SAP Apps to Microsoft Azure

SAP is popularly identified as most organizations mission critical landscape that holds immense IT potential. However, the management of on-premise SAP app’s cost and resources are intense due to high infrastructural complexities involved. As a result, a big chunk of these enterprises are moving to cloud.

Microsoft platform is one platform majority of entreprises are choosing for their SAP applications migration, to the cloud, guess why?

Since SAP azure smartly channels

Moving your existing on premise SAP applications may sound very exciting but it may get challenging as system complexities & technical errors arise.

A reliable managed service provider can bring the most efficient performance to your entire SAP ecosystem with Azure. So, map out your cloud migration journey with the best Managed Service Providers!

• lets you migrate your existing SAP systems running on any of the SAP supported databases.
• provides you SAP-certified on-demand virtual machines (VMs) for various SAP applications such as SAP Business Suite, as well as SAP HANA.
• lets you deploy S/4HANA systems on demand and pay only for active infrastructure usage.
• lets you scale the infrastructure of older NetWeaver systems as your processes move into S/4HANA.
• offers you robust data security on all SAP supported databases, such as Oracle, SQL Server, or IBM DB/2.
• provides multiple data centres for DR based SAP implementations.
• lets you use Microsoft Power BI to visualize application data, make direct queries and surface that data in Power BI.
• ensures high availability for your production SAP instances with support for SQL Server AlwaysOn, HANA System Replication (HSR) and Oracle Dataguard.

Factors to consider when migrating SAP applications to Azure

Moving your existing on-premise SAP applications to Azure may sound tempting, but it might get challenging as the system complexities, and technical faults arise. Here are some of the best practices that you should follow while migrating to Azure:

1. Provision Enough Local Bandwidth
   When you migrate your SAP apps to Azure, the traffic which earlier ran over high-speed, low-latency LAN will now run on the WAN. Hence, you need to provision enough bandwidth to avoid latencies in the network post-migration.
2. Plan System Downtime in Advance
   Planning your downtime lets you manage your activities most efficiently. Estimate how much downtime each point of migration will trigger and try to schedule the deployment in such a way that it has minimal effect on the business.
3. Update Existing Application Dependencies
   When migrating an application to the cloud, consider the dependencies of your existing applications. For example, your SAP application works on connection configurations that may get disturbed after the migration. So enlist all the existing dependencies and provision them in your cloud environment to avoid any major system outages.
4. Check Database Compatibility 
   To migrate the database without losing its integrity, asses the database size to determine how much storage will you require, and test the process for incompatibility before actual migration.
5. Verify Virtual Machine Compatibility
   Azure is an excellent VM hosting choice since it is compatible with most of the VMs ranging from Windows Server 2008 R2 and quite a few Linux ones, but it is always a good idea to verify compatibility with each VM that you target before the migration.
6. Manage and Monitor Applications
   You need to monitor your application performance at every stage post-migration. Azure SDK comes with a diagnostic API that can identify issues for you with event logs, crash dumps and trace failures. The API can help you define monitoring rules that will make monitoring and planning easier.

We discussed the best practices that you can use to successfully deploy your on-premise SAP applications on Azure. But with complex cloud environments, how do you ensure your application performance on cloud is top-notch?

Cloud Managed Service Provider for Higher Cloud Performance

Migration of critical enterprise infrastructure to cloud can be a daunting task. Scheduled delays and implementation bugs can hinder your business operations and cost you a lot of money. Cloud Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can provide you with end-to-end cloud services that include proactive automation, monitoring, migration and management of your applications on multiple cloud platforms.

They offer you:

• Customised cost models to suit your business needs and budget
• Strong support for applications like SAP Basis, firewall, OS, network operations, and service delivery management.
• Support for major industry accreditations and compliances
• 24×7 Cloud Managed Services Support
• Cloud security best practices
• Seamless Migration to cloud platforms like Azure
• Disaster Recovery roadmap

Modernizing your SAP estate and moving it to the cloud opens a new world of opportunities for your business. But if you don’t have the right skills and expertise to carry out the migration, you’ll risk losing your valuable business systems and data in the process.

A reliable managed service provider can bring unparalleled performance to your entire SAP ecosystem with Azure. So, set out on your cloud migration journey with the best in class Managed Service Provider.