SAP Cloud Strategy


What is SAP Cloud Strategy?

SAP has both financial and software targets behind their medium and long-term cloud strategy. Their financial target, as initially announced during their Q3 earnings presentation in 2020, involves achieving €22 billion in cloud revenue by 2025. From a software and technology standpoint, SAP is looking for customers to adopt cloud-based solutions for all their SAP applications. This may simply involve using cloud-based infrastructure such as that available through SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud or with the hosting capabilities of RISE with SAP, or could involve using an entirely cloud-based application such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

What is SAP Cloud Strategy?

SAP has both financial and software targets behind their medium and long-term cloud strategy. Their financial target, as initially announced during their Q3 earnings presentation in 2020, involves achieving €22 billion in cloud revenue by 2025. From a software and technology standpoint, SAP is looking for customers to adopt cloud-based solutions for all their SAP applications. This may simply involve using cloud-based infrastructure such as that available through SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud or with the hosting capabilities of RISE with SAP, or could involve using an entirely cloud-based application such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

SAP Cloud Strategy is focused on allowing customers to choose their provider while SAP offers and manages the cloud services. This is particularly true with their RISE with SAP offering where there is a single contract with SAP for the services and their management, but organizations choose who their hosting and implementation partner will be. SAP has close relationships with all of the major public cloud providers, typically referred to as hyperscalers, but there are many other hosting partners and cloud providers who are SAP partners and offer cloud services.

Further Resources for SAPinsdiers

SAP’s 2022 Strategy Focuses on Cloud ERP and RISE with SAP. Although SAP has had cloud targets in place as their 2025 objectives and has been reinventing itself as a cloud company since the late 2010s, their focus has shifted towards moving customers towards cloud ERP—software-as-a-service solutions like SAP S/4HANA Cloud—and RISE with SAP. This article explores what SAP has announced and their 2022 strategy focus.

Enterprise Cloud Deployment 2021 Benchmark Report. More and more organizations are moving SAP workloads to the cloud, with 88% of respondents running at least one workload in the cloud. Many of these workloads are solutions like SAP Success Factors, SAP Concur, or SAP Ariba which are entirely cloud-based, but there is also an acceleration in moving workloads like ERP systems to cloud infrastructure.

Cloud Success Requires a Clear Vision. The primary focus of organizations moving to the cloud is around reducing costs, increasing flexibility and scalability, and deploying applications more quickly.  However, taking the time to understand what you are trying to achieve with your move to the cloud is an important step that organizations don’t always complete. This article talks about the steps that you can take to ensure that you’re having the right conversations ahead of your move to the cloud.

Moving to the Cloud is About More Than Infrastructure. Although initial cloud deployments focused on infrastructure, there has been a shift in the business case behind why organizations are moving to the cloud. Effectively utilizing data should be a key consideration when moving to the cloud as this is the most valuable asset your company has. This article discusses how business cases are changing, and how you should be looking at your cloud provider as an innovation partner in addition to the other services they provide.

Vendors offering cloud services for SAP include: Atos, AWS, Dell Technologies, Google Cloud, HPE, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Navisite, NTT Data, Nutanix, Rackspace Technology, Virtustream, and VMware.

60 results

  1. Cloud Deployment and Configuration

    Reading time: 2 mins

    Cloud deployment and configuration can be confusing with understanding the platforms, as well as changing product names and requirements. How do you choose between public, private, hybrid, and on-premise cloud scenarios? Attend these sessions to help make the appropriate cloud deployment and configuration choices for your organization, and understand strategy and plans moving into 2021…

  2. Integration

    How Endress+Hauser Is Creating a Simpler Business by Making Integration a Strategic Imperative

    Reading time: 6 mins

    As SAP customers today begin to look more strategically at integration, some are creating centers of excellence dedicated to integration priorities. This case study reveals how one such organization, Endress+Hauser, formed a competency center that focused all the company’s resources and skills around applications integration in one place. Learn how the business moved its integration…

  3. Integration - image

    How a Cloud-First Integration Strategy Helps Eneco Offer Innovative Energy Services and Cut Costs

    Reading time: 9 mins

    SAP customers can learn a great deal from their peers, and energy company Eneco has many learnings from its cloud-first strategy that other businesses can benefit from. This Q&A with Cloud Integration Consultant Marco Verhoef offers insights from Eneco’s experiences as an early adopter of SAP Integration Suite. In this article, he shares: – How…

  4. Set Yourself Apart with Cross-Industry Insight

    Reading time: 6 mins

    Competitive pressure, advancements in technology, or the pursuit of new business opportunities are compelling companies to move into adjacent industries. According to SAP, companies need to look beyond creating new processes within their organization that set them apart from other businesses. Instead, they need to find ways to take advantage of shared knowledge across industries…

  5. Your Journey to SAP Cloud Certification

    Reading time: 5 mins

    SAP is moving forward with a “cloud-first” approach, and with this, they need to ensure a skilled population of business users and consultants are ready for this leap. Cloud solutions require SAP customers and consultants to contain an enhanced skillset based on a continuous learning mindset to keep pace with software that changes frequently. The…

  6. SAP Pre-Announces Q1 Results, Updates 2020 Outlook

    Reading time: 5 mins

    This week, after an initial internal review, SAP announced their preliminary financial results for the first quarter of 2020. Highlights of the announcement included an increase in IFRS cloud revenue by 29%, an increase in total revenue by 7%, and an increase in IFRS operating profit by more than 100%.

  7. Europeans Are Under Pressure to Centralize, While North Americans Are Demanding Agility in Their ERP Cloud Strategy

    Reading time: 5 mins

    By Robert Holland, VP Research and Publishing, SAPinsider In SAPinsider’s recently published research report on “SAP S/4HANA in the Cloud,” we explored the ERP cloud strategy of members of the SAPinsider community to gain insights into what they were doing. We were particularly interested in determining what was driving their strategy towards the cloud, how...…

  8. SAP Doubles Down on the Cloud and Customer Focus in FY2019 Results Release

    Reading time: 5 mins

    By Robert Holland, VP Research and Publishing, SAPinsider On January 28 SAP conducted their Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2019 Results Release, and announced that they had met all of their 2019 revenue and profitability targets – albeit with their cloud numbers only passing the post because of a single very large Q4 transaction. Source: https://news.sap.com/2020/01/sap-announces-preliminary-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2019-results/ In…

  9. What to Expect From Our SAPinsider 2020 Event: Insights From Rizal Ahmed, President and Head of Research, SAP S/4HANA and Cloud at SAPinsider

    Reading time: 2 mins

    On March 17-19 in Vegas this year at SAPinsider’s 2020 conference the word that will be buzzing around every room in the Bellagio is SAP S/4HANA, and for good reason. From our research we know that moving to SAP’s latest upgrade is the most consuming, important decision and project that SAP customers are facing, and…

  10. Opportunities And Considerations For Running SAP In The Cloud

    Reading time: 1 min

    Most enterprise companies are running some sort of hybrid cloud environment, but now the pressure is on to increase your investment in the cloud to lower costs and power innovation. But why should you consider the cloud when it comes to mission-critical a Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership…