In SAP Nation, I wrote
“SAP has a tendency to write code, and then hand it over to its partners. It fails to think enough about customer deployment issues.”
More of that focus on what happens in their labs and not at customer sites comes from Bernd Leukert, head of SAP development, as he announces a database bundle via ISReport
“To end these double-payments SAP has created a new license-bundle that contains SAP HANA, Sybase ASE and Sybase IQ. Companies that use SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA can now terminate their licenses for Oracle, IBM or Microsoft an run parts of their SAP-systems with SAP HANA and – without additional payments– with Sybase ASE or in an environment of SAP HANA Dynamic tiering withSybase IQ“.
Nice, but what does it cost to move from another database to Sybase? Retrain your DBAs, convert stored procedures, plenty of testing, changing documentation etc etc. I would bet all that is many, many times the savings in database maintenance (the licenses were likely paid a while ago at most customers).
The bigger question it raises is, even if you don’t move to Sybase, you have to factor at a longer term, two database scenario with S/4. That means two sets of systems management tools , two sets of back up environments, two sets of recovery procedures ( other databases have 3 to 4 decades lead on HANA when it comes to all that ), integration between apps on HANA and other database. Not free – not by a long shot.
Leukert also claims S4/HANA is 35% cheaper to run in this extended interview (Google translation below)
“We have built a service factory that handles all modifications in customer systems under the microscope and first divided into several categories. The first part are those adjustments that are present in the system, but no longer used. These can be completely eliminated. In our experience, this is a surprisingly high percentage. The second category relates to adjustments that customers have made a long time ago, but which now can be mapped in the standard. This will be returned to the system default. The third category are modifications that are still vital today. This we move into the Extension Framework or make them in the HANA Cloud Platform from.”
Again, this is done in a clinical SAP setting. In the real world, partner and customer add 9X more to what SAP costs (see model in SAP Nation).
Let’s see the benchmarks in a decent sample of customers and see if S/4 reduces costs. I would bet a lot of money, for the first few years, the costs will actually GO UP. The migration to S/4 will be labor intensive and so will the operations, with the typical hype cycle in outsourcers, those with S/4 experience will demand premiums. Add capex for memory intensive hardware etc.
