RISE with SAP – After a year, what do customers really think?

Michael “MJ” Johnson • Apr 19, 2022

In January 2021, SAP announced RISE with SAP. With a little over a year into the RISE offering, let’s look at its impact on the SAP customer base, what customers know, and how they feel about RISE with SAP.


For starters, let’s be clear on what RISE with SAP is. RISE with SAP is not a product; it is an offering. RISE with SAP is actually a bundle consisting of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, cloud infrastructure, business process intelligence (from SAP’s Signavio acquisition), technical services for the transition process, minor support services, and some credits for SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP – a rebranding of SAP Cloud Platform), all rolled into a single contract. SAP refers to RISE with SAP as Business Transformation-as-a-Service (BTaaS), something that goes beyond a Software-as-a-Service or Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering, that it’s everything you need to run the intelligent enterprise in a single bundle. 


Confused yet? Don’t worry; you’re not alone. When SAP announced RISE with SAP in January 2021, it left the SAP community with the same confusion. The echoes of What? Where? Why? How? questions could be heard everywhere, and truthfully even SAP didn’t have all the answers at first. But SAP has made RISE with SAP a priority since its release. Data from an SAP Insider Nov. 2021 survey shows at least a quarter of respondents had no knowledge of RISE’s components.

What adds to the confusion is that each of RISE with SAP’s components is their own independent offering from SAP and can still be consumed separately today. Therefore, not only do SAP customers need to understand each component, they need to understand how RISE with SAP bundles these components together to create this new solution. 

A Nov. 2021 survey by UK & Ireland SAP User Group (https://www.sapusers.org/news/996/main-driver-for-using-rise-with-sap-is-accelerating-the-move-to-s4-hana-according-to-uk-and-ireland-sap-user-group-survey) found that while 44% were at least somewhat familiar with RISE, 30% had never heard of it! This illustrates that there is still a lot of work to educate users about precisely what RISE with SAP is and what it includes. 

Education should remain a significant focus for SAP in 2022. 


So what is driving interest in RISE with SAP? 

While most organizations that are running SAP deal with the cross-roads of ECC support ending on the horizon, RISE with SAP is a natural point of interest. Most ECC customers are either making or will soon move to S/4HANA. 

RISE with SAP is one way to get to S/4HANA. In addition, most organizations are taking the time to consider their next-gen platform and infrastructure where S/4HANA will live, so naturally, the cloud conversation comes into play, which again, RISE with SAP is one option. So naturally, to help justify the cost of going to S/4HANA, organizations need to show cost savings and cost benefits, things like business transformation, new or additional functionality, and even simplifications. Simplifications in business process, or even simplifications in IT; simple contract, outsourced infrastructure or support, etc.

RISE with SAP’s cornerstone is S/4HANA. RISE is a way SAP is trying to extend the value of a move to S/4HANA and accelerate it. 



But for SAP customers to adopt RISE, they need to see value in RISE. This is where SAP should be focusing a lot of attention. Surveys continue to highlight that while organizations value the IT-side benefits of SAP, the key value driver for any SAP product or solution is business value. When it comes to strategic initiatives, SAPInsider respondents see Business Transformation (54%) and Business responsiveness and agility (47%) as enablement goals that RISE could provide.

You may have also noticed in the previous graphs that a group of respondents have no interest in RISE with SAP (10%) or are not looking at RISE to enable strategic initiatives (17%). It is important to note that RISE with SAP is not right for everyone or suitable in every situation. While it holds true for almost anything, it’s important to point out at this juncture because there is messaging out there that may indicate otherwise. 


Concerns and Considerations 


It’s important to note that surveys consistently show several concerns about the RISE with SAP offering. Almost all SAP customers have a mixed landscape of SAP and non-SAP solutions. SAPInsider research shows that 90% of respondents report that they support non-SAP-to-SAP integration scenarios. Therefore the most prominent concern identified was support for mixed vendor landscapes (38%). This is incredibly critical because there’s still a lot of ambiguity around integration points with a RISE with SAP landscape, who’s responsible for what, where does it live, etc. This concern plays into another big concern with transparency. 30% of respondents are worried about project transparency; who owns what, who’s doing what, how it will get done, etc. All valid concerns. Transparency concerns are likely to persist even after migration as to who is responsible for what. Lack of transparency may also be a pitfall of the oversimplification of billing. Often people see RISE with SAP or similar one-stop-shop options as an easy button. The same effort, infrastructure, support, etc., is still needed to run SAP. SAP is the lifeblood of an organization, with many complex systems and processes, lots of moving parts, and considerations. To think RISE with SAP will make all that go away is naïve. It still will persist. The only thing RISE with SAP does is shift a significant portion of that responsibility from your organization to SAP (and all its partners who are actually doing the work behind the scenes) and roll it into a single-line bill invoiced monthly. So you might be able to tell how transparency is a concern when you only have a single invoice line-item cost for all this infrastructure, support, software, technology, etc., behind the scenes and no way to separate any of it.

