Confused with RISE with SAP S/4HANA options? Let me explain.

[ComputeExperts]

Understand current RISE models and what “cloud” really means in the framework of RISE, along with other HPE alternatives to RISE with less dependency on SAP as the only provider of the full ERP solution.

As of today, most SAP ERP customers have heard of SAP RISE as a packaged, subscription-based offering to move from previous SAP ERP versions to S/4HANA. RISE was introduced in early 2021 and has changed quickly in response to customer’s feedback, creating some confusion over the options available¹.

In this article I’m going to explain the current RISE models and what “cloud” really means in the framework of RISE, along with other alternatives to RISE with less dependency on SAP as the only provider of the full ERP solution.

But first let’s get some perspective

SAP introduced HANA, their in-memory database, in 2010. In 2015, SAP released S/4HANA, the new generation of their market leader ERP software using HANA as the native database replacing Oracle, SQL Server, DB2 and other classic disk-based database engines. S/4HANA is expected to bring the biggest benefits for SAP customers, as this new ERP version is optimized to make the most of the HANA in-memory and analytics capabilities. SAP even announced plans to discontinue the support of other databases by 2027 for their ERP software.

However, after seven years in the market, S/4HANA adoption is moderate, despite all the claimed benefits and the deadline push. According to Gartner, 70% of SAP customers have yet to upgrade to S/4HANA.²

Why aren’t SAP ERP customers moving massively to S/4HANA to reap its benefits?

The reality is that the move to S/4HANA is not just a technology upgrade. It’s not just a database swap. It entails business transformation to adopt the new generation ERP. And a business transformation project is not easy or cheap. It's usually a strategic project that requires a lot of time and effort. And some companies are not ready for this just yet. They may not even need a transformation if their current processes meet their needs. If it isn’t broken, don’t touch it! The good old SAP ECC may still fulfil their needs.

Here is where SAP RISE can help

In order to help customers adopt S/4HANA, SAP introduced RISE in Q1 2021. RISE is a bundled offering to help customers move from anywhere they are in their ERP journey to S/4HANA in the “cloud.”

Under a single subscription agreement with the customer, SAP provides and manages the SAP software and the required infrastructure to run it, along with multiple tools, utilities and platforms like BTP (Business Technology Platform) to evaluate, integrate, and customize the solution. In addition, customers can hire optional consulting services through SAP partners to help with the business processes redesign and application management.

There’s no doubt that RISE may sound appealing to customers: pay SAP (and maybe a system integrator) a subscription fee and they will move you and take care of your ERP in the cloud, and you can simply focus on the business.

But let’s face it:  Not every customer is ready to put their most critical workload, the one that underpins their business, in someone else’s hands, somewhere in the cloud... even if it’s backed up by a solid company like SAP.

Fortunately, “cloud” is loosely used in RISE

RISE “cloud” can be hosted in variety of places, including a customer’s own data center or a co-location. It may sound surprising but let’s remember that cloud is really about the experience, not a destination. Part of this experience are the operations and development models, for example using BTP instead of classic ad-hoc code modifications. All this can be achieved with RISE regardless of the type of cloud being used.

RISE can run on any “cloud”:

• Classic public cloud, even pure SaaS if it meets customer’s functional needs (S/4HANA SaaS allows very limited customization and has fixed maintenance cycles and may not be right for every customer)
• Private cloud (single tenant), also known as “Private Edition”, with full software license that allows further customization
• Traditional data center (customer’s owned or co-location), also known as “Private Edition – Customer Datacenter Option” or PE-CDC for short, with fully customizable software. This option is the least known – it’s not even mentioned on some SAP blogs, but certainly part of the offering and mentioned on public SAP RISE documentation. This option might be the most appropriate for large, brownfield customers³.

So yes! You can RISE with SAP in your own data center and have the best of two worlds: SAP’s help to move to S/4HANA and manage it for you, without moving your precious data to an external hyperscaler data center.

HPE partners with SAP as infrastructure provider of their PE-CDC option, and with thousands of customers deploying SAP HANA on HPE solutions, we bring a wealth of expertise and value.

With RISE PE-CDC edition on HPE platforms, customers can run their most critical workloads on cutting-edge HPE infrastructure, purpose built and certified for HANA, based on industry standards and designed and sized by a team of experts in SAP workloads. And why should customers care about the infrastructure underpinning a subscription-based model? Because infrastructure does matter and can make or break the as-a-Service experience as I explained in this previous blog post.

Increased flexibility with HPE Greenlake for SAP

For customers that like the RISE approach, but might prefer to have more flexibility and less dependency on SAP as the single provider, HPE offers an alternative: HPE Greenlake for SAP. This is a pay-per-use, fully managed PaaS solution that uses the same HPE state-of-the-art infrastructure for HANA. Likewise RISE, customers can optionally hire consulting services from their preferred system integrator on top of this S/4HANA PaaS to come up with a similar overall experience, including business transformation and application management, with the benefit of more control and diversity.

HPE Greenlake solutions for SAP:

• Deploy in the customer data center or in a co-location: no hidden costs, no egress/data transfer fees, no performance latency. Customers don’t need to move their data and therefore won’t face unexpected, unbudgeted bills as a result of unpredictable data traffic
• Offer flexible cloud economics: pay-per-use, choice of CAPEX or OPEX, aligned to customer’s preferred financial model.
• Operate for the customer (PaaS): teams are free for more valuable business contribution
• Provide superior performance with dedicated, single-tenant solution with latest Intel technology: business response times are not throttled by shared or obsolete infrastructure
• Offer the best Reliability, Availability and Security, leveraging HPE mission-critical infrastructure: business uptime is optimized.
• Backed up by HPE SAP expertise with over 40,000 SAP HANA deployments to date
• Deliver faster time to value: design optimized, implemented and managed to your needs

Whatever S/4HANA approach you prefer, with HPE you get the greatest technology from the leading infrastructure partner for SAP and SAP HANA, either in a RISE agreement or with the more flexible HPE Greenlake for SAP offering.

Learn more about our expertise, infrastrucure, and services that power SAP HANA solutions. 

Find out how you can benefit from the HPE and SAP strategic alliance. 

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Meet Isabel Martin, SAP Solutions Architect, HPE SAP NA Competence Center

Isabel is a multicultural SAP solutions architect with over 20 years of experience in mission critical and SAP architectures in Europe and North America. A native of Spain, Isabel joined HPE in her home country before moving to the United States a decade ago. Isabel has performed multiple roles in mission critical, ranging from support engineer to field presales and her current position as SAP Competence Center solutions architect. Isabel has a bachelor’s degree in electronic physics. Connect with Isabel on LinkedIn! 

1, 2: https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/sap_migration_trend_unlikely_to/

3: https://www.sap.com/documents/2021/07/b03566be-ef7d-0010-bca6-c68f7e60039b.html

[Jim Loiacono]

Excellent points, Isabel. Sometimes we wonder if organizations forgot that future SAP cloud agility and SAP provider neutrality used to be important to them

Aside from choosing RISE vs non-RISE, most organizations don't understand that many cloud datacenter locations are shared by both public cloud hyperscalers as well as dozens of colocation providers. The point is that organizations can choose to place their holistic SAP cloud data (both SAP and non-SAP applications) in a neutral cloud location colocation datacenter while allowing for cloud provider choices both now and upon their future contact renewals.. This smart cloud strategy this avoids the "managed service" lock-in of public cloud hyperscalers which can crush the budgets of organizations.