The Benefits of Migrating to IBM Cloud for SAP S/4HANA
28 July 2020
2 min read
Syniti is using Skytap on IBM Cloud to make migrating to the cloud fast, easy, and cost-effective.

For more than 20 years, Syniti (link resides outside of ibm.com) has helped companies from a variety of industries solve their complex enterprise data challenges. We work with some of the biggest organizations in the world, developing software-led data solutions to fit their needs. Our engagement goals are two-fold: First, we want to help companies reduce costs and increase time to value. Second, we want to make data accessible to businesspeople, not just data scientists.

Our customers trust us with their most sensitive data–human capital information, unique product information, and financials, to name a few. This is their lifeblood. Until recently, most of our corporate customers preferred to keep this important data on physical, on-premises servers. However, in the last few years, overall confidence in the cloud has grown, and many organizations are ready to move toward more cloud-based architectures.

When we began looking for a cloud provider, we knew we needed a company that could stand up to heavy scrutiny from our big-name clients—a company that would inspire confidence and provide a consistent and predictable cloud infrastructure. We already had a great relationship with IBM®, so we began our search with IBM Cloud®. A thorough evaluation of other cloud providers convinced us that IBM Cloud was the right choice for our business.

     
    A focus on SAP

    Although we are a platform-agnostic organization, one of the more popular enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions among our customers is SAP S/4HANA®. For those implementations, we use IBM Cloud for SAP S/4HANA with the Skytap on IBM Cloud service. This service fosters confidence among our customers, because it includes penetration testing and certifications that would have been difficult for us to provide on our own. Skytap also enables us to manage and provision solutions that offer better performance and reliability than on-premises solutions—without the administrative burden.

    Migrating legacy data to SAP S/4HANA can seem like a massive undertaking, but our customers find that it’s both quick and cost-effective. Even with Syniti’s advanced tools, provisioning a new on-premises server for an SAP solution can take months. Provisioning our software on an IBM Cloud for SAP server typically takes less than an hour.

    Furthermore, customers who use our solution to migrate their legacy data to SAP S/4HANA on the cloud typically save 30 to 40 percent over alternative data migration options. One customer’s global implementation saved them nearly EUR 11 million—more than the actual cost of the software.

    Working together

    I’m pleased to note that our work with IBM and SAP has gone so well that both companies are now reselling our products and services. IBM lists our products through the IBM Global Business Services® sales channel, and SAP recently listed Syniti Knowledge Platform with its Solution Extension Program. Solutions in this program must achieve premium qualification. That means that we have a certified integration, we’ve gone through security vulnerability testing, and we conform to the standards SAP customers expect when they purchase SAP products.

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    Author
    Rex Ahlstrom Chief Strategy and Technical Officer, Syniti