Dell APEX Emerges as Strategic Alternative to SAP Cloud ERP for Enterprise Modernization

While SAP continues to drive adoption of SAP Cloud ERP (its rebranded SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition), many enterprises are pursuing modernization paths that retain greater control over infrastructure, licensing, and the pace of transformation. Dell Technologies’ APEX as-a-service model has emerged as one such option, enabling organizations to bring cloud economics and operational simplicity to SAP environments without moving their systems entirely into hyperscaler clouds.

Extending Cloud Economics to On-Premise SAP Landscapes

Dell APEX offers a pay-per-use infrastructure consumption model that allows enterprises to run SAP workloads in a private cloud while preserving governance and data sovereignty. This approach applies cloud principles such as elastic capacity and predictable costs to traditional on-premises or co-located SAP landscapes.

According to Dell’s analysis of IDC data, organizations using APEX pay-per-use solutions achieved an average 194% three-year ROI and an estimated 194% three-year ROI with breakeven after eight months. Operational cost savings of up to 35% were also reported, driven by lower compute, storage and data protection costs.

For SAP customers with hybrid architectures, APEX can function as a managed private cloud adjacent to existing SAP systems, supporting workloads like analytics, DevOps sandboxes, and non-production landscapes. The model integrates with Dell’s on-premises infrastructure stack and can be extended to public cloud environments through the APEX Console, enabling IT teams to dynamically provision and scale resources across multiple data centers.

A Pragmatic Alternative to Full RISE Migration

While RISE with SAP provides an end-to-end managed service for ERP modernization, many companies prefer to separate infrastructure upgrades from application migration. APEX offers them that flexibility. By separating the infrastructure and application layers, organizations can update storage, backup, and edge environments at their own speed, without the contractual or architectural limits of SAP’s managed cloud model.

According to Dell, the APEX pay-per-use framework helps CIOs and SAP Basis teams overcome two common barriers to RISE adoption: the speed of transformation and data residency requirements. Since capacity is provisioned on demand, enterprises can scale infrastructure according to their SAP modernization efforts, whether they’re consolidating ECC systems or testing S/4HANA sandbox instances.

IDC’s study emphasizes operational agility as a key benefit: APEX users implemented new compute resources 60% faster and storage 67% faster than with traditional procurement methods. This speed boost directly supports SAP modernization initiatives that often depend on quick provisioning and testing across multiple system environments.

One Dell APEX pay-per-use customer said: “With Dell APEX, we just pay as we grow but also reduce that as we shrink. It’s been fundamental in the growth of our business unit, and we simply couldn’t have done it any other way.”

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Private cloud broadens modernization options for SAP leaders. Enterprises no longer face a strict choice between sticking with legacy on-premises systems or fully switching to RISE with SAP. With Dell APEX, they can build a private-cloud foundation that offers cloud-like agility and flexible consumption for non-SAP Cloud ERP workloads. For CIOs and architects, this method allows them to modernize infrastructure independently while keeping licensing control and existing vendor relationships intact.

Infrastructure agility speeds up SAP transformation cycles. As SAP transformations proceed in phases, the ability to spin up or scale down compute and storage within only days accelerates project timelines. IDC’s findings of 60–67% faster provisioning show measurable benefits for Basis teams managing multiple development and test systems. For project managers, this means less downtime, faster iteration cycles, and earlier business validation.

Infrastructure choice is back on the table. SAP’s messaging may center on RISE, but Dell APEX demonstrates that enterprise-grade as-a-service infrastructure can deliver comparable (or superior) economics without bundling software, infrastructure, and managed services into a single vendor relationship. This shift fundamentally changes the conversation from “when do we move to RISE?” to “what’s the optimal infrastructure strategy for our SAP landscape?”