What is the future of cloud migration? In conversation with Simon Ratcliffe

Turning migration into modernisation

Shifting applications or entire networks to the cloud is more common than ever now - but it's not simple. Computing talked to Ensono Principal Consultant Simon Ratcliffe about the challenges, opportunities and future of migrating SAP applications to Azure.

How has the pandemic impacted the market - are more organisations embarking on cloud migrations now than pre-2020?

In some ways, yes, more organisations are migrating their end-user computing to the cloud with services like Teams, Zoom, and virtual desktop solutions. However, when it comes to back-end business-critical operations, many organisations are sticking with what they know - to some degree the pandemic may have slowed uptake of cloud in this area.

The problem is that businesses are moving the parts that are easy to move to the cloud, such as communications, with many hesitant to migrate larger workloads. Many businesses are holding back for one reason above all others; they lack the skills to support the migration. The biggest challenge with large-scale system migrations isn't usually the tech - organisations often struggle more with understanding new operating models, new approaches to efficient operations and finding or adapting the relevant skills from within their business.

What are the advantages of migrating SAP applications to run on Azure?

If an organisation completes a simple lift and shift of its SAP environment to the cloud, it will get the reliability, scalability and portability which comes with it.

Many businesses don't realise that migrating their SAP environment to the cloud is only the first step. Once migrated, the cloud opens up a whole world of possibilities with SAP, if engineered correctly. Crucially, organisations need to be ready to take advantage of these benefits - which is where the skills problem arises again. It's difficult for a business to find people who understand how, for example, Azure and SAP complement each other; creating a really negative situation where the benefits of cloud technology and SAP working together can go unrealised.

What are some of the pitfalls? How should they be avoided?

The biggest pitfall with SAP migration is moving it to public cloud and not making any changes. The business needs to understand how SAP and its chosen cloud platform can complement each other. SAP, when run in a cloud environment, opens up a raft of new possibilities for innovation and transformation across the business. Likewise, SAP migrated to cloud and not explored becomes SAP running in an expensive data centre with few benefits realised.

With both platforms evolving all the time, how is this migration likely to change in the future?

Migration at the moment generally follows a model best described as pick it up, move it, and tweak it a little. What it needs to be is migration, modernisation and transformation. However, businesses will need access to the appropriate skills to make this happen.

If the skills are there, businesses will begin to take advantage of the cloud and experiment with different approaches to their SAP system without long-term consequences - thanks to the low cost of test and dev environments. This testing ability encourages innovation, allowing the flexibility to try new ideas without worry, helping businesses find the right solution for them.

As SAP evolves and becomes more capable of using cloud-native services, and vice versa, the process will become smoother and more accessible.

How have skills concerns affected IT leaders decisions to migrate SAP to the cloud?

Lack of cloud skills are, without a doubt, a major obstacle for IT leaders when running a migration project. Beneath that, however, is a broader failure of vision and lack of understanding around the technology. Many IT leaders do not realise the possibilities of cloud technology and what it can do for their SAP environment. Digital transformation cannot be seen as a moment to do more of the same on a different technology platform. Instead, leaders need to look beyond ‘digital' and really engage with the opportunity for ‘transformation.' When migrating SAP to the cloud, leaders should strategically look to capitalise on the benefits of technology, and utilise it to evolve and enhance how the business runs - that is true digital transformation.

An established thought leader and innovator, Simon served as a virtual CIO, CIO advisor and leadership mentor for a wide variety of organisations before joining Ensono as Principal Consultant. Simon works with organisations to build high performing IT teams, develop structured training and development plans and to foster a culture of innovation and change. Simon holds a Masters in Psychology and is a trained accountant and former finance director as well as being an RFU Licensed Rugby Coach.