SAP RISE: Technology and Trust
Having deep roots in technology and years of experience in the SAP services industry, I've been deeply involved in discussions about the evolving challenges in this domain. The introduction of SAP's HEC and now SAP RISE has reignited these conversations, as SAP mandates its architecture to commoditize and standardize its offerings for scalability as a cloud product on select cloud infrastructures.
The Underlying Technology Debate
Proponents of SAP RISE tend to overlook the constraints of the underlying infrastructure, asserting that the platform's technology is secondary. They place the real value on the software solution and the opportunities that come with adopting S/4HANA. A common belief is that experienced tech teams are simply resistant to change, hesitant to relinquish control to SAP, who assume they can operate the solution more cost-effectively and efficiently with a one-size-fits-all approach.
Surprisingly, I find myself agreeing to an extent. In the SaaS paradigm, the platform should ideally be less prominent. Yet with SAP HANA, optimal configurations are critical. Subpar management brings not just minor inconvenience but substantial risks. Performance problems and downtime quickly escalate into crises. With the intense demands placed on the HANA database at peak times and the absence of built-in features like auto-scaling or dynamic resource allocation, manual intervention from expert hands is required. This indicates a significant gap from the 'cloud-native' concept, this is most certainly not SaaS.
Consistency or Contradiction?
Moreover, SAP's narrative seems to shift. It wasn't long ago that SAP HANA DB's in-memory technology was touted as vital for enterprises. Now, the message seems to downplay the importance of the platform's capabilities. We're left wondering which story to trust and questioning SAP's motives for this narrative change. This recalls the era when the move from ABAP to JAVA faced firm resistance from the traditionalists, who were ultimately vindicated when SAP correctly altered its course—albeit after substantial disruption and cost to its customers.
SAP RISE and the Trust Issue
With SAP RISE, the company is soliciting a significant level of trust from customers, positioning themselves as the reliable custodians of crucial business data. SAP (the “Cloud Company”) promises that their dictated path will ensure performance, cost-efficiency and the flexibility to swiftly adapt to business changes. Implicitly, they ask us to concede that their expertise outweighs that of the clients and partners who have been managing these systems for years. Given this leap of faith required, it's no surprise that the adoption of S/4 is proceeding with caution, as customers deliberate over the decision to entrust their digital operations to SAP.
In a subsequent post, I will explore the ramifications of allowing SAP to govern your digital landscape and why many long time SAP loyal customers are approaching this prospect with considerable caution.
