Managed Cloud Service Unveiled as New Deployment Option for SAP® Business Suite Powered by SAP HANA

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — May 8, 2013 — In response to strong global customer demand, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the SAP HANA® Enterprise Cloud service. This cloud-based offering is designed to provide organizations with a new deployment option to gain immediate value from the innovation of SAP HANA®, the next-generation in-memory platform. Going forward, running mission-critical SAP® ERP, SAP® CRM, SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse and new and unprecedented applications powered by SAP HANA will be possible as a managed cloud service with elastic petabyte scale. SAP aims to enable organizations to realize faster time-to-value coupled with lower total cost of ownership, and enjoy flexibility and reliability from the world’s leading enterprise application software provider.

Core SAP® Business Suite applications powered by SAP HANA, announced earlier this year, have been met with widespread interest and enthusiasm. Customers around the world recognize the value of running their enterprise in real time. In recent years, many have been quick to embrace the numerous advantages offered by the cloud. With today’s announcement, SAP will bring together the ease of the cloud with the industry-leading innovation and performance of SAP HANA in a simple and powerful model.

“We are thrilled to be the first SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA pilot customer running live on SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud,” said Don Whittington, CIO, Florida Crystals. “As part of our aggressive global growth strategy, it was paramount that we have the ability to deploy mission-critical SAP applications powered by SAP HANA as quickly as possible via the cloud without any compromise. I had the vision of running SAP as fast as Excel and today I am happy to share with you that we were able to complete the app migration and cloud on-boarding in just two months. I have personally been able to experience the unbelievable performance of SAP HANA for my cost center reporting. Our business community is looking forward to continuous innovation and transformation with SAP.”

“With SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, we are addressing a fundamental customer need that we have seen since we first launched HANA,” said Dr. Vishal Sikka, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, Technology and Innovation. “Customers want more and more options in how they take advantage of the value SAP HANA brings. With the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, we are delivering HANA at scale with instant value and no compromise. We are simplifying customers’ experience and expanding their choice in how they want to adopt SAP HANA, now bringing it to a massive scale for enterprise mission critical applications – and we are doing this without disruption through the cloud.”

“Technological breakthroughs can make a tremendous impact in the Asia Pacific region where organizations are less encumbered by legacy investments. We see strong demand for in-memory cloud computing in Asia where our customers are eager to realize the immediate benefits of SAP HANA. We believe the power of real-time computing combined with the simplicity of the cloud make an enticing choice for organizations of all sizes,” said Steve Watts, President, SAP Asia Pacific Japan.

Open + Us Ecosystem Strategy
 SAP plans to deliver the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud along with its partners in an “open + us” strategy. SAP intends  to adapt this open ecosystem strategy with its managed service providers to offer the capabilities of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud from their data centers, as well as from multiple SAP data centers worldwide. Details on the initiative for SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud in the SAP® PartnerEdge® program will be shared with partners at the partner summit and with customers at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held May 14–16 in Orlando, Florida.

“SAP and Intel have a long history of joint innovation and a shared vision of delivering the powerful in-memory platform SAP HANA to all server customers, including those utilizing the cloud,” said Diane Bryant, senior vice-president and general manager, Data Centers and Connected Systems Group, Intel. “As a result, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud running on the Intel Xeon processor E7 family will provide our customers with the opportunity to deploy mission-critical solutions powered by SAP HANA with cloud simplicity. We look forward to furthering our collaboration with SAP as the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud takes customers to the next level of scale, security and reliability.”

On-Ramp to the Cloud                                                                
 SAP recommends a few easy steps for customers to engage and begin realizing the benefits of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud quickly. Starting with the necessary software licenses for SAP Business Suite, SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse from SAP or qualified partners, as well as new and innovative SAP HANA applications, customers will then take the following steps:

·         Engage with experts from the SAP® Services organization to receive a comprehensive assessment and advisory service to determine which solutions will have the highest performance impact by moving to the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud based on company’s specific system landscape, data and applications

·         Once these high impact solutions are determined, SAP Services can then provide onboarding and migration services

·         Finally, customers begin monthly subscription for SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud service, depending on the size, scale of data and applications

More information on the SAP Services, partner offerings and first adopters of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, as well as further information on the service will be shared next week at SAPPHIRE NOW.