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Overview

When considering moving your on-premise IBM Power SAP systems to the RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server service, you also need to consider the surround workloads. The surround workloads communicate and interact with your SAP core systems. The diagram below shows a high-level view of a typical application landscape in an enterprise.

Figure 1. Enterprise
Enterprise

The SAP Core systems are the candidates for the RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server, while the surround workloads can be categorized as follows:

  • non-RISE SAP - These SAP surround workloads are not being migrated to RISE with SAP Power Virtual Server. Examples include the following:
    • SAP CRM - SAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is considered as legacy and replaced by the SaaS service Customer Experience.
    • SAP SRM - SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) is considered as legacy and replaced by the SaaS service Ariba.
    • SAP ECC - SAP ECC (ERP Central Component) systems that are not being migrated to RISE with SAP Power Virtual Server.
    • SAP HR - SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) is considered as legacy and replaced by the SaaS service SuccessFactors.
    • SAP PI - SAP PI (NetWeaver Process Integration) is SAP enterprise application integration (EAI) software, a component of the NetWeaver product group used to facilitate the exchange of information among a company's internal software and systems and those of external parties.
    • SAP PO - SAP PO (Process Orchestration) is a tool that makes it easy to synchronize data between different systems to automate and optimize business processes. PO has all the functionality of SAP PI in a single Java stack plus unified features such as Business Rule Management (BRM), Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Service Repository (ESR), B2B Collaboration and cloud integration, and for application integration.
    • SAP GTS - SAP GTS (Global Trade Services) is software that allows organizations to support and define import and export trade processes in SAP ERP. GTS reduces the time and costs of complying with global trade regulations and provides visibility into the supply chain while goods are in transit.
  • non-RISE non-SAP - These workloads are not running SAP applications and provide services such as international tax codes, custom pricing rules, custom product, configuration engines, document storage etc.

Non-RISE SAP surround workloads

Non-RISE SAP® surround workloads are those workloads that currently reside alongside your on-premise SAP systems hosted on IBM® Power that you intend to migrate to RISE with SAP on IBM® Power® Virtual Server.

Figure 1. Non-RISE SAP surround workloads
Non-RISE SAP surround workloads

Non-RISE non-SAP surround workloads

Surround non-RISE non-SAP® workloads are those workloads that currently reside alongside your on-premise SAP systems hosted on IBM® Power that you intend to migrate to IBM Cloud because they are tightly coupled to your SAP systems hosted in RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server.

Figure 2. Non-RISE non-SAP surround workloads
Non-RISE non-SAP surround workloads

Surround workload coupling

Additionally, it is imperative to understand how the non-RISE SAP and non-RISE non-SAP surround workloads are coupled with the on-premise IBM Power SAP systems that you are considering to migrate to the RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server service and how they will integrate post migration/transition. In this document we will classify these surround workloads as:

  • Tightly coupled - Tightly coupled workloads require low latency connections to your SAP systems or require high bandwidth connections.
  • Loosely coupled - Loosely coupled workloads do not need high bandwidth connectivity or low latency between the surround workload and the SAP system.

Figure 3. Coupled Surround Workloads
Coupled Surround workloads

Tightly coupled surround workloads

As tightly coupled workloads require low latency connections to your SAP systems or require high bandwidth connections, then they are probably colocated in the same data center as your SAP workloads. Therefore, when considering moving your SAP systems to RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server service, you should consider moving these tightly coupled surround workloads to IBM Cloud. These tightly coupled surround workloads may be IBM Power, x86, virtualized or containerized workloads.

As these surround workloads cannot be hosted in the SAP owned RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server IBM Account, the diagram below, shows how they can be migrated to one of the following three infrastructure environments in your IBM Cloud account and peered with the SAP owned RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server IBM Account:

Figure 4. Peering
peering

Loosely coupled surround workloads

As loosely coupled workloads do not need high bandwidth connectivity or low latency between the surround workload and your SAP systems, then these workloads may already be delivered from a cloud provider using IaaS, PaaS or SaaS delivery models. These loosely coupled workloads may also continue to be hosted in your data centers, a colocation facility or in a service provider's data center. Alternatively, if feasible you may consider transitioning these workloads to IBM cloud as well.

IBM Cloud platform

The IBM Cloud platform combines platform as a service (PaaS) with infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to provide an integrated experience and is globally deployed across data centers around the world, enabling you to migrate or create your surround workloads quickly and that perform securely and reliably.

IBM Cloud provides solutions that enable higher levels of compliance, security, and management, with proven architecture patterns and methods for rapid delivery for running your surround workloads. See Surround workloads by platform and Surround workloads by use-case. Available in data centers worldwide, with multi-zone regions in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

IBM Cloud offers the most open and secure public cloud for business with a next-generation hybrid cloud platform, advanced data and AI capabilities, and deep enterprise expertise. See What is the IBM Cloud platform? and Running secure enterprise workloads on IBM Cloud. For an understanding of compliance in IBM Cloud see Understanding compliance in IBM Cloud and IBM Cloud compliance programs. With our expertise gained by working with enterprise clients in industries such as financial services, government, healthcare and telco, we saw the need for a cloud platform designed with the unique needs of these heavily regulated industries in mind, see IBM Cloud delivers enterprise sovereign cloud capabilities.