Why the public cloud is the ideal platform for your SAP S/4HANA environment

Digital transformation of organizations around the world continues to accelerate as they seek to enhance customer experiences through digital products and services. Research firm IDC forecasts digital transformation spending alone will reach US$3.4 trillion by 2026.

As part of their digital transformation, organizations are increasingly moving enterprise applications and platforms, including SAP S/4HANA, to the public cloud. In fact, Gartner forecasts worldwide public cloud spending will reach nearly US$600 billion in 2023, more than 20 percent growth year-over-year.

Public cloud is an ideal platform for your SAP S/4HANA environment. It can save you time and money, while improving reliability and security.

Cloud is a cost-effective solution

In an on-premises SAP S/4HANA deployment, you need to buy your own hardware including servers, switches, and firewalls – in addition to your physical data center costs. Public cloud enables you to save those significant costs since you pay your provider only for the resources you consume. Plus, your platforms will be running on the latest hardware and software, with no need to pay for regular upgrades. And if you need additional storage or processing power, you can spin it up with literally the click of a button. There is no need to buy new hardware and software licences, install the new equipment, and ensure it is properly configured. You save time and money, while gaining the ability to use your network capacity most efficiently.

SUSE makes it particularly easy to migrate SAP S/4HANA to the public cloud with a range of templates that allow you to deploy your SAP S/4HANA platform to any of the major hyperscale cloud providers. And SUSE works with other cloud providers, such as IBM and Oracle, to support additional migration templates, giving you a wide range of cloud options.

Security is always a consideration when moving to the public cloud. So SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications secures your entire SAP cloud environment, protecting you from both known and zero-day vulnerabilities. SUSE offers a completely secure software supply chain, backed by industry-leading certifications including CC EAL 4+, FIPS 140-2, and SLSA4, ensuring no bad actors can inject malicious code into your systems.

Focus on what’s really important

Deploying SAP S/4HANA on-premises means you are responsible for maintaining your own hardware. If your network goes down, you have to fix it, which costs manpower and money. But with a public cloud deployment, your provider maintains the platform, leaving your staff with more time to focus on what’s really important, like strategic projects that deliver real value to the organization.

Moving to the public cloud also makes it simpler for your organization’s employees, suppliers, and customers to get the data they need, from any location. Access controls, backed by continuous monitoring, ensure only people with permission can get to the resources they need.

Tight security over your data can be maintained through a centralized management console, such as SUSE Manager, that enables you to set up, manage, and monitor all your SAP security, simplifying and securing your entire environment, from the core to the cloud to the edge. With SUSE Manager, a standardized compliance-checking solution – OpenSCAP (Security Certification and Authorization Package) – enables you to test system configurations against compliance guidelines to ensure you are always optimally configured.

Keep your services running 24×7

When you move to the public cloud, there’s no need to worry about having a backup data centre. Your public cloud provider will offer built-in fault tolerance. For added certainty you’ll always remain online, SUSE Linux has built-in high availability (HA) technology designed to ensure SAP resilience. SUSE is an innovator in HA for SAP, having developed solutions such as the HANA System Replication Scale-up and the HANA System Replication Scale-Out.

To ensure your systems remain secure against cyberthreats, SUSE Manager and SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching can create a dual-workflow for your patching, applying an immediate patch for new vulnerabilities, with no service downtime. You can augment the live patching with regularly scheduled maintenance patches. SUSE Manager lets you download patches ahead of time, so you can stage them before installation. This creates a secure workflow for patching, saving time in maintenance windows.

Ensure a smooth move of SAP S/4HANA to the public cloud

Moving your SAP S/4HANA environment to the public cloud can give your organization a more flexible, reliable, and secure environment, able to cope with rapid change while saving time and money.

For many more tips and insights on how to make a smooth and seamless move to the public cloud, this informative White Paper is a great place to start:

4-Step Roadmap: Transition to SAP S/4HANA in the Public Cloud