Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily cloud news and commentary show. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the cloud.
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I discuss how IBM and SAP are teaming up to help 10,000 on-prem SAP ERP customers migrate to the cloud using IBM Power Virtual Server, unlocking significant financial opportunities and simplifying the transition process.
Highlights
00:22 — IBM and SAP are teaming up to help ensure that the 10,000 SAP ERP on-prem customers currently using IBM Power Systems on-premises continue to use Power and SAP ERP in the cloud. This mass migration effort is designed to help those 10,000 on-prem customers move aggressively into the cloud. The formal name is RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server.
01:11 — Some customers have made this move with IBM Power in just 90 days. IBM said that this sort of puts it in the hyperscaler game because this Power Virtual Server had to meet the code base required by SAP for ERP in the cloud. They also talked about how there’s significant cost advantages for customers doing this.
02:08 — If we look at this on a larger scale, there’s right now somewhere around 23,000–24,000 SAP on-prem customers that have yet to make the full move to the cloud. Now, of those 40%, about 10,000 of those are on IBM Power. So, this is a massive portion of the overall on-prem base for SAP. This is a huge opportunity for both SAP and IBM.
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03:45 — This could be potentially a financial opportunity for SAP, in the range of $10 billion. For IBM, it would give it a huge base for this IBM Power Virtual Server. It would give it additional credibility for some of the services it’s doing, its partnerships, and allow it to move more deeply into some IBM clients with this. So, it’s clearly of enormous importance for both SAP and IBM.
04:30 — This extended partnership reflects what we’re seeing across the industry, where companies are finding that the unique new needs and requirements of customers sometimes are best served by the partnerships between the Cloud Wars Top 10 companies.
