Should you move databases from SAP to S3? What are the benefits that accrue from such a move? This post is your ultimate guide to migrating databases from SAP to S3, analyzed from the perspectives of cost-effectiveness, access to advanced yet user-friendly technologies, and the advantages that a cloud-based platform brings to the table. 

However, before exploring these points, it is important to understand the attributes of SAP HANA and Amazon Web Service (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3). It will enable you to learn more about why it makes sense to move databases from SAP to S3.

So let us dive straight in and start from the target location. 

AWS S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Amazon Web Services is a cloud-based data warehousing platform, and hence, when you move data from SAP to S3, you get all the benefits of a cloud environment. These include scalability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and access to a fully managed service. 

SAP has not been a pushover in recent years and has launched innovations that enhance data intelligence and analytics, customized to match customer preferences. The SAP platform has made a mark in areas of scalability, multi-model data management, and embedded machine learning capabilities.

Despite these technological advancements, SAP today does not rise enough to meet client expectations. Organizations, in the modern business ecosystem, are increasingly adopting hybrid structures that help to consolidate multiple ERP systems and enterprise platforms with hyperscale Clouds via APIs. 

Hence, it is wise to move databases from SAP to S3 to take advantage of an intelligent and centralized cloud-based storage solution. 

SAP HANA Database Platform

SAP High Performance Analytic Appliance, or SAP HANA for short, was launched in 2010. A multi-model database, it stores data in its memory instead of the traditional disk. Hence, data processing times are phenomenal, many times faster than disk-based systems. This feature sets SAP HANA apart from others in this niche.

This attribute of columnar memory of SAP HANA enables organizations to process huge volumes of data with very low latency and query data instantly on this platform. You can also carry out advanced analytics within a single system, along with high-speed transactions.

There is also another benefit of this unique ability of SAP HANA to store data in its primary memory, which is combining online analytical processing (OLAP) and online transactional processing (OLTP). The result is that it delivers high-speed performance that is the next level above traditional Database Management Systems (DBMS). 

Now that we have gone through the features of the two platforms, understanding why organizations stand to benefit by moving data from SAP to S3 becomes easier. 

Benefits of Moving Databases from SAP to S3

SAP and HANA have had a close relationship over the years since the launch of SAP in 2010. Their synergies are linked with SAP HANA, supporting AWS with several services and forms of infrastructure. Among them are the Amazon EC2 instances optimized for SAP HANA workloads, Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) for scalable and affordable storage, and Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) for high-performance storage. 

Additionally, AWS CloudFormation, AWS Management Console, AWS SDKs, AWS CLI, and other AWS services are used for managing SAP HANA on AWS. 

Given this scenario, let us now go in-depth about the benefits of moving databases from SAP to S3. 

Cost Effectiveness: S3, based in the cloud, provides fully-managed services. By moving to S3, SAP users save substantial amounts for installing and operating their IT infrastructure, which includes expenses for hardware, software, implementation, and upgrade costs. AWS hosting is estimated to save 59-71% of costs over a five-year period for SAP. 

Enhanced security: SAP data on AWS is firewalled behind a highly secure five-pronged security ring, namely data encryption, security groups, data backup, identity and access management, and logging of activity to safeguard data. Further, AWS offers 100% encryption across its entire data storage services. 

Access to AWS is also restricted through services, such as IAM (Identity and Access Management). It controls who can access the applications and manage the permission and access policies. The AWS KMS (Key Management Service) ensures the creation and management of cryptographic keys across applications to secure data.

Finally, there are several aspects of the AWS ecosystem that monitor data security. For example, CloudTrail logs user activity in the account, CloudWatch monitors operational data, and Amazon GuardDuty detects threats by monitoring workloads for malicious activity. 

Data Integration: Businesses can seamlessly integrate data from non-SAP sources by moving data from SAP to S3. Data integration from the SAP HANA environment and other sources helps organizations to perform end-to-end analytics, including visualizations, decision insights, and revenue analysis. You can also use AWS native tools, such as AWS Glue, Lambda, SageMaker, Kinesis, and Redshift, to process data.

Moreover, in the current business scenario, there are multiple data implementations with heterogeneous data sources across different Clouds. Through this form of database migration, you can integrate data from SAP and non-SAP sources to use it for advanced analytics and Machine Learning models and derive valuable business insights.   

Unified smart storage: Businesses can rely on SAP HANA for intelligent analytics while leveraging Amazon S3 as an optimized storage layer for their structured and unstructured SAP dataflows. Otherwise, SAP ERP applications generate huge volumes of documents through business processes, and storing them in the primary SAP database would reduce operating performance and speed of the database.  

Unlimited scalability: AWS S3 is highly scalable. For example, you can download storage and pay for that volume only. For a spike in requirements, additional storage may be downloaded in minutes, paying only for the resources used. Other key attributes of database platforms, such as compute, databases, and servers, can be scaled up or down and are available for rent.

Moving databases from SAP to S3 requires an in-depth understanding of the entire application landscape and how the components interact.