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ChristophZimmermann
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
13,672

RISE with SAP, and with that SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, is and will remain the target solution to execute a digital cloud transformation.

For some customers it is challenging to start this move immediately. Nevertheless, these customers would like to benefit from moving their systems to a managed cloud infrastructure to drive security, compliance, and ease of system maintenance. Up to now this was only possible for SAP ERP customers running (or moving to) an SAP HANA database and not possible for other databases. This is exactly where the new offering ”SAP ERP, private edition, option for Microsoft SQL” available on Microsoft Azure comes in.

What is “SAP ERP, private edition, option for Microsoft SQL”?
Customers running their SAP ERP system on Microsoft SQL Server database in their on-premise system landscape can lift & shift their SAP ERP system into the SAP Cloud infrastructure supported by Microsoft Azure. There is no need to move to a specific enhancement package. If the customer is running Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or newer also no database upgrade needs to be performed.

Why should customers move to this new offering?
In general, we see two type of customers who are benefitting from this offering:

  1. Customers that are running SAP ERP on Microsoft SQL Server database and would like to move step-by-step to RISE with SAP. They want to use this offering to take the first step into the cloud without running an overall digital transformation project.

    ChristophZimmermann_0-1718196801180.png
    Benefits for these customers are:
    • De-risk their S/4HANA transformation project by moving their todays ERP environment into the cloud as first step.
    • Ensure that splitting the move into two steps does not result in increased total cost.
    • Leverage SAPs tailored migration offerings taking into consideration details of their todays ERP usage in SAP ERP.
    • Benefit from the TCO savings of the cloud instantly to fuel the budget for the business transformation.
    • Clean up their core prior to the S/4HANA transformation to ensure maximum efficiency and value creation with the transformation.
    • Take advantage of Microsoft Cloud Services for Innovation.
       
  2. Customers that are already moving to RISE with SAP but can’t execute this move for all their ERP systems in one single big bang rollout can now move all systems to the cloud and have these systems covered by ONE single contract in ONE cloud environment.

    ChristophZimmermann_1-1718196801183.png
    Benefits for these customers are:
    • Move their running / implementing SAP S/4HANA system along with the ERP on Microsoft SQL Server implementations jointly into SAP Cloud.
    • Benefit from tight integration between the solutions in one cloud environment.
    • Leverage the commercial benefit of having one RISE with SAP contract with multiple use rights
    • Decouple IT move to the cloud and business transformation to the next generation ERP
    • Take advantage of Microsoft Cloud Services for Innovation

Last thoughts about this offering
This offering is no alternative to RISE with SAP and SAP S/4HANA. Customers who want to participate in all innovations need to move to RISE with SAP. But this offering can help customers to first move their running SAP ERP system to the SAP Cloud running on Microsoft Azure to participate in all cloud infrastructure related advantages. The business transformation using RISE with SAP will then follow in a second step. 

14 Comments
eamonn_lg
Discoverer

@ChristophZimmermann, great blog and great news for our joint SAP SQLServer customers. Looking forward to helping them on this first step to the SAP clean core end-state. 
Microsoft SQL Server RISE with SAP 

james_low
Discoverer
0 Kudos

great news for customers wanting to take that first step towards RISE with SAP! Microsoft SQL Server 

Jayshree_Ravi
Explorer

Great news

If I understand this correctly, it is still SAP ECC but running on Azure Cloud. So it is just about the licenses. What exactly does Microsoft Cloud Services for Innovation do? Are there tools for moving from On-Prem to the cloud? Are there any restrictions on operating system and database versions?

Jayshree 

ChristophZimmermann
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
0 Kudos

@Jayshree_Ravi – let me take the questions one by one.

  • SAP ECC version: Yes, we are talking about a lift & shift from an on-premise SAP ECC 6 system into a SAP-managed private cloud environment running on Microsoft Azure. From a software standpoint customers stay on SAP ECC 6, but in a different operational model where SAP runs the customers system in a cloud environment.
  • Microsoft Cloud Services: As the target operational model runs on Microsoft Azure, customers will be able to use the various innovation services that come with Microsoft Azure natively (i.e. with regards to security, compliance, collaboration, scalability, etc.).
  • Tooling for moving to the cloud: Yes, SAP will offer migration services to execute the lift & shift from on-premise into the cloud.
  • SAP will support all MS SQL Server versions through the maximum Extended Support date. Right now this means supported versions are MS SQL Server 2016 and higher. The supported OS versions go in line with these supported MS SQL Server versions.
HarshilShah
Explorer
0 Kudos

Thank you for this great insight @ChristophZimmermann. I have a couple of question if you can answer.

