The clouds lifted a little at Sapphire
PAC US, Peter Russo - Managing Director
SAP's journey to offering Cloud solutions over the last couple of years has not been trouble-free, with the well-documented issues with Business ByDesign (now, it seems, largely resolved). The strategy was also progressing in two parallel directions, with a different strategy for large enterprises (Cloud-based add-ons like CRM OnDemand, originally to be based on its 'Frictionless' technology) to that for small organizations (the all-embracing SaaS solution of Business ByDesign). This strategy was overseen by John Wookey, who left SAP shortly before Sapphire. So there was much interest in SAP's SaaS strategy announcements.
Several things need to be highlighted from this.
First, that Business ByDesign is not just for small businesses - it is actively being promoted as a solution for divisions and subsidiaries of large corporates. It is also the underpinning for SalesOnDemand (formally announced last March) not Frictionless, which is aimed at large enterprises; and at Sapphire we also learnt that Accenture was just one of the partners developing ByD-based solutions targeted at larger enterprises.
Second, there is another strand to SAP's attack on the Cloud: it also announced that variety of SAP solutions, including SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions and SAP BusinessObjects solutions, are now available "on demand" via Amazon Web Services (AWS). SAP's flagship ERP applications on Linux and AWS Windows instances are on the way.
Third, the company announced, with Microsoft, the "Windows Azure SDK for SAP NetWeaver Gateway": a new software development kit (SDK) for Windows Azure for .NET developers to create private or public cloud-based applications for Windows Azure that connect to on-premise SAP systems.
Fourth, a cloud version of the much-vaunted HANA in-memory database is in pre-beta.
So there's still a lot to digest in SAP's Cloud strategy but one thing's very clear: SAP takes the Cloud very seriously indeed and is progressing on all fronts. Its strategy is gaining in credibility and applicability in leaps and bounds. Customers, partners and competitors alike would be wise to pore over these announcements very carefully.
About the author:
Peter has over 10 years of experience in the SITS industry. He joined Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) in 2001. He serves as the managing director of PAC's U.S. operations and its partners in Latin America. Peter is also the founder of PAC's global SAP & Oracle Services research teams programs.
On the consulting side, he is involved in U.S. and global projects for software suppliers pertaining to ecosystem assessment, competitive benchmarking, go-to-market strategy in emerging industries, and analysis, planning, and execution of localized partnership strategies.
Peter is often quoted in both IT news and major publications for his views on the application software market. He is also a frequent speaker at IT conferences and PAC Webinars.
