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Contents
Introduction
Guidelines for
Cloud
Migration
Choosing a
Cloud Partner
The Last
Word
ATS Mini Case
Study
GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT THE CLOUD:
HOW TO SAFELY MIGRATE SAP ® APPLICATIONS
I NT RO D U CT I O N
It’s time to get serious about the cloud. After years of hearing about its business benefits
(cost efficiency, greater productivity, faster time to market), companies are ready to
start reaping some meaningful results. But how?
The truth is, most enterprises start their cloud relationships tentatively, with workloads
that are tangential to core business operations. Unfortunately, this approach rarely
achieves noticeable results in terms of savings or productivity enhancements. Worse:
time spent training staff to migrate and manage those non -critical workloads may actually
divert resources from strategic initiatives, resulting in a decline in overall productivity
and an increase in costs.
A more effective approach to the cloud is to find a way to apply its benefits to all
workloads, especially the most labor-intense, such as SAP ® . With the right cloud partner,
the task does not have to be daunting; it is simply a matter of understanding the steps.
Gui del i nes fo r Cl ou d Mi grati o n
With help from their cloud partners, businesses can begin their cloud migrations by
following some simple guidelines:
1. Establish business and IT priorities – This sounds obvious, but too often
companies get sidetracked by cloud-mania. Is your goal really to “get into the
cloud?” Or is it to make your IT operations more efficient? The latter leads to an
entirely different perspective in researching vendors and selecting solutions.
2. Inventory your workloads – Focus on those that are in greatest need of
streamlining and optimization (such as heavily customized legacy applications);
they may be candidates for a redesign for optimal cloud delivery. Similarly,
consider how workloads can be split so that certain functions or components may
be kept on-premises or in a traditional hosting environment, while others can be
re-factored for the cloud.
3. Develop a cloud strategy – Work with your cloud partner to determine the
optimal configuration for your key workloads, whether premises -based, hosted, or
cloud. Be sure to build in appropriate levels of security, availability (including
backup and recovery), and ongoing management for each workload.
4. Communicate – Upper management and your line-of-business colleagues will be
impacted by the migration, so it’s only fair to share your plans, goals, and progress
regularly. Emphasize how the entire business will benefit from faster time to
market, reduced errors, and higher availability. Good communication leads to
greater support—and first chance at available budget dollars.
5. Execute a migration plan – For most businesses, migration concerns are
enough to keep them from embracing the cloud. They have neither the excess
staff nor the expertise to manage the migration while maintaining parallel
workloads in the traditional environment. Therefore, be sure your partner has the
project management skills to develop and execute a migration plan that causes
minimal disruption to business operations. Figure 1 shows an effective migration
timeline that is utilized by Symmetry Corp. While each company’s project is
different, this timeline provides the business with a realistic view of how long the
project will take.
Fi gure 1: Mi g rati o n T i m el i ne
Source: Symmetry Corp.
6. Ongoing management – When the goal is to optimize IT, then simply moving
workloads from one environment to another is not sufficient. Be sure to maximize
the value you gain from the cloud by working with a partner with expertise in
your applications, who will ensure that you continue to realize efficiency gains
throughout the lifecycle of the application.
Ch oo si ng a Cl ou d Par tner
The steps toward migration require a partnership with the right cloud service provider —
a provider that does more than provide leased computing resources; one that can help
you meet your IT and business goals. Select a cloud partner with a breadth of offers —not
just cloud, but also hosting, managed, and professional services. When you’re looking to
migrate critical workloads, be sure the partner has on -staff expertise in migrating and
managing your specific applications.
For SAP migrations, many businesses are turning to Symmetry Corporation. Symmetry
has managed SAP solutions long before “cloud” became an industry -standard word. The
company’s expert team offers SAP technical consulting, hosting, long and short term
managed services, and project support, in addition to cloud services. This expertise and a
customer-focused approach to consulting and services are at the heart of Symmetry’s
business model, and have helped establish Symmetry as the trusted partner for
businesses like Advanced Technology Services (see case study on following page).
Stratecast
The Last Word
Businesses that tiptoe into the cloud will never realize its promise. To maximize
value, they need to apply the cloud’s efficiencies and cost -effectiveness to their
biggest, most critical workloads, like SAP. And they can approach the task with
confidence when they partner with an expert in SAP -optimized cloud configurations,
like Symmetry. Symmetry offers a broad portfolio of hosting, cloud, and managed
services. Even more important to a growing business, Symmetry partners with IT to
assess, migrate, and manage SAP and other workloads, to ensure continual
optimization. In that way, a company can stop worrying about the cloud and focus on
running its business.
Lynda Stadtmueller
Program Director – Cloud Computing
Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan
[email protected]
DON’T GAMBLE WITH YOUR SAP ® AND CLOUD HOSTING SOLUTION
When it comes to handling your business-critical IT operations, you need an ace hosting
vendor that is focused on delivering value in service and return on investment. Advanced
Technology Services, a leader in factory maintenance services, wanted a partner who
could cover all of its project needs, from implementation to post SAP -managed support,
without strapping the company’s budget.
D on't t hr ow a w ay y ou r m o ney
On top of on-the-ball service and reduced costs, ATS knew its system upgrade couldn’t
affect business as usual…especially when you’re in the business of supporting your own
clients. Most importantly, it didn’t make sense to pay for an outsourcing vendor and still
tie up internal staff with tickets and troubleshooting. By turning to Symmetry, ATS found
a responsive team of experts who could keep its operations running smoothly, so ATS
could focus on its real responsibilities.
Bri ng a hel pi ng h an d to the t abl e
Symmetry migrated the entire SAP/ECC system, including BI Solutions Manager, TREX,
content server and tertiary servers to Symmetry’s IBM Power Cloud and Windows
Cloud. The vendor team additionally worked to minimize impact on ATS’s end, by
scheduling downtime over a holiday weekend break to allow for system syncing and
testing. Even post implementation and go live, ATS knows it can rely on Symmetry to
lend a helping hand. “Symmetry is a partner not a vendor,” says Chris Crofoot, Director
of Information Systems at ATS. “Instead of dealing with intermediaries that don’t
understand SAP, we can talk to a knowledgeable support team, anytime we need support.
That’s true customer service.”
Hi t the sol uti on s j ac k pot
▪
Only 45 days to achieve a more efficient, more cost -effective solution
▪
Upgraded to a trusted, responsive partnership
▪
No more in-house SAP maintenance needed
▪
Hardware is sized to correct specs
▪
Peace of mind that advice from Symmetry will be both expert and accurate
▪
More savings and better performance to best serve ATS’s client base. “We
experienced 66 percent savings in direct costs, while gaining 15 percent increase
in performance. Those are figures, not estimates.”
Source: Symmetry Corp. and ATS
For more information on Symmetry solutions, visit www.sym -corp.com.
Learn more about Symmetry’s Cloud capabilities:
1-888-SYM-CORP
www.Sym-Corp.com
ABOUT SYMMETRY
Founded in 1996, Symmetry Corporation delivers technical managed services, security administration and project
consulting for SAP customers in the U.S. and around the world. Based at Symmetry’s Center of Excellence in Milwaukee,
Wis., its large staff delivers flexible, high-quality solutions that help reduce the total cost of ownership and enable
high-performing, secure, stable environments. Symmetry is an IBM Advanced Business Partner, SAP hosting partner and
SAP-certified provider of cloud and hosting services.
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Learn more about how Symmetry can help you to optimize system productivity and reduce administrative costs.
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