SAP Workloads in the Cloud: Opportunities and Risks

Increasingly, topics such as predictive capability, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) – ideas that used to remain with the walls of a boardroom – are starting to gain momentum in conversations around cloud adoption. While advances in AI and ML are hot topics, most discussions around the cloud journey typically revolve around costs, technical infrastructure, and the potential for delays.

For SAP customers, a primary question is how the cloud can make it possible to address the unique problems associated with SAP environments. SAP customers are concerned about enterprise, regulatory, and compliance risks and threats. From an operational perspective, they want to know how the cloud impacts business continuity and how it affects strategic business initiatives around technology, product, IP protection, tax, and acquisitions.

The cloud offers opportunities to test ideas quickly, easily, and cost-effectively. With 88% of SAP customers running at least some of their SAP workloads in a private, public, or hybrid cloud environment, according to SAPinsider’s research, opportunities to innovate with the cloud abound.

SAP Workloads in the Cloud Accelerate Innovation

While innovation should be at the forefront of any cloud conversation, it must be balanced with an understanding of risks and security threats, according to John Livingood, Managing Director at Protiviti.

SAPinsider’s Chief Research Officer, Riz Ahmed, recently sat down with Livingood, and his colleague, Don Loden, Managing Director at Protiviti, to discuss how SAP customers can take advantage of the cloud while understanding the critical role of governance in their cloud journey.

Watch this exclusive SAPinsider video to learn about:

The roles of different entities involved in cloud transformation, including what SAP customers are responsible for versus typical vendor responsibilities.

Why it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your security landscape to establish proper targets related to risks and threats.

How change management within the organization acts as an accelerant for changing user mindsets and getting people used to a new way of doing things, including adopting infrastructure as code.

Envisioning the art of the possible by balancing opportunities and risks based on the route of cloud technology your organization is heading toward, whether public or private cloud or a hybrid approach.