It should be acknowledged that some of these concerns may stem from limited knowledge of the solution. As a result, SAP will need to continue educating customers on what RISE with SAP is and how it could help and address concerns. 


So has RISE with SAP been a success after one year? 

Assessing the success of RISE with SAP is difficult because many SAP customers are unaware of what the offering provides. However, a February 2021 released SAP marketing video touted 1000+ customers who have chosen RISE with SAP.  There’s no indication of how many of them have purchased vs. implemented and are currently running RISE with SAP.  There’s no indication if these customers are realizing benefits or conversely had any of their concerns confirmed either. 


SAP has also reported 500 new S/4HANA customers in Q3 2021 alone, bringing the total S/4HANA customer to 17,500 with 11,500 live. However, SAP does not break down how many were through RISE with SAP. Jan Gilg, president of SAP S/4HANA, did say RISE with SAP is targeting both new and existing SAP install base of on-premises. The split between new and existing customers using RISE is 50-50. So SAP is seeing success. However, SAP needs to overcome hurdles like product confusion, concerns, and even trust. Only time will tell if RISE with SAP will succeed like ECC or quietly fade like HEC.

How can companies combat ransomware?

By Daniella Lundsberg-Steele • 25 Oct, 2023
As enterprise businesses in almost every sector strive to make the most of their data to compete in an increasingly digital economy, security is paramount. Data has never been more critical to business success, and the risks of it being vulnerable to attack have never been more severe. Securing that critical data remains a constant challenge, with workplaces being reimagined every day, with new challenges like architecting for remote work opening potential vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks becoming relentless and ever-more sophisticated. American Digital has partnered with Zerto to help secure data from ransomware by unlocking rapid air-gapped recovery. Our clients have truly benefited from custom-designed solutions based on their environments, data usage, and recovery planning. To learn more, please read our white paper here

Why Organizations using Cisco should switch to HPE dHCI.

By Ken Williams, American Digital Corporation • 09 Oct, 2023
In recent industry news , networking giant Cisco has announced its exit from the hyperconverged market, leaving many of its Hyperflex customers in a state of uncertainty. The company has recommended that these customers transition to Nutanix, a move that has prompted important questions about the future of hyperconverged infrastructure and the choices facing IT professionals. In this article, we'll delve into Cisco's decision, its implications, and alternatives for customers facing this transition. Cisco Bids Farewell to Hyperconverged The news of Cisco's exit from the hyperconverged market comes as a surprise to many. Cisco's Hyperflex product line had gained some traction in the industry, and its sudden departure raises questions about the viability of the hyperconverged approach. The Nutanix Recommendation Cisco has advised its Hyperflex customers to consider making the switch to Nutanix, another prominent player in the hyperconverged infrastructure space. While Nutanix offers a robust solution, this recommendation prompts a critical question: Do you really want to switch from the control of one vendor who abandoned the market to another? A Cautionary Tale for IT Professionals Cisco's exit from the hyperconverged market serves as a cautionary tale for IT professionals. It highlights the importance of carefully evaluating technology choices and considering the long-term implications of vendor decisions. While hyperconverged infrastructure can offer advantages in terms of simplicity and scalability, Cisco's exit reminds us of the risks associated with relying on a single vendor for such a critical component of your IT infrastructure. HPE's Response: dHCI Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has been closely monitoring the challenges associated with hyperconverged infrastructure and has responded by introducing disaggregated hyperconverged infrastructure ( dHCI ). This approach offers the benefits of hyperconvergence while avoiding some of the limitations that have become apparent in traditional hyperconverged solutions. A Return to Converged Infrastructure Interestingly, many organizations that once embraced hyperconverged infrastructure have begun to return to more traditional converged infrastructure solutions. They have found that the flexibility and freedom afforded by converged infrastructure, with separate compute, storage, and networking components, allow them to better adapt to evolving business needs. Exploring Alternatives For Cisco Hyperflex customers who are unsure about making the switch to Nutanix, there are alternatives to consider. One option is to revert to Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) for compute and select an appropriate Alletra model to support the workload. This transition would effectively shift from a hyperconverged model back to a converged one, offering greater flexibility and control. In conclusion, Cisco's exit from the hyperconverged market is a significant development that prompts IT professionals to reconsider their approach to infrastructure. While Nutanix may be a viable option for some, it's essential to evaluate all alternatives and carefully weigh the long-term implications of your choice. As the industry continues to evolve, flexibility and adaptability will remain key considerations in building a resilient IT infrastructure.

