IBM announced that it has expanded its global partnership with SAP to deliver the SAP HANA® platform, the SAP HANA ONE service and other SAP® applications on the cloud platform from SoftLayer, an IBM Company. The SoftLayer platform has been verified by SAP to run SAP applications, including SAP Business Suite software and SAP BusinessObjects™ solutions.
This extends and complements the existing capabilities provided by IBM to run SAP solutions on IBM Cloud Managed Services. With Cloud Managed Services and the SoftLayer platform, customers will have access to 40 data centers across five continents to run SAP applications for their enterprises. SoftLayer and IBM provide an expansive set of cloud capabilities for SAP solutions to address development testing, production and SAP HANA-based workloads.
“Businesses today are looking for ways to lower the cost of deployment and greater efficiency in addressing new market opportunity,” said IBM General Manager of Cloud Services James Comfort. “By delivering SAP applications via IBM cloud technologies, companies will have consistent access to a global infrastructure that will assist them in tackling business needs with the speed and efficiency needed in today’s business climate.”
Through this expanded partnership, clients will now be enabled to more quickly expand their businesses into new geographies with more consistent global deployments, which are expected to improve security and boost compliance with local laws. At the same time, it is anticipated that customers running SAP applications on SoftLayer will be able to achieve the following:
- Reduced support costs
- Speed up development and test instantly with no capital outlay required
- Deployment of hybrid cloud solutions on Softlayer and Cloud Managed Services
- Development and testing of SAP HANA using SAP HANA One with click thru license capabilities
“Delivering SAP applications via the IBM cloud provides customers the choice they desire to respond in real time to changing industry dynamics that impact their business,” said Robert Enslin, president of Global Customer Operations and a member of the Executive Board and the Global Managing Board, SAP AG. “We anticipate that this approach will prove valuable to enable customers to easily scale to constantly increasing business requirements.”
In addition, IBM and Virtustream are working together to bring an additional option for managing environments running SAP solutions on the SoftLayer platform. IBM is working with Virtustream to use its xStream cloud management platform software for both fully managed and customer managed environments. In addition, Virtustream will also be using SoftLayer infrastructure to expand its service beyond current locations and capacity. The partnership between IBM and Virtustream will enable companies to easily move existing mission-critical SAP applications to the cloud with added confidence.
“We are excited to partner with IBM to address the explosive market of migrating, running, and managing mission-critical SAP applications in the cloud,” said Chairman and CEO of Virtustream Rodney Rogers. “We believe the combination of Virtustream’s cloud management software and SoftLayer’s cloud infrastructure will be the premier solution offered in the market today.”
With the addition of Softlayer to Cloud Managed Services capabilities, customers can now choose to tap into cloud resources and run SAP applications themselves, select specific managed services, or request a full stack of integrated managed services. Companies will now have extended choices and new levels of control to design a cloud environment better suited to their business.
For more information, visit IBM in booth 416 at the SAPPHIRE® NOW conference, being held June 3-5 in Orlando, Fla.
