Why SAP customers are modernizing their IBM Power and mainframe workloads on AWS

As customers running SAP on IBM Power on-premises systems consider the next phase in their SAP journey, many are looking to standardize on more common, cost-effective infrastructure platforms and gain access to innovations in generative AI, analytics, and machine learning capabilities. AWS offers more than 107 SAP-certified instances, enabling customers to optimize for their unique cost and performance requirements.

In this blog, we will talk about why customers are increasingly choosing to migrate their SAP systems from IBM Power to AWS, and how you can get started.

The Hidden Costs of Legacy Infrastructure
While IBM Power Systems and mainframes have served organizations well for decades, they come with significant challenges:

• High total cost of ownership (TCO) from hardware, software licensing, and specialized skills
• Decreasing talent pool of professionals with mainframe and Power Systems expertise
• Limited ability to integrate with modern cloud-native services and innovations
• Rigid scaling that requires significant upfront capital investment
• Shift from CapEx to OpEx: Migrating to AWS eliminates the need for large upfront investments in hardware and data centers (Capital Expenditure or CapEx). Customers transition to a pay-as-you-go model, paying only for the resources they consume.

Why AWS is the Natural Choice for SAP Workloads

AWS offers several compelling advantages for SAP customers looking to modernize:
1. Proven Performance at Scale

• Purpose-built Amazon EC2 instances certified for SAP workloads
• Consistent sub-millisecond latency and millions of IOPS
• SAP-certified high memory instances with up to 32TB of memory

2. Reduced Total Cost of Ownership

• Pay-as-you-go pricing eliminates upfront capital expenses
• Automated operations reduce administrative overhead
• Right-sizing and auto-scaling optimize resource utilization
• Lower Hardware Costs: Industry-standard x86 servers from AWS are generally less expensive than proprietary Power systems

3. Enhanced Innovation Capabilities

• SAP customers can modernize their landscape for RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP journeys, integrated with SAP Business Technology Platform, all hosted on AWS. This approach minimizes costs and boosts security by keeping data within the secure AWS network, avoiding public internet transmission
• Native integration with 200+ AWS services
• Access to cutting-edge technologies like ML, IoT, and analytics
• Rapid prototyping and development of new capabilities
• Broader Software Ecosystem: The x86 platform has a much larger software ecosystem, with more choices for operating systems, databases, middleware, and applications
• Flexibility and Portability: x86 systems offer more flexibility in terms of vendor choice and the ability to run a wider range of operating systems and software. This can improve portability of workloads

4. Simplified Operations

• Automated backup, recovery, and high availability
• Comprehensive security and compliance controls

Sizing AWS EC2 Instances for SAP Workloads Migrating from IBM Power Systems
SAP Standard Application Benchmarks help customers and partners find the appropriate hardware configuration for their IT solutions. Working in concert, SAP and our hardware partners developed the SAP Standard Application Benchmarks to test the hardware and database performance of SAP applications and components. SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS) is a hardware-independent unit of measurement that describes the performance of a system configuration in the SAP environment. It is derived from the Sales and Distribution (SD) benchmark, where 100 SAPS is defined as 2,000 fully business processed order line items per hour. Let’s calculate IBM Power SAPS ratings using the SAP SD Benchmark across different hardware configurations and CPU core counts and maps its equivalent AWS EC2 SAP certified instance.

Migrating SAP systems from IBM Power to AWS
Migrating an AnyDB (any non-SAP HANA database like Oracle, SQL Server, or IBM DB2) to SAP HANA on AWS typically involves a replatforming approach. This process leverages SAP’s Database Migration Option (DMO) tool, a feature of the Software Update Manager (SUM).
Key steps and considerations for migrating AnyDB to SAP HANA on AWS:
Planning and Sizing:
Assess your current AnyDB environment to understand its size, complexity, and dependencies. Determine the appropriate SAP HANA instance sizing for your workload on AWS, considering memory and compute requirements. SAP standard sizing reports are recommended for this.
AWS Infrastructure Setup:
Provision the necessary AWS resources, including EC2 instances for SAP HANA and application servers, storage (EBS), and networking (VPC, subnets, security groups). Consider using AWS Launch Wizard for SAP to automate and expedite the deployment of your SAP HANA landscape on AWS, ensuring adherence to best practices.
SAP Application Server Installation:
AWS Launch Wizard for SAP can help with both initial infrastructure setup and install SAP Application Servers.
Migration Method Selection:
SAP DMO with SUM: This is a common and recommended method for migrating AnyDB to SAP HANA. It allows for database conversion, OS migration, and potentially release/enhancement pack upgrades and Unicode conversions.
HANA System Replication: Can be used for migrating SAP HANA 2.0 on IBM Power to SAP HANA 2.0 on AWS.
HANA 1.0 Big Endian on IBM Power to HANA 2.0 on AWS Little Endian Migration: Customers can refer to SAP HANA System Migration Tool as documented in SAP Note 2537080. The second part describes a migration using the “Combined SWPM and HANA Migration Tool Database Migration” method (see SAP Note 2802500)
Data Migration:
If using DMO, the tool handles the data extraction from the source AnyDB and conversion to flat files, which are then transferred to the target SAP HANA system on AWS. Ensure robust network connectivity between your on-premises environment and AWS, potentially utilizing AWS Direct Connect for secure and faster data transfer.

Customer Success Stories
Dole Food Company, a global leader in fresh produce, partnered with Syntax to modernize their SAP landscape by migrating their IBM Power Systems to AWS. Operating 162,000 acres of farmland across 29 countries, Dole faced challenges with their aging infrastructure and needed a solution that would enhance their operational efficiency. Working with Syntax, they successfully migrated their complex SAP environment, which included both IBM Power and x86 workloads. Specific SAP solutions involved in Dole’s migration to AWS were S/4HANA, Business Warehouse (BW), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Process Orchestration (PO), Solution Manager, Unified Demand Forecast (UDF), and BusinessObjects (BO). Leveraging AWS’s global infrastructure, Syntax delivered a comprehensive SAP migration for Dole Packaged Foods that optimized costs through AWS Reserved Instances, improved performance with Amazon EC2, and reduced system deployment time using AWS CloudFormation and automation tools. The solution utilized AWS Direct Connect for secure connectivity, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for Zero-Trust security implementation, and AWS Systems Manager for enhanced visibility—empowering Dole with elastic scalability through AWS Auto Scaling and freeing up capital by eliminating on-premises infrastructure costs.

A Fortune 500 manufacturing company successfully migrated its entire SAP ERP landscape from IBM Power to AWS, encompassing 1,200+ servers and hundreds of terabytes of data, with just 20 hours of production downtime. This 15-month transformation delivered significant business outcomes: millions in compute cost savings through AWS’s pay-as-you-go model, enhanced scalability with AWS Auto Scaling, and improved resiliency leveraging AWS’s multi-AZ architecture.

Getting Started

AWS offers a complete set of resources for SAP migrations, providing detailed documentation, proven migration frameworks, specialized tools, and dedicated technical support:

* AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) for SAP
* AWS Professional Services and certified SAP partners
* Migration methodologies, frameworks, and best practices
* SAP on AWS Documentation

Contact your AWS account team or visit our SAP on AWS page to learn more about moving your SAP workloads to AWS.