing Industry-Proven Practices:The solution is based on reference architectures that are identified as best practices to drive efficiency and effectiveness across various business domains. When you integrate these best practices into your key business procedures, you are certain that you are working in line with up-to-date guidelines that have been developed and enhanced over time.Not only do you improve your internal efficiency but you also make sure to follow standards that are recognized in your field, thus promoting coherence and compatibility with interlocutors and other organizations.
• Accelerated Path to Value Realization:Another significant benefit is its focus on delivering time to value. It is a phased process with a plan in place that caters for the various stages in the implementation process. The technical configuration is intended to be light and quick in order to limit the amount invested in the deployment. Additionally, the solution has clean, role-tailored design to help users embrace it and be efficient right away.This reduces the learning complexity and overall onboarding time that allows your organization to realize the capabilities of the solution and the overall benefits it brings to your business in the shortest time possible.
• Seamless Updates and Continuous Innovation:Given the current trends in the business environment, it is critical to be proactive in one’s approach. In this regard, the solution meets this need by providing a steady flow of updates and more new solutions which will be managed by SAP exclusively. It also reduces the load on your organization’s IT facilities, allowing you to harness the potential of new technologies without compromising the stability of your business processes.Utilizing built-in AI & Machine Learning to RPA & Analytics, the solution enables your business to scale to proactively implement best-in-class technologies that create productivity, precision, and insight-driven strategies.
• Robust Security, Compliance, and Scalability:It is a general requirement ensuring the confidentiality, legality, and expansiveness of all your significant systems. The solution provides a holistic approach to easing these worries with regards to technical management including data backup and disaster preparedness, fixing of systems, and data security.This kind of preemptive measure not only macro protection of the data and systems, but also creates optimum ceiling uptimes which significantly reduces downtime and interruptions, which are very much expensive.
• Open and Extensible Platform:With the constantly changing environment in which different organizations operate, it is crucial for the business to be able to work and cooperate. This need is also addressed by the solution that offers APIs as well as ready tools with detailed commentary. This open and extensible platform provides an extensible framework for integration with connected trading partners and allows exchanging data and synchronizing business processes.In addition, since the solution has a totally flexible architecture, it allows you to create new extensions that better meet your requirements, thus providing incentives for innovation that would make the solution fully compatible with your business necessities.

Choosing the Right Edition for Your Organization

Ultimately, the decision between the RISE Private Cloud and Grow Public Cloud editions of SAP hinges on your organization’s unique needs, priorities, and constraints. Here are some quick tips to help you make an informed decision:

• Assess Your Business Requirements: Start by evaluating your organization’s unique requirements, including scalability, customization, security, compliance, and budget constraints. Consider factors such as industry regulations, data privacy requirements, and existing IT landscape.
• Determine Your Cloud Strategy: Determine whether your organization prefers a private cloud approach for enhanced control and customization or a public cloud model for agility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Consider factors such as data sovereignty, integration capabilities, and resource availability.
• Assess your S/4HANA Transition approach: Evaluate your current state and business requirements to define whether you prefer a Brownfield Conversion from existing ECC6 to S/4HANA or go with a Greenfield Implementation of S/4HANA. While Grow with Public Cloud only supports Greenfield Implementation, RISE Private Cloud Edition supports both Greenfield and Brownfield.
• Consider Security and Compliance Needs: If your organization operates in highly regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, or government, prioritize security and compliance requirements when choosing between the Private and Public editions. Evaluate each edition’s capabilities for data sovereignty, encryption, access control, and regulatory compliance.
• Evaluate Integration and Customization Options: Assess the level of integration and customization required to align the RISE with SAP solution with your existing systems, workflows, and processes. Determine whether your organization needs extensive customization and control (Private edition) or prefers standardized processes and rapid deployment (Public edition).
• Analyze Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) associated with each edition, including upfront investments, ongoing maintenance, licensing fees, and operational expenses. Compare the pricing models, subscription plans, and cost-saving opportunities offered by the Private and Public editions to determine the most cost-effective option for your organization.
• Evaluate Vendor Support and Expertise: Assess the level of support, expertise, and service offerings provided by SAP and its partners for each edition. Consider factors such as implementation assistance, training programs, ongoing support services, and access to SAP’s ecosystem of consultants, developers, and solution architects.
• Solicit Feedback from Stakeholders: Involve key organizational stakeholders, including IT, finance, operations, and compliance, in the decision-making process. Gather feedback, address concerns, and ensure alignment with business goals and objectives.
• Plan for Future Growth and Innovation: When choosing the right edition of RISE with SAP, anticipate future growth, innovation, and expansion opportunities. Select an edition that can scale with your organization’s evolving needs, accommodate emerging technologies, and support long-term strategic initiatives.

By considering these quick tips and conducting a thorough evaluation of your organization’s requirements, priorities, and objectives, you can choose the right edition of RISE with SAP that best aligns with your business goals and sets the stage for successful digital transformation.

RISE with SAP offers a compelling proposition for organizations seeking to embark on their digital transformation journey. Whether you opt for the Private or Public Cloud edition, both offer unique benefits and considerations. By carefully assessing your organization’s needs and objectives, you can make an informed decision that sets the stage for success in the digital age.

The final thoughts

At Kellton, we help businesses transition to SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud through a lifecycle approach. As an authorized SAP partner, Kellton provides end-to-end support for SAP Cloud and hosting solutions while identifying a relevant cloud strategy that will suit their intelligent enterprise transformation goals. This way, our SAP experts ensure a seamless migration and deployment of SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition.

Also, by deploying SAP intelligent technologies, we assist businesses in realizing the full potential of their data by developing a powerful blend of analytical tools and techniques, machine learning, and Artificial Intelligence. As their core SAP partner for Rise with SAP cloud solutions, we help them harness the power of SAP cloud solutions from the cloud adoption and unlock greater innovation along with agility enterprise-wide.