The Benefits to Long-term IT Solutions Partnership

14 Jun, 2023
While some organizations approach digital transformation as a one-and-done project, the greatest benefits are only achievable through a long-term synergistic partnership. Take for example American Digital’s relationship with Generac Power Systems (NYSE: GNRC). As Tim Dickson, CIO of Generac, explained, “The Generac and American Digital story is a story of growth.” This began when Generac came to American Digital with a need for standard technology stacks, standard tooling, and standard tool sets that the team could use to manage its environment. “Due to the growth trajectory that the company was undertaking,” he continued, “we needed a partner that we could trust. We needed a partner that had local presence here in Wisconsin. And we needed a partner that could provide best-in-class solutions.” Through that partnership, American Digital would soon design and architect a solution that encompassed both hardware and software. This gave a relatively small team the ability to easily manage its large and rather complex manufacturing environment. Having that level of expertise from a partner able to guide your company is invaluable. Two talented teams working alongside one another in this manner can produce the right solutions that are future-driven and future-focused. And this makes it possible to easily grow and scale over time. As successes grow, so does that trust and those personal relationships. American Digital is focused not just on completing one project to our client’s utmost satisfaction but also on building and sustaining long-term partnerships. With a partner like American Digital at your side, you gain not only an IT solutions provider but also a trusted advocate that’s committed to your business success. Contact us to discuss the many ways we can enrich your organization.

Digital Transformation Amid Corporate Restructures

07 May, 2023
While McKinsey and Company noted 2022 global mergers and acquisitions had finally settled to their pre-pandemic levels after the year prior’s all-time high, uncertainty continues to loom. Still weighing on decision-makers are supply chain issues, inflation, and geopolitical uncertainty. Meanwhile the soaring cost of labor, energy, and commodities makes it hard for organizations to deliver maximum value. But American Digital has long been a leader in helping enterprises seamlessly transform their digital operations amid divestiture, consolidation, spinoff, and major corporate restructure—and we’re doing so with little to no downtime or impact on business continuity. This is driven by experienced consultants and managed service capabilities that help large enterprise clients consolidate infrastructure, direct data appropriately by entity, establish a data management plan based on each organization’s IT strategy, and run operations seamlessly within its SAP environment. Consider the leading consumer packaged goods enterprise that came to American Digital during its divestiture to two entities. With four decades of experience in IT infrastructure, American Digital carefully managed all aspects of its $1.6B project over the course of seven months while providing an additional cost savings on SAP licensing and contract restructuring. While large restructuring projects for multinational and global organizations are inherently complex, American Digital has devised a tried-and-true process that can eliminate in-house stress and provide a seamless end-to-end transformation. We help guide your team through the entire process, identifying potential obstacles and notably reducing risk. Contact us to learn more about our digital transformation solutions specific to divestiture, consolidation, and spinoff.

Your MSP should have SOC2 accreditation. We’ll explain why.

By Daniella Lundsberg-Steele • 20 Apr, 2023
The benefits in SaaS and cloud-based service models are immense—from the flexibility and value they offer to the freedom they provide in-house staff to focus on more important strategic objectives. But as more enterprises outsource their core business operations to managed service providers—and as access to crucial business data is shared—organizations need added assurance that controls are in place to safeguard their confidential and sensitive data from loss or compromise. SOC2 accreditation provides exactly that. It’s a critical certification demonstrating that a managed service provider has the highest business operational standards and controls in place when it comes to five core trust principles. Those include security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. And all of this is granted only after an impartial, third-party audit. This comprehensive audit will confirm that system controls have been put in place to block access by unauthorized users. An auditor might also look to ensure system availability is in-line with a service provider’s service level agreement and contract. Other assessments might evaluate disaster recovery methods, user access controls, and firewalls along with standards for the retention and disposal of personally identifiable information, among other important safeguards. Afterward, an auditor will develop reports that present detailed information on an organization’s security practices. Those reports can play a key role in organizational oversight, vendor management programs, regulatory oversight, internal corporate governance and risk management processes. Put simply, SOC2 accreditation is a crucial step in providing MSP partners with the assurance that their data is safe and secure. It's a level of assurance we, at American Digital, will always provide to our partners. In fact, since 2019, we’ve gone the extra mile to maintain our own SOC2 certification. Contact us today to learn more reasons why American Digital is the managed service partner of choice for some of today’s most discerning organizations.

