SoftwareOne case study

A move to Azure delivers a 50% performance increase and a 100% focus on a new SAP strategy

SoftwareOne delivers a flexible SAP Platform Managed Service to support a 24/7 retailer

An international retail store faced data center infrastructure challenges running SAP. SoftwareOne advised and executed on migrating the retailer's SAP landscape to Azure through SAP on Hyperscaler Cloud Services. In the process a replatforming of the database was executed to one of the largest productive HANA databases available. The move delivered improved flexibility, a 50% performance increase, and reliable DR. After the migration, SoftwareOne started managing the customer's SAP systems through a pay-as-you-go delivery model using flexible service provisioning with full consumption and cost transparency. As part of the SoftwareOne SAP Platform Managed Services, the customer's SAP environment was further enhanced by SoftwareOne's monitorSimple service, allowing for enhanced performance management and automated uptime monitoring in real-time.

Client: International retail store chain
Industry: Retail
Services: SAP on Hyperscaler Cloud Services, SAP Platform Managed Services incl. monitorSimple©

About the client

The business is an international chain of convenience stores, founded nearly 100 years ago. It operates, franchises, and licenses roughly 70,000 stores in almost 20 countries.

The challenge

The business faced several challenging constraints in data center infrastructure, including an inability to thoroughly test Disaster Recovery (DR) and business continuity processes. The DR gaps exposed the organization's potential operational and compliance risks, particularly in operating its SAP platform.

The customer decided to switch its database platform to SAP HANA for improved performance and access to SAP platform innovation benefits. To alleviate difficulties with physical systems, the SAP move would also include migration to Microsoft Azure.

The cloud move would also better address the company's business units’ increased pace of innovation and the number of resulting projects IT could support.

Additionally, the company sought flexible support models and planned to rely on partners to provide Managed Service for SAP. The support required a solution based on adaptable options aligned to the SAP deployment on Azure, including pay-per-use and variable scaling options.

The solution

SoftwareOne planned and managed the migration of the customer’s entire SAP platform from on-premises to Microsoft Azure over eight months. The re-architected SAP systems include optimized workload distribution across the landscape and fully automated high-availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) capabilities. Microsoft Azure and SAP automation features reduce effort and human error rates while building a platform that can further automate future SAP operations.

Benefits and outcomes

IT can fully cater to the requested business projects by leveraging the flexibility of Azure
Full disaster recovery testing processes have been implemented and testing conducted twice in the first year of operations
The Azure migration, combined with a re-designed SAP architecture, has enabled the company’s SAP HANA strategy roll-out
Average performance improvement for long-running SAP processes is nearly 50%
SoftwareOne has assumed management of all SAP systems on Microsoft Azure, providing a pay-as-you-go delivery model based on flexible service provisioning with consumption and cost transparency
The SAP solution is now fully controlled by SoftwareOne’s monitorSimple© solution for SAP as part of Platform Managed Services for SAP offering
The benefits of proactive event management are preventing or reducing critical incident impacts