Streamlining SAP migration to the cloud with Cloud4C SHOP

POSTED BY: Lionell Go Macahilig
2023-08-15 16:38:55 PHT

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses are embracing cloud technologies as a means to drive innovation, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer experiences. The move to the cloud has become a strategic imperative across all industries, and Cloud4C, an Advanced Managed Cloud Service Provider, stands at the forefront.

The KaUSAP Summit 2023 was held recently at the Grand Hyatt Hotel with the theme of Building Blocks Towards Business Agility, with Cloud4C as a Titanium event sponsor. Senior Vice President of Global Delivery Kamalakar Gunupati gave a talk titled "Move to Cloud" which aimed to shed light on the groundbreaking Self Healing Operations Platform (SHOP) and why this serves as a game-changer for managing Systems Applications and Products in data processing (SAP) environments.

Mastering digital transformation

Migration, management & modernization of SAP environments is a very complex activity, especially when done in a scale environment. Pulling these complex activities off, time & again with accuracy, agility and consistency requires a specialist capability, backed by high levels of automation and a migration factory approach. Very few companies can claim this. These are the pillars that Cloud4C was built on. The organization started as part of the CtrlS group of companies in India. CtrlS owns the largest pools of Rated 4 datacenters in Asia Pacific. Not even the Philippines has that high of a digital infrastructure. “Our founder & chairman saw that we’re good at hosting all of this unimaginable amount of workload, but why not take it to the next level and manage them? That’s how Cloud4C was born,” said Edler Panlilio, Cloud4C President and CEO.

Cloud4C is able to confidently streamline complex processes because of 3 things. The first is a strong foundation set in place with the delivery platform of SHOP. Secondly, built-in practices have been developed from decades of doing SAP and non SAP related practices. And what those practices will give clients is a baseline. “Transformation will always be complicated. The hardest part is knowing where to start. We are able to inform you of that,” Panlilio says. And thirdly, it’s a question of capability. This is all the more proven by the rapid growth the organization has seen over the years with now being over 20+ centers of excellence that Cloud4C has.

Understanding how SHOP can help

Every organization looks for the best way to efficiently use resources. More than having less physical labour, automation offers operational value for both businesses and its customers. Cloud4C understands that not all workloads have the same migration requirements or urgency. They can prioritize critical workloads and devise migration plans that minimize disruption and downtime for business-critical processes.

“SHOP enables businesses to scale their SAP environments dynamically based on workload demands. Cloud4C leverages the elasticity of the cloud to provide resources as needed, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency. This scalability and elasticity accommodate businesses with varying workloads and growth patterns, allowing them to scale up or down without constraints,” Gunupati says.

Based on the name itself, SHOP leverages automated scripts to provide self-healing operations for SAP environments on the cloud. Its ability to proactively identify and resolve issues, optimize performance, and reduce manual intervention results in enhanced operational efficiency.

IT decision-makers are faced with multiple challenges when migrating SAP environments to the cloud, such as complex configurations, scalability issues, and cost concerns. Cloud4C works closely with organizations to assess their specific needs and develop a customized migration approach. This approach takes into consideration factors such as the size of the SAP landscape, complexity of the existing infrastructure, desired cloud platform, and business goals. By tailoring the migration strategy, Cloud4C ensures that the transition to the cloud aligns with the organization's objectives and architecture.

“We have developed our own unique configuration management and template. We do assessments with the client to figure out what is the deviation from standard practice and tweak the SHOP for that particular difference,” Gunupati said.

Cloud4C's SHOP offers hybrid and multi-cloud capabilities, allowing businesses to choose the cloud platform that best suits their requirements. Whether it's public clouds like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, or private cloud environments, Cloud4C can accommodate them. This flexibility enables businesses to leverage their existing investments, adhere to specific regulatory requirements, or adopt a multi-cloud strategy for redundancy and performance optimization.

Each client is unique depending on the industry they’re in. SHOP is able to offer a high level of customization and flexibility to businesses because it is a low-code platform in which a non-developer can operate themselves.

“We have built in bots to write the code for the functionality that is required. You just need to provide what’s needed and it’ll give a program or an API in no time. This helps us with not just integration but it also gives complete control with how the platform is used,” Gunupati says.