SAP Upgrades in an Enterprise Cloud. How the Enterprise Cloud is changing the face of SAP upgrades

Transcription

1 < SAP Upgrades in an Enterprise Cloud How the Enterprise Cloud is changing the face of SAP upgrades A Virtustream White Paper

2 SAP Upgrades in an Enterprise Cloud How the Enterprise Cloud is changing the face of SAP upgrades By: Richard Knight, VP Application Services Virtustream EMEA T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Contents...0 When it comes to upgrades the SAP (road)map is not the territory...1 Upgrade Challenges...1 The cost drivers...2 Timescales...2 Infrastructure...2 Iterative upgrade cycles...2 Iterative testing...2 Training...2 Modifications...2 Why using an Enterprise Cloud makes sense...2 Proof of concept (POC) - Know the territory by looking before you leap...2 Initial provisioning of infrastructure - Reduce time-scales and cost...3 Prepare, upgrade and test - Use the power of snapshots...4 Minimized Downtime - Lower the impact on the business...4 Conclusion...4 About the Author...5 Virtustream in Action...5 Copyright 2011 by Virtustream, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human or computer language in any form or by any means without the express written permission of Virtustream, Inc. This publication is provided as is without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. This publication could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors and changes are periodically added to the information herein. Virtustream, Inc., may make improvements and/or changes at any time to the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication.

3 1 When it comes to upgrades the SAP (road) map is not the territory In 1933 Alfred Korzybski came up with the idea that a map was not the same as the territory that it described, much in the same way that a menu is not the actual meal. This notion has never been truer than when applied to SAP upgrades. Whilst there is a defined roadmap and tools, each upgrade contains its own particular features and surprises that can derail the best of plans and budgets. Utilising cloud technology for upgrades combines the benefits of virtualization to provide Faster server provisioning Faster copies of production (PRD) Snapshot technology Roll back and roll forward Dynamic resource allocation across the SAP landscape With the benefits of cloud technology that, in this case, would be Pay as you use infrastructure Consumption based pricing Zero data center footprint No additional power / cooling requirements In terms of what is meant by cloud, this paper defines it as a dynamic, fully elastic infrastructure that is priced by consumption. Effectively this means that the environments discussed are only consuming fees whilst they are in use. SAP has announced that support for its R3 4.6c solution will cease in March Customers on 4.6c will have to upgrade to version ECC6.0 or face the prospect of running non-supported software. SAP has postponed the cessation of support for 4.6c on a number of occasions but it seems that, this time, they mean it. Upgrade Challenges The usual suspects! If we take SAP version 4.6c as a benchmark, there are a number of challenges that an organization faces when embarking on an upgrade of this nature. Typically How much more infrastructure will be needed? - ECC6.0 is a Unicode solution that implies a Unicode conversion as part of any upgrade. The migration to Unicode will mean an increase in resource requirements in the region of 30% more CPU, 50% more memory and potentially 30% more storage. These increases will apply across the entire DEV, QAS and PRD landscape. Is it worth it? - The overall cost of an upgrade versus the perceived business benefits. How complex will it be? - Assessing the impact of an upgrade on the many custom objects within the solution along with the interfaces to both internal and external systems How long will I need the business to be down? - Quantifying and mitigating system downtime How much resource am I going to need? - Diversion of technical and business resources from their day job SAP themselves commissioned a survey in 2009 that confirmed the challenges facing customers considering an upgrade. The findings below correlate well with Virtustream s experience in the market.