What is network-as-a-service?

By Daniella Lundsberg-Steele • 15 Mar, 2023
Networks are continually strained by the demands of new hybrid workplaces, digital transformation, a move to the Edge, increasing numbers of connected devices such as phones and tablets, and new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. Through it all, there’s a drive to maintain optimal network security, reliability, scale, speed, and compliance within tight budget constraints and limitations in existing IT resources and personnel who might lack certain skill sets. This leaves many organizations in reactive mode when, to be competitive, they need to be more proactive in driving ongoing business innovation. But a network-as-a-service (or NaaS) provider, such as HPE’s Aruba, can provide the advanced hardware, software, and services needed within a predictable subscription-based model. So you avoid long-term contracts and the high cost and commitment of infrastructure, paying only for what you use. NaaS also offers the flexibility to scale up or down to meet changing business demands. In some cases, NaaS also includes third-party network management delivered as a managed service. So companies can onboard the expertise, skills, and commitment of specialized networking personnel—expertise they might not have in-house. Additional perks include enhanced security, improved productivity, and proactive maintenance. And all of those benefits are supported as an operating expense. In the end, network-as-a-service helps you leverage the full potential of your network within a lean operational model while concentrating staff on core competencies that drive the business forward. Learn more at https://www.arubanetworks.com/video/?v=Products%20and%20Solutions/ARUBA-NAAS.mp4&width=960&height=540&t=Introducing%20Network%20as%20a%20Service

How Organizations Can Optimize SAP Security Amid a Changing Threat Landscape

By Daniella Lundsberg-Steele • 18 Feb, 2023
In our latest episode of the IT Unfiltered Podcast, Michael “MJ” Johnson, Director of SAP Solutions at American Digital, and Aiden Walden, Director of Public Cloud Architecture and Engineering at Fortinet, discussed some of the largest security threats they’ve noticed with SAP customers and what organizations can do to mitigate risk. During the broadcast, the two had an in-depth conversation on the changes that have been made within our modes of work, with access now granted to employees working from home and across various devices along with extranet and public connections that come into SAP and transmit things like purchase orders and invoicing. This combined with other factors have notably altered the threat landscape. But SAP customers can do a lot to guard against new threats. For instance, there are possibilities at the network layer to mitigate application-layer attacks, such as the implementation of virtual patching to fill that gap. Beyond this, consider a layered defense approach, with security established at various choke points coming into the infrastructure. Organizations also need a method for differentiating that traffic while still maintaining an optimized user experience. To this end, they’ll want to better understand benign anomalies versus malicious attempts. They’ll also want to identify security points that might protect applications in lieu of patching systems. One can filter a privilege escalation issue, for example, from contaminating one space to another. The two also discussed a more holistic approach to sealing gaps, one focused on business intent while aligning SAP Basis administration with network security. This type of approach offers a stronger security baseline understanding of each application and user. It also offers opportunities to prevent a privilege escalation that might allow one user to access an application and hop to the database. Furthermore, it might aid organizations with the implementation of more appropriate segmentation along with a policy framework that’s intelligent enough to identify application type and, if certain activity is abnormal, block it. This change in approach can be challenging in organizations that are more siloed in their processes and requires buy in from all teams. When it comes to SAP, a security policy shouldn’t be viewed as one-sized-fits-all but, instead, one that’s dependent on the applications that are being pushed into any given environment. It’s a policy that will need to adapt over the course of its lifecycle as the environment grows and as different factors come into play. We’ve seen some organizations adopt this way of thinking, and although this shift can be challenging to adopt, the entire organization benefits. Moving forward, great opportunities exist for applying deep learning and AI to the SAP environment, helping organizations continually fine-tune. Advances are also being made with operationalizing data, workflow automation, and threat hunting. American Digital and Fortinet are great resources for clients that need assistance with their security protocol. Tune into the full conversation by listening to the American Digital IT Unfiltered Podcast on your favorite podcast player.

