Addressing the Challenges of Infrastructure Refreshes

Research from ASUG and Nutanix discovered that SAP customers who refresh their IT infrastructure on an as-needed basis encounter more hurdles than those who schedule updates.
Keeping your IT infrastructure up to date is essential to run your SAP systems at peak performance. Yet we learned that more than a third of SAP customers (39%) only refresh their infrastructure on an as-needed basis. These organizations also experienced greater challenges than the 61% of SAP customers who completed planned refreshes every year or more.
Figure 1: Maintenance Challenges Differ for Organizations that Perform As-Needed Refreshes
Challenges Differ by Refresh Frequency

41%

35%

26%

18%

25%

18%
Staffing
shortages


Choosing the right provider
Receiving approval
Source: ASUG research, January 2020
“Making sure we have the right talent and communication in place helps us avoid staffing shortages during infrastructure updates.”
– SAP customer
Some of the challenges associated with as-needed refreshes include staffing shortages (41%), choosing the right provider to work with (26%), and getting buy-in from executives and decision-makers (25%). For organizations that schedule their refreshes, these challenges were less significant. Overall, having a planned refresh schedule helps SAP customers avoid these issues while keeping their infrastructure projects on time and on budget.

Implications: Rely on an Infrastructure Provider for Regular Refreshes 

You don’t have to manage your infrastructure maintenance and upgrades alone. 
The right third-party provider will help your organization
 complete regular refreshes on schedule while avoiding the staffing pressures and buy-in hurdles of ad-hoc updates. As you look for the right provider, make sure to choose one that can provide visibility across your SAP systems so your IT team can quickly and easily troubleshoot, reduce downtime, and scale as needed to keep all of your environments running at peak efficiency between refreshes.

Learn how to take the pain out of refreshing your infrastructure.

Improving the Outcomes of Infrastructure Refreshes

Proactively planning for and scheduling regular IT infrastructure refreshes improves the processes and outcomes associated with these projects, according to research from ASUG and Nutanix. 
Two improvements will help SAP customers the most when it comes to refreshing their IT infrastructure: more frequent and proactive scheduling and investment in resources to assist with additional work. Participants in our research told us these two enhancements would improve not only the update process but also their business results.
Figure 1: How to Improve IT Infrastructure Refresh Processes and Outcomes
Source: ASUG research, January 2020
How many SAP customers believe that more frequent and proactive scheduling improves the refresh process?
You're right!
Nearly a third of SAP customers (32%) believe that scheduling results in a much smoother process, and 42% said it leads to better outcomes.
These customers reported that investing in resources, including outsourcing, vendor support, and cloud tools, would have positive effects. 
Sorry, that's not right.
Nearly a third of SAP customers (32%) believe that scheduling results in a much smoother process, and 42% said it leads to better outcomes.
These customers reported that investing in resources, including outsourcing, vendor support, and cloud tools, would have positive effects. 
Other factors that customers said would deliver better results include more standardization to the process and automated testing. Our research found that most SAP customers currently rely on manual testing, which is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and does not catch every issue.
“It’s important to have a defined technical road map for infrastructure updates and refreshes, which we use to prioritize and plan in conjunction with business-related capability road maps.”
– SAP customer

Implications: Achieve Better Outcomes with the Right Infrastructure Partner

One of the best ways to avoid the demands and delays associated with refreshing your IT infrastructure is to 
outsource the process to a third-party provider.
 Other SAP customers have learned that extra support can mean the difference between successful or painful projects and that deprioritizing them amplifies related challenges. When looking for support, make sure that the providers you consider can handle the end-to-end update process and that they offer standardized, repeatable practices to achieve the outcomes your organization requires.

Discover how to simplify and streamline your infrastructure updates.

The Move to SAP S/4HANA on Cloud Environments

Two-thirds of SAP ERP customers already have adopted or are adopting SAP S/4HANA. They may be going live on different cloud environments, but they’re looking for the same benefits, according to research from ASUG and Nutanix.
The 48% of organizations in this study who are implementing or planning to implement SAP S/4HANA have specific infrastructure needs for a successful SAP S/4HANA deployment. These SAP customers said their top desires from new IT infrastructure include easy, incremental scaling (45%) and the ability to adapt to future needs (40%). The other 33% of organizations are still evaluating SAP S/4HANA, have no plans to move, or haven’t heard of it.
Figure 1:  SAP S/4HANA Environment Desires
Source: ASUG research, January 2020
“We hope to have faster hardware, more-responsive software, and more bandwidth for data-intensive applications.” 
– SAP S/4HANA customer 
Although organizations are planning to run SAP S/4HANA across different cloud types, most want the same things from their cloud providers. Cost and security topped the list for almost every type of environment. Yet expertise in setting up appropriate security controls between the infrastructure operating systems and SAP software is hard to find. This demand likely will increase as more organizations move to SAP S/4HANA before the end of legacy system support of SAP ECC in 2027. 

Implications: Find an Infrastructure Provider with SAP Security Expertise

SAP customers want adaptable, scalable infrastructure with strong security for their SAP ERP systems. Look for a provider with expertise in SAP security that also can help you operate your cloud environments, no matter where you need them to run. 
The best infrastructure provider
 will be ready to help you address the top challenges of an SAP S/4HANA implementation, including the threat of downtime, inefficient testing processes, and a lack of internal skills. The right choice will keep your system running smoothly, upgrade after upgrade.

Apply what other customers have learned as you plan and execute your SAP S/4HANA migration.

Testing Opportunities for SAP Upgrades and Migrations

Research conducted by ASUG and Nutanix revealed that more than half of SAP customers are conducting manual testing when upgrading or migrating their SAP systems, leaving ample room for automated testing to improve these processes.
Many SAP customers are missing the opportunity to use automated testing to help them with their upgrades and migrations. An ASUG study with Nutanix discovered that 53% of organizations conduct as much manual testing as possible. Only 38% are using automated testing, which is far more efficient and catches more issues than manual testing. This practice has the potential to slow projects for the 66% of organizations that have implemented or plan to migrate to SAP S/4HANA.
Figure 1: Types of Testing Used for SAP Upgrades and Migrations

60%

50%
As much manual testing of SAP systems as possible

9%

11%
Some automated testing of SAP systems only

13%

26%
Some automated testing of SAP systems and dependent integrations

6%

7%
Advanced automated testing of SAP systems and dependent integrations
Source: ASUG research, January 2020
Organizations that schedule their infrastructure updates rely on automated testing more than those that perform as-needed infrastructure refreshes. In fact, 44% of organizations that schedule their updates lean more heavily on automated testing versus 28% of those that do ad-hoc refreshes. All customers have room for improvement, though, because only 6% of organizations that perform as-needed refreshes and 7% of those that schedule refreshes use advanced automated testing of SAP systems and related integrations.

Implications: Turn to Providers that Enable and Excel at Testing 

Whether you’re migrating to SAP S/4HANA or upgrading your existing SAP systems, 
you’ll need a solid automated testing process
 that will allow you to fix code errors before you migrate, assess new code before launches, and help you keep your technology landscape secure and running smoothly. Look for providers who can deliver infrastructure that easily accommodates an automated testing program. This will help set you up for success as you migrate and upgrade.

Explore how to prepare your infrastructure for automated testing.