How AWS Cloud WAN Can Simplify RISE Connectivity

Introduction

Today’s world of digital transformation is fast-paced and more businesses are migrating towards cloud platforms to benefit from performance, flexibility and scalability. Azure combined with SAP RISE workloads delivers a powerful duo to fuel business operations and drive innovation. Azure’s powerful cloud services and SAP RISE, an end-to-end offering for business transformation, combine to form a dynamic landscape with the potential of taking businesses to the next level.
This blog provides guidance on how to integrate Azure with SAP RISE in order to achieve frictionless integration which enables you to make the most of your business transformation and performance, security and scalability improvements.

Steps for Seamless Integration

Understand the Infrastructure Requirement

Prior to considering integration, I recommend that you conduct an analysis of your existing SAP landscape together with the capabilities offered through Azure.

• Assess SAP Landscape: Catalog your current investments in SAP – such as the S4/HANA, SuccessFactors and other applications – to assess their readiness for integration with Azure cloud services.

Validate Infrastructure: Verify that your current infrastructure is able to handle the Azure environment. That could require investments in new hardware, tuning how data is stored or developing networking configurations that can accommodate the integration.

Knowing what you currently have and what needs to be done will help minimize any big hiccups as you take your very first step into the cloud.

Utilize SAP Cloud Appliance Library

• SAP Cloud Appliance Library: How to Prepare an SAP CAL Azure Instance Runtime Description The process to set up an SAP system on Microsoft Azure (Azure) is now easier than before with the deployment of the virtual machine following the steps defined in this document.
  
• Pre-configured SAP RISE Workloads: Out of the box, the library has a selection of pre-configured & easy-to-deploy SAP RISE workloads for Azure, which helps to quickly deploy with less chances of setup failures.
  
• Rapid time-to-market: Get to market quickly with fast deployment of SAP solutions on Azure with CAL and minimize the timeline to live for your cloud-based SAP solution.

Implement Azure Logic Apps

For more streamlined data exchange and interplay of systems between Azure and SAP RISE, there’s now an even better tool: Azure Logic Apps.

• Workflow automation: Automate business processes by connecting your SAP applications with other Azure services through Workflow Automation using Azure Logic Apps without the need to write extensive code.
  
• Data Synchronization: It enables smooth data replication between your SAP apps, making sure that your systems are updated instantly with most current information.
  With Azure Logic Apps, it can reduce the complexity of system-to-system communication, and make things more automatic to keep your operational costs at the minimal level.
  

Ensure Data Security and Compliance

Whilst the integration of Azure and SAP RISE workloads is important, it is necessary to ensure that attention is paid to security and compliance given the sensitivity of business data.

• Enhanced Security – Azure has world class security features (like MFA, encryption and firewall that keeps you from the baddies) to keep your SAP workloads safe & secure!
• Industry Compliance: Azure is industry compliant solutions including GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX : Accessible integration which adheres to local compliance regulations.

By integrating with Azure Security and Compliance, you ensure that your mission-critical data is guarded against attacks and that you meet regulatory obligations.

Monitor and Optimize

Upon implementing, it is equally important to constantly takes a pulse check along with active management of SAP workloads for optimal performance.

• Azure Monitoring Tools: If you have fully taken advantage of monitoring tools like Azure Monitor and Azure Application Insights, RISE workloads can easily be monitored for health & performance in real time.
  
• Performance Tuning: Use Azure auto-scaling and optimization ensure that you are fully utilizing resources in a cost-effective manner.
  Continuously check your SAP RISE workloads for performance bottlenecks and optimize them further to achieve greater scalability, security and cost effectiveness.
  

Advantages of Connecting Azure with SAP RISE

Connecting Azure to SAP RISE workloads can provide many potential advantages for your business:

• Enhanced Scalability:
  The binding allows to scale SAP scenarios cost efficiently in Azure’s cloud infrastructure. SAP RISE working with Azure enables an organization to scale quickly based on needs while not having to worry about infrastructure limitations at all.
  
  • Dynamic Scaling: With Azure’s elastic infrastructure, companies will be able to easily scale in and out resources based on changing workloads.
    
• Improved Performance:
  With SAP RISE workloads on Azure, organizations will benefit from Azure’s global data center network.
  
  • Reduced Latency: Take advantage of the broad data center presence for Azure to lower latency and enhance the performance of SAP applications – ultimately enabling fast response times for your end users.
    
  • Accelerate Your SAP Applications: Utilize Azure’s supercomputing power to make your system more nimble and support faster response times for SAP workloads.
    
• Robust Security:
  Security is perhaps the most important concern while you are integrating it to cloud (and Azure naturally provides enterprise-quality security features).
  
  • Data Protection – with advanced security capabilities such as data encryption, firewall protection and identity management Azure will help keep your SAP RISE workloads safe and in compliance with industry standards.
    
  • Identity: Use Azure Active Directory for identity and access management and make sure the right people have access to your SAP systems.
    
• Cost Efficiency:
  Azure’s per-use pricing enables companies to adapt cloud infrastructure costs on the go.
  
  • Cost-Effective: Pay only for what you use with Azure while cost-effectively scaling to meet your growing needs. Run SAP RISE workloads on Azure to save cost and preserve performance.
    
• Increased Innovation Capabilities:
  Azure gives you access to robust technologies like AI, machine learning, and analytics with the ability to interop those workloads with SAP RISE.
  
  • Some businesses are already taking advantage of this aspect: Driving innovation faster-AVANA is using Azure AI and machine learning to enable advanced data analytics, predictive modeling, as well as process automation that underpins digital transformation.
    

Conclusion

Harnessing Azure with SAP RISE workloads is a strategic move to enable organizations to enhance the way they operate their business, while maintaining scalability, security and performance. With the right approach to integration, companies can achieve new potential and strengthen business continuity while cutting costs, building a firm footing for sustained growth down the road.
With the steps of this blog post and Azure’s strong cloud backbone, organizations can integrate SAP RISE with Azure easily and benefit from better performance, agility, and security.
If you need advice on developing or integrating custom developments in your SAP RISE environment, Cremencing Solutions can assist. SAP Custom Development is our passion and we can offer tailored applications to guarantee you a smooth integration.

Looking for custom development on your SAP solutions? Cremencing Solution is dedicated to SAP Custom Development and can support you in integrating Azure with SAP RISE. Contact us now for custom solutions that will drive your business.

FAQs

What are the requirements for Azure to connect to SAP RISE?

A: You must determine compatibility with existing SAP infrastructure, and deciding about Azure cloud services. Some other considerations to factor in are your workload requirements, security protocols and compliance needs.

What benefits are there to Azure for SAP RISE workloads?

A: Azure goes beyond what SAP RISE workloads can do by providing your scale-out infrastructure, bulletproof security and rich toolkits including AI, machine learning and data analytics. These tools support optimised performance and real-time analytics, along with data protection.

Is the Data Migration from SAP RISE to Azure a complex process?

A: If properly planned and using Azure’s data migration tool sets, you will be able to manage the migration effectively. Azure offers some tools, such as Azure Migrate and Data Factory, that facilitate the transition of SAP workloads to the cloud.

Resources

• Microsoft Azure Documentation
  
• SAP RISE on Azure Overview
  
• Azure Migration Center