4 2 The cost drivers The main drivers of cost, risk and complexity are timescales, infrastructure, upgrade & testing cycles, training and complexity caused by custom developments. Timescales The timings for an SAP upgrade vary between something in the region of 26 weeks for a small system all the way to 60 weeks for a large multi-region solution. Key activities driving timescales are typically - Infrastructure Typically an upgrade project will need to re-size the required hardware. If performing a Unicode conversion this step is likely to drive out requirements for significantly more compute power, storage and bandwidth. The hardware then needs to be procured and, following, whatever procurement lead-time agreed, provisioned in the data-center. Iterative upgrade cycles It is likely that an upgrade will commence with a proof of concept to gain some concept of the scale of the tasks involved in the upgrade. Following this step there is typically multiple cycles of repairs and unit tests prior to integration testing and live cutover. Each cycle usually requires a re-provisioning of the SAP development environments. Iterative testing Testing has to be undertaken for not only the SAP application but interfaces to other applications. Often testing systems for non SAP solutions need to be provisioned and managed for the period of an upgrade Training Depending on the jump in versions, there will be an element of user training required that will require both training systems and personnel Modifications A large element of any upgrade project is the effort required to repair and test customization. This is typically ABAP code that has been used for reporting, new transactions, interfaces and other enhancements. However, empirically, up to 30% of custom code is found to be redundant when subjected to a usage study. In fact the older the solution, the greater the likelihood of redundant modifications. Why using an Enterprise Cloud makes sense The following section looks at how a cloud-based environment is used to accelerate and de-risk an SAP upgrade based on the challenges identified in the previous section Proof of concept (POC) Know the territory by looking before you leap Despite the best attempts of SAP to provide notes and guidance around the extent that an upgrade will impact an existing solution, the only sure fire way to quantify this is to undertake a proof of concept. A proof of concept would take a copy of the existing solution and then apply the upgrade. The process would result in lists of objects requiring repair or those objects that had been replaced or removed altogether. An estimate as to the Blueprint, Realization and go-live activities can then be constructed from a basis of fact. As part of the proof of concept, tools can be brought to bear that assess how much of the custom code is currently being utilized and how much can be retired as part of an upgrade. As the repair of custom objects can be a major task in any upgrade this step is likely to save both time and money through the duration of a project. For example, if a solution contained 1,000 custom objects and 30% were redundant, at a repair metric of 0.5 days per object, identifying and excluding these objects could save around 150 days effort from an upgrade project. There are many more business problems to address than simple server sprawl. There is the loss of license control, the difficulty of management and deployment, 24 x 7 demands and legal requirements as well as the straightforward need to optimize resources. <

5 3 If upgrading to Unicode many custom ABAP programs will need conversion so as to be Unicode compatible which is an additional reason to identify and process only those developments that are currently used. < If a Unicode conversion is part of the upgrade this, as part of the proof of concept, can give a far greater insight into likely storage and compute requirements that allows for a fact based negotiation with an organization s infrastructure provider, be that physical, hosted or cloud based A proof of concept allows an organization to engage with any potential supplier of upgrade services from a position of knowledge thus de-risking any engagement from both a commercial and delivery perspective. When a company implements a virtual infrastructure, the reliability of that infrastructure is highly critical. After all, losing a single ESX host can mean the loss of tens or possibly even hundreds of virtual machines. Redundancy at the storage level, the network level and the host level is the key to minimizing outages. One of the key inhibitors of a proof of concept is the availability of spare hardware and resource to undertake this task. If hardware is purchased for this task there is the challenge of what to do with it afterwards. Utilizing a cloud partner for the provision of a POC solution means that costs would only be incurred for the duration of the POC that would typically equate to a two to four week duration. The POC can be sourced on an outcome basis rather than in terms of software, infrastructure and hardware. Proof of Concept as a Service is starting to be offered by vendors both for upgrades and for understanding how other SAP solutions can deliver benefits in advance of any capital project Initial provisioning of infrastructure - Reduce time-scales and cost When the actual upgrade project commences the vast majority of organizations will wish to have a separate three tier environment set aside for the task as opposed to running the project in the same environment that supports their live system. As seen earlier the duration for an upgrade project typically runs from 26 to 63 weeks that drives the need for additional infrastructure for up to one year. The first step of the upgrade is to provision and set up the developments instance(s) (DEV). This would typically, but not always, be a config only copy of the live environment. Assuming that new infrastructure is required (due to new sizing and availability), using an Enterprise Cloud solution as opposed to a traditional, physical environment is likely to achieve between a 40% to 60% saving in time and associated costs An example of these savings are shown below Figure 1 - Traditional server provision Figure 2 - Server provision in the cloud