Why leveraging an experienced SAP partner like American Digital Can Ensure the Success of Your Next SAP Project

By Daniella Lundsberg-Steele • 06 Sep, 2022
Organizations today seek out hybrid SAP solutions that are capable of delivering the agility and economics of the cloud paired with the security and performance of IT on premise. But designing and implementing the right multi-layered solution can be complicated. It needs to suit your unique environment. It needs seamless deployment to ensure uninterrupted business continuity. And everything needs to be accomplished without over-burdening in-house resources. Consider the fact that numerous custom database management tools and data warehousing applications, whether on-premise or within any number of cloud providers, use critical business data that’s being housed within SAP HANA®. As those migrate to even larger SAP S/4HANA instances, they may not be suitable for public cloud due to application entanglement issues or data gravity. This can result in performance issues, data latency, and high egress fees. It’s no wonder many customers originally opting for SAP in public cloud are now repatriating critical infrastructure pieces to cloud adjacent solutions instead. In tapping American Digital with its almost 40-year track record spanning more than 200 successful SAP deployments, those same organizations can shift to SAP S/4HANA in the most cost efficient and reliable manner. Reason being, American Digital builds hybrid SAP solutions on secure and reliable platforms that guarantee predictable costs based on actual usage. They also provide single tenancy on SAP-certified infrastructure, cloud adjacent and globally distributed deployments, plus low latency connections to leading SAP ecosystem partners. And all of this is accomplished with the support of a trusted SAP partner. American Digital is the most experienced SAP solution provider, bringing the expertise needed to make deployment a successful reality. Contact us to learn more about how we leverage technology offerings .  From the industry leaders like HPE and Equinix to ensure your SAP environment runs smoothly and efficiently.

Better Together: The Hybrid Cloud Solution from American Digital and HPE

By Daniella Lundsberg-Steele • 28 Aug, 2022
Enterprises love the cloud. It can broaden capabilities, improve flexibility, and put scalable resources at your fingertips. And while most applications and data are still housed on premise at data center colocations and at the edge, American Digital and HPE now provide organizations with the ability to enjoy one unified experience from edge to cloud. This experience is made possible by an exceptional tool from HPE that lets you engage with the cloud on your terms. As complete partners in data center modernization, American Digital and HPE work in tandem to help enterprises find the precise blend of cloud and on-premises solutions to suit their operational needs. Leveraging modern IT solutions like GreenLake, we can present endless opportunities across your edges, colos, and datacenters. In short, we help you realize a complete solution that can notably boost productivity—all designed and tailored to suit your own organizational needs. Now you can secure access to everything you need as-a-service and sized for today within an economical pay by consumption model. Beyond that, you’ll have the ability to manage all of your cloud services, onboard new users with defined roles and permissions, deploy virtual machines, forecast capacity needs, unify data across your hybrid cloud—even leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning—all through cloud-native infrastructure. American Digital is a recognized datacenter transformation leader. And we bring four decades of experience creating custom solutions for our clients, known for taking a client-first approach. As a result, we’re proud to have earned long-term client partnerships. Contact us today to discuss hybrid cloud solutions that combine the best of both American Digital and HPE.

Aruba ESP Helps Businesses Modernize Their Networks

By Daniella Lundsberg-Steele • 02 Aug, 2022
The retail, hospitality, manufacturing, professional services, and education fields, among others, have set their sights on digital transformation and network modernization. In doing so, they’re looking to improve customer engagement, the user’s experience, and overall efficiencies. And Aruba ESP has been driving that change. Consider Homebase, a North American provider of multifamily and vacation rental connectivity along with what they’ve coined “Smart Living-as-a-service”. Using Aruba ESP, the company boosted property and operating income while shrinking the length of time building owners needed to manage unit turnover and maintenance tickets. Beyond this, Aruba ESP helps Homebase rapidly scale to accommodate a growing property portfolio. Meanwhile across the globe, Korean-based FASTFIVE, developer of a shared office space platform, chose Aruba ESP with Central plus Aruba Wi-Fi 6 and switching solutions to deliver innovative co-working experiences, accelerate business growth, and lock in a clear competitive advantage. Today, the company is reaping the rewards of proactive AI-powered network management along with the ability to support bandwidth-intensive applications like Extended Reality and video conferencing. Both primary and higher education have also tapped into Aruba ESP. Take Roseville Joint Union High School District, which has implemented the first-of-its-kind 180,000 square foot dynamic college-like collaborative learning environment. Likewise, Doane University recently rearchitected their network to enable always-on connectivity, remote and hybrid education, and network-generated contextual data and analytics. Within the retail industry, Aruba ESP has helped companies collect visitor data and push new services and promotions. Manufacturing, too, has used Aruba ESP to recovered millions of dollars by shrinking defects and inventory bottlenecks. Read more industry-specific case studies from companies now using Aruba ESP to drive digital acceleration and network modernization at https://www.arubanetworks.com/ebook/esp-customers /
Show More
Share by: