5 ways Red Hat and AWS help modernize your SAP landscape

Migrating to SAP S/4HANA^® is an opportunity to simplify your SAP landscape by moving to a hybrid cloud architecture and implementing cultural and organizational changes needed for cloud-native software development. Learn why the right technology foundation and a strategic migration approach are essential for successful migration:

Your underlying operating system (OS) and configuration management practices impact how well your SAP applications perform and comply with policies. 

• Inventory your current SAP landscape and identify the systems that need to be migrated to Linux®. If you are not already running Linux for other applications, determine whether you have Linux expertise in-house or need external resources. 
• Evaluate if it makes sense to migrate non-SAP workloads to Linux. If you are already running Linux for other applications, determine if the Linux distribution is certified for SAP and if the version is supported for S/4HANA. 
• If you are planning to build a hybrid environment, map out which workloads remain on-premise and which will move to the cloud. Consider OS, application development, and management platforms that span both on-premise and cloud infrastructure.
• Inventory the tools you are currently using. Identify areas where multiple tools are used for the same task on different systems. Analyze what tools and capabilities will be required to unify and streamline management of the hybrid cloud environment. 
• Look for tools that can help you automate processes across your entire IT environment and eliminate configuration drift by keeping your systems in compliance and up to date.

Standardizing on a single OS can ease migration to SAP HANA while improving IT stability. SAP has chosen Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® for SAP Solutions as one of two supported operating systems for SAP HANA and SAP S/4HANA. Red Hat Smart Management tools provide Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2 support.

Migrating your SAP landscape to the cloud can provide increased performance and scalability while helping you control costs. With the right cloud foundation, you can speed resource deployment, transform operational economics, and deliver elastic scalability to meet changing levels of demand.

• If you do not have a hybrid cloud strategy, do the necessary research, discovery, and analysis to formalize one.
• If you are currently using public cloud resources from a hyperscaler like AWS, evaluate whether you should use the same cloud providers for your SAP systems.
• Look for cloud providers that:
  • Offer certified, supported SAP solutions. 
  • Provide a variety of SAP-specific instances 
  • Work closely with your Linux distribution.
  • Allow you to start small and scale quickly, on demand, and cost-effectively. 
  • Allow you to expand existing instances when they reach capacity.
  • Provide observability that allows you to track and optimize use.
• Understand how your organization uses resources in your current cloud environment so you can define policies around cloud resource use.
• If you have global operations that require compliance with regional regulations, choose a cloud provider that can meet your data sovereignty and geo-specific compliance requirements.

Red Hat and AWS offer a hybrid cloud environment for SAP that modernizes IT manage­ment and application development to provide more stability, performance, security, and availability at scale. The environment is a proven foundation for SAP S/4HANA that improves efficiency and flexibility.

With modern hybrid cloud infrastructure, security must span the entire infrastructure, application stack, and life cycle. Adopt a continuous security approach that:

• Ensures systems are in compliance with security standards.
• Provides up-to-date protections against security breaches and cyberattacks.
• Features tools and processes to identify and remediate security and compliance issues.
• Automates routine security tasks.

Running SAP applications with Red Hat technologies on AWS allows you to strengthen your security posture, simplify compliance, and automate routine security tasks.

To increase business continuity and avoid costly downtime, you need technology partners that provide ongoing, accessible, enterprise-grade support.

Evaluate vendors and partners for their ability to:

• Work closely with you and other partners to support your SAP landscape.
• Resolve issues quickly.
• Coordinate support between vendors and partners.
• Provide both SAP and operating platform support.
• Provide service-level agreements (SLAs) with your SAP environment vendors that meet your requirements.

To run your largest and most critical SAP workloads effectively you need a high-performance, security-focused, stable foundation with fully committed extended life cycles and predictable capital expenditures (CapEX) and operating expenses (OpEx). Choose a cloud platform that: 

• Provides dynamic monitoring and optimized performance for SAP applications.
• Allows you to place workloads in specific geographic locations to meet performance requirements.
• Provides SLAs that meet the availability and uptime requirements for your SAP landscape.
• Offers high-availability and high-performance options/
• Offers an OS platform with committed life cycles. 

Red Hat and AWS offer a common platform in the datacenter and in the AWS cloud, providing a consistent experience across hybrid cloud infrastructure. The environment is a proven foundation for SAP S/4HANA that improves efficiency and flexibility. With Red Hat and AWS, you benefit from the experience of two companies that are leaders in helping organizations modernize applications and infrastructure around the world. Red Hat’s committed 10-year life cycle and the AWS SAP Competency Partners (part of the AWS Partner Network) can help you keep pace with technological change and prepare your SAP investments for the future.

See how Red Hat and AWS partner to develop tools and technologies to scale infrastructure and adapt to changing demands. Or learn more about Red Hat and AWS solutions for SAP and Red Hat on the AWS Marketplace.