6 4 Virtustream s suite of virtualization solutions includes specific offerings that are geared towards optimizing a virtualized environment. Prepare, upgrade and test Use the power of snapshots Throughout an upgrade there are periods when activities need to be repeated, either for reasons of error or simply as part of the project that has to deliver an upgraded production system with minimum risk and downtime. Within a traditional infrastructure system copies, restores and backups have been the method in which to enable these iterative activities. However virtualization gives us the means to snapshot the various SAP systems throughout the upgrade process. It is subsequently simple to roll back to a previous snapshot for either planned or unplanned purposes. Snapshots provide almost infinite flexibility for an upgrade project. Typically virtual machines can be provisioned within hours as opposed to days in a traditional environment. Whilst snapshots are entirely possible with an on-premise virtualized environment, the problems arise with the storage requirements for multiple SAP system copies. Again utilizing an elastic cloud provider can ensure that storage can be available on a pay as you go basis, paid for by utilization and dropped as soon as the upgrade project has completed with no legacy costs. Virtustream has observed in the region of a 30% reduction in the upgrade and test cycles when using a enterprise cloud environment over and above a traditional infrastructure An enterprise cloud allows the provision of the shadow instance at each upgrade stage through the project on a simple pay as you go basis. Given that it is likely to require a minimum of three trial upgrades the ability to provision these instances both quickly and at minimum cost is key to driving upgrade efficiency There is, therefore, no reason why any organization should have to compromise downtime for the cost and / or availability of infrastructure Conclusion Effective utilization of an enterprise cloud as part of an upgrade strategy and subsequent execution will Allow the impact, risks and timescales of an upgrade to be fully understood ahead of time through Proof of Concept as a Service Identify the custom code that actually needs to be considered as part of the upgrade Enable the preparation of custom code to be compatible with the new SAP release Reduce cost of your actual SAP upgrade thought efficient utilization of infrastructure Allow the provision of a new upgrade technical landscape with zero footprint in your data center Provide check-pointed fall back steps throughout the process Ensure that downtime is minimized Minimized Downtime - Lower the impact on the business SAP has traditionally offered two options for upgrades. The first is minimized resource and the second is minimized downtime. As the names suggest minimized downtime requires the system offline for the shortest time but is dependent of the provision of a shadow productive system to share some of the upgrade tasks. In essence this means that a significant increase in infrastructure is required for the period of the upgrade if downtime is to be minimized. Traditionally, organizations have either purchased or rented additional infrastructure or opted for the minimized resource option.

7 5 Virtustream in Action A full-service law firm with over 500 lawyers practicing in litigation, antitrust, government contracts, corporate, intellectual property and more than 40 other practice areas had an extensive virtual infrastructure but their efforts were not yielding the expected benefits. An analysis of the project by Virtustream revealed several critical issues: The virtualized environment was not stable resulting in outages and downtime The consolidation ratios were significantly less than expected There were intermittent performance issues Virtustream conducted an exhaustive health check of all 7 of the client s locations including a deep dive into the Virtual Infrastructure, Storage Infrastructure and Network Infrastructure. The Health Check revealed many areas for improvement and highlighted configuration issues causing performance and stability problems. As a result Virtustream identified storage hotspots insufficient to handle I/O load and defined a path to remediation. The team also Identified host configuration issues causing performance and stability issues and recommended a path to remediation. In addition, the team identified areas where further consolidation was possible, further reducing the physical footprint by up to 75%. About the Author Richard has more than 15 years of experience in IT consulting managing major ERP based engagements across EMEA and APAC. In his role as Vice President of Cloud Cover Services in EMEA, Richard is responsible for the managed service of enterprise applications such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft on Virtustream's xstream Enterprise Cloud platform for the region. Prior to joining Virtustream Richard held the role of Practice Director at Diagonal Consulting (an international SAP consultancy) where he was responsible for consultancy and managed service across a broad range of clients and industry sectors. Prior to joining Diagonal, Richard held operational management positions at British Aerospace and Siemens in their respective defense businesses. Richard began his career as an Electronic Engineer at Plessey. About Virtustream Virtustream ( is an innovative cloud provisioning firm committed to delivering next generation infrastructure services to enterprise class customers. We leverage our secure high performance platform, xstream, to deliver highly available and elastic compute resources at true consumption based pricing. We lead our Cloud Platform Services with Cloud Advisory Services, providing expertise in the areas of cloud adoption, migration and architecture strategies and infrastructure related integration services. We provide ongoing support for our Cloud Platform Services through two groups: Our Cloud Cover team provides a managed service, from core infrastructure through enterprise applications and the Cloud Staging and Networks group that provides colocation, security and network services. Virtustream owns and operates its own data centers in the U.S. and U.K., and has offices in Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, London, Dublin and the Channel Islands. For further information, visit or contact info@virtustream.com North Amercia: +1 (240) United Kingdom: +44 (0) info@virtustream.com NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM CHANNEL ISLANDS IRELAND