(1) With this approach can customer delay their timeline (as of now SAP announced to migrate to S/4HANA by 31.12.2027) to move SAP S/4HANA from ECC environment?

(2) Is there any S note published to check more information?

Regards,

Harshil Shah

michael_eaton3
Active Contributor

@ChristophZimmermann a well-written and informative post. Thank you.

ChristophZimmermann
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert

@HarshilShah- happy to answer your questions.

(1) With this approach can customer delay their timeline (as of now SAP announced to migrate to S/4HANA by 31.12.2027) to move SAP S/4HANA from ECC environment?
The support timelines are bound to the product as documented in the "Product Availability Matrix" (https://support.sap.com/PAM). The "SAP ERP, private edition, option for Microsoft SQL" is no exception to these timelines. As communicated previously SAP ECC 6.0 EhP0-5 will run out of mainstream maintenance by end of 2025 and SAP ECC 6.0 EhP6-8 will run out of mainstream maintenance by end of 2027.

(2) Is there any S note published to check more information?
There is no S-Note available, but we are working on additional information that will be published soon. As always you can reach out to your local sales representative for more detailed and customer-specific help.

HarshilShah
Explorer
0 Kudos

Thank you @ChristophZimmermann for this information. Appreciate your reply.

Regards,

Harshil Shah

TOlschewski
Explorer
0 Kudos

This is a brilliant move by SAP.

They offer a two-stage approach to moving to RISE/GROW with SAP. The first step is to migrate your systems to the cloud and familiarize yourself with the different operating model in which SAP operates your systems. Once you are familiar with this, you can migrate to RISE/GROW.

This basically makes the S/4 transformation (if RISE or GROW is the target architecture) less risky and splits the big bang transformation into two sub-projects: A pure IT project (move to the cloud) and an S/4 business transformation project.

And it goes without saying that the revenue counts as cloud revenue already during the ERP operating phase.

chinadad96
Discoverer
0 Kudos

Another tool in the toolbox.  Interesting.  

If I understand this correctly (Assuming SQL server is at correct level):

If we have a customer at EHP6 or higher running SQL Server..  We can lift and shift them to RISE and have until 2030 to get to S/4 (this is 2027 + the Extended Support Period).  SAP has already announced ECC customers in RISE will get extended support as part of the normal subscription fee.

If we have a customer at EPH5 or lower running SQL Server.. We can lift and shift them to RISE and have until the end of 2025 to get to S/4 or to something newer than EHP5.

Did I miss anything?  AZURE only I would assume.  
All windows servers or any Linux servers?

ChristophZimmermann
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert

@chinadad96- You are correct - except one thing. This is NOT a RISE offering, it is a specific private cloud offering. It does include an ECC 6.0 system landscape only, no additional components as in RISE with SAP including as main component SAP S/4HANA.

Summarized:

  • ECC 6.0 EhP 0-5 will go out of mainstream maintenance by end of 2025 with no option to move to extended maintenance. It will then move into customer-specific maintenance.
  • ECC 6.0 EhP 6-8 will go out of mainstream maintenance by end of 2027 with the option to move to extended maintenance until end of 2030. Extended maintenance is included in the baseline subscription fee.
  • Hyperscaler is Microsoft Azure.
  • Main components (ECC+MSSQL) on Windows only.

chinadad96
Discoverer
0 Kudos

@ChristophZimmermann 

Thanks for the clarification / confirmation. 

It is what I thought.  ECC 6 on Azure with MSSQL on Windows... No Linux.

No change to the end dates.  So if you are EhP 0-5, this is a really tight timeline to move and then upgrade.

With customer specific maintenance.  Will that be allowed in PCE?  I would assume not.

Sorry for adding confusion with the RISE brand.  My understanding is there are other components available with this option.  (Stand Alone Access controls for example). 

I assume I can add in BOBJ and Data Services and IAAS as needed.

BW on SQL Server?  

Thanks

 

CC31
Associate
Associate
0 Kudos

Good news! Can I check whether SAP ERP, private edition, ​option for Microsoft SQL is also available in Mainland China? 

ChristophZimmermann
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
0 Kudos

@CC31 - the offering is available for China.