Tech giant IBM is partnering with ERP Software providers, SAP, to create Private Edition – a new version of the SAP Cloud Platform running on the IBM Cloud as a dedicated cloud deployment.
The current SAP Cloud Platform runs SAP’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) including the in-memory SAP HANA database on single-tenant servers, in IBM data centers.
This new collaboration is designed explicitly for highly-regulated industries to facilitate modernization and new business applications on the cloud without jeopardizing security and control.
Some of the features of Private Edition are:
1. Expert help – There are currently 37,000 IBM and SAP experts in over 80 countries worldwide with an average of 10+ years of experience, who will be involved with the service.
2. Best practice migration – IBM and SAP experts use standardized methodologies built on thousands of successful migrations from current cloud or data centers to the Private Edition.
3. Faster global delivery – This venture has the advantage of data center locations across six continents, providing fast service worldwide.
4. Choice – IBM offers a comprehensive selection of cloud deployment models with management levels to suit your workload requirements.
5. Predictably manage costs – Visibility of costs down to the department level for SAP workloads.
6. Free up IT resources – IBM can manage your operating system, databases, and SAP applications, freeing your IT staff to focus on innovation.
Talking about this collaboration and offering, Bradley Knapp, IBM’s Offering Manager told CRN, “They can know that entire stack and trust in the regulatory compliance of the operations pieces. They don’t have to worry about running afoul of regulators.”
The two companies have worked together for about 46 years, jointly tackling both sales and delivery across a range of products. “We like to look at it as a partnership of co-innovation,” Knapp said. “What IBM loves is the ability to add in all that extra special sauce.
“Private edition, when made generally available later in the year, will see joint go-to-market efforts, with both IBM and SAP sales forces and channels selling the product, and SAP carrying the contract. Customers can select IBM Cloud as their delivery mode to select from the full stack of IBM delivery options.”
