The challenge: Operating and modernizing SAP applications on-premises
It all began in 1846, when Carl Zeiss founded a workshop for optical and precision mechanical instruments in Jena, Germany. Today, ZEISS is one of the world’s leading technology companies in the optical and optoelectronics industry. Its products are used in everything from microchip manufacturing and infectious disease research to the making of award-winning films.
ZEISS maps all its processes and financial flows in SAP. The approximately 80 systems were hosted on-premises by a contractual partner, and in the course of more than 20 years, they had become so tightly enmeshed that they formed a monolith. “Over the years, the jungle of applications and systems became increasingly difficult to operate, expand, and modernize,” recalls Joachim Riegel, IT Manager at ZEISS. “We urgently needed more flexibility in terms of technology, but also with regard to the available capacity of our employees.” Fast, flexible, and easy to scale—for example, in order to quickly set up a test environment if required—and of course cost-efficient: the way to achieve all this easily was through SAP in the Microsoft Cloud.
The solution: Unlimited resources available at the touch of a button—thanks to SAP in the Microsoft Cloud
Logging in, configuring the desired environment, and starting up: these processes can be greatly simplified and standardized through applications in the cloud. “To migrate the extended business-critical applications smoothly, we first cleaned up the environment we wanted to relocate,” explains Marc Knödler, Head of SAP Cloud Data Center at ZEISS. “Another goal is to automate as many processes as possible during the migration to the cloud, regardless of whether this involves installing a database or setting up a test environment.” Today, a virtual machine including storage space, operating system, and SAP software is readily available at the touch of a button and is simultaneously integrated into operating processes such as backup and monitoring. In the meantime, ZEISS has 180 virtual machines running in Microsoft Azure. ZEISS IT also uses Azure NetApp Files Storage, Azure Stack, Application Gateways, and Windows Server. “Our state-of-the-art data center for SAP solutions is gradually growing in the cloud, and we’re connecting that center to other services. We build the systems as a single source of truth, like a clean glass box, and ensure that it’s easy to operate and scale,” Riegel explains.
Newer SAP solutions with lower usage figures were moved by the IT team first. Half the company’s SAP applications now run in the Microsoft Cloud, where they are already benefiting from the advantages it offers. “With SAP in the Microsoft Cloud, we have maximum flexibility: we can set up and provide additional computing power, storage space, or test environments on short notice—it takes just a few hours instead of weeks,” Riegel says. “And anything we no longer need; we can switch off again immediately.”
In addition to its simple scalability, the cloud platform Azure also speeds things up with automated processes. “For the year-end closing, for example, users need a lot more power for a short time, but after two weeks everything is done. We switch the systems off again and they immediately stop generating costs. Even this process can be automated,” Knödler says, adding: “Thanks to SAP in the Microsoft Cloud, we can automate a lot of activities and thus accelerate our processes further. We see the effects of that, and of course so do the users.”
IT no longer has to worry about the lifecycle of the systems either: in the cloud, they are continuously updated without users noticing a thing. For them, the processes keep running smoothly the whole time. Another advantage is that users need just one password for all SAP modules, thanks to single sign-on. “The feedback is positive across the board: employees can access the applications easily, and if their department defines a new requirement, we can implement it quickly without it costing us a lot of time and capacity,” Riegel says.
“With SAP in the Microsoft Cloud, we have maximum flexibility: we can set up and provide additional computing power, storage space, or test environments on short notice—it takes just a few hours instead of weeks. And anything we no longer need, we can switch off again immediately.”
Joachim Riegel, IT-Manager, ZEISS
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