The journey to modernising Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is a critical step for businesses looking to enhance agility, security, and efficiency in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape. Enterprises have relied on IBM's robust infrastructure to host their mission-critical SAP systems, ensuring round-the-clock operations and the safeguarding of sensitive business data.

As the next significant stride in this evolution, SAP has partnered with IBM to offer cloud infrastructure and technical managed services through RISE with SAP on Power Virtual Server. See Accelerate adoption of RISE with SAP using IBM Power Virtual Server by Alan Peacock and Tom McPherson.

This blog post will demystify RISE with SAP on Power Virtual Server, introduce the concept of surround workloads, and highlight how IBM Power Virtual Server offers a unique advantage for organisations on their Cloud ERP modernisation journey.

What is RISE with SAP?

RISE with SAP is a comprehensive, methodology-based offering designed to guide SAP ERP customers, including those using SAP ERP, SAP ECC, and SAP S/4HANA, to the SAP Cloud. It's more than just a software migration; it’s a holistic package that brings together SAP cloud ERP applications, SAP Business AI, and SAP Business Data Cloud.

Essentially, RISE with SAP is an SAP-managed cloud service that facilitates a secure and smooth transition of on-premises ERP software to the SAP Cloud. It’s particularly tailored for larger enterprises seeking to migrate their existing ERP data, processes, and capabilities to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.

Key benefits of RISE with SAP include:

• A single contract with a unified Service-Level Agreement (SLA) for the entire solution stack, simplifying procurement and management.
• Ongoing support and maintenance for infrastructure, platform, and application layers, delivered by certified subject-matter experts.
• Flexible pricing based on usage and consumption, enabling the ability to scale resources up or down as needed.
• Enhanced security and compliance features with built-in controls and monitoring.
• Integration with SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), providing advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning capabilities for data-driven decisions and improved operational efficiency.

For more information see RISE with SAP and also read Lauri McInis’s blog Why Now is the Time to Move to RISE with SAP: A Business Case for Transformation.

Why RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server?

For enterprises already running SAP workloads on IBM Power servers on-premises, IBM Power Virtual Serverpresents a unique and compelling advantage. This new offering is specifically designed to move SAP S/4HANA workloads from IBM Power Systems on-premises to the cloud within 90 days, aiming to reduce risk and improve migration time significantly. The solution is planned to be available soon, in the second quarter of 2025.

IBM Power Virtual Server leverages the industry-leading reliability and built-in security of the Power platform. Ranked number 1 in availability among SAP-certified servers, and with at least 6x fewer Critical Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) reported in NIST since 2020 compared to other SAP-certified clouds.

Moving from IBM Power on-premises to IBM Power Virtual Server can reduce migration risk and improve migration time by up to 15-25% compared to heterogeneous migrations to x86 environments in other clouds, largely due to the architecture consistency between the environments and the compute performance of Power processors. For the more than 10,000 businesses currently running SAP on IBM Power hardware, only IBM Cloud offers SAP-certified instances on Power systems for their move to RISE with SAP. For more information, see Unlocking the Value of RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server by Lauri McInnes. Also, read IBM Cloud Security and Compliance Center Workload Protection for IBM Cloud VPC and IBM Power Virtual Server where Anette Lörcher describes how IBM Cloud Security and Compliance Center Workload Protection is now fully enabled and seamlessly integrated with for IBM Power Virtual Server.

What are the "Surround Workloads"?

While migrating your core SAP systems to RISE with SAP, it's crucial to consider "surround workloads". These are workloads that communicate and interact with your SAP core systems which are being migrated to RISE with SAP on Power Virtual Server. These  surround workloads can be:

• Non-RISE SAP systems, other SAP systems not part of your RISE with SAP migration.
• Non-SAP applications.

IBM strongly recommends moving these surround workloads to an IBM Cloud account peered with RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server. With low latency connections, you can enable innovation, scalability, and resiliency for these surround workloads. See RISE with SAP on Power Virtual Server for a detailed view on surround workloads, and solution guides.

In IBM Cloud, you can leverage a rich set of infrastructure as a service and cloud services to build AI-powered surround applications, connecting SAP and non-SAP data sources with automated and end-to-end AI lifecycle governance. This includes services like Watsonx for AI and machine learning, cloud-native applications using Red Hat OpenShift, VMware solutions, Power Virtual Server, key management, logging and monitoring, and security and compliance tooling. See Surround Workloads for RISE on IBM PowerVS: Unlock the Full Power of SAP by Lauri McInnis.

Seamless Integration and Migration Strategies

Connectivity between your surround workloads and RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server is essential. There are four primary ways to connect to the RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server service:

• IPsec VPN: Establishing a secure encrypted tunnel.
• Dedicated Private Connection: Using IBM Cloud Direct Link or Direct Link Connect for higher security, compliance, and consistent throughput, bypassing the public internet.
• Peering: Connecting your existing IBM Cloud Account to the SAP-managed RISE with SAP IBM Cloud Account, typically facilitated by Transit Gateway cross-account connections.
• Internet: Direct access via IBM Cloud Internet Services (CIS) Web Application Firewall (WAF) for inbound HTTPS/TLS1.2 traffic.

See RISE with SAP on Power Virtual Server for a detailed view on migration considerations, tooling and services as well as IBM Cloud, hybrid and multi-cloud integration scenarios.

When planning the migration of surround workloads, it's helpful to classify them as either tactical (migrated concurrently with SAP systems) or strategic (timeline governed by business needs). Common cloud migration strategies apply:

• Re-hosting (Lift and Shift): Moving applications to the cloud without significant changes.
• Re-platforming: Making minor adjustments or optimisations before moving.
• Refactoring: Modifying or redesigning applications to leverage cloud-native features fully.
• Repurchasing: Replacing an existing application with a SaaS alternative.
• Retiring: Decommissioning outdated or unused applications.

IBM also supports this migration through a structured program, typically involving phases like Discovery, Assessment, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Migration, and Operate. A variety of migration tooling and services are available, including IBM Transformation Suite for SAP Applications, which automates essential migration tasks like technical assessments, data and code migration, and testing. See Migrating SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA using the Bluefield approach and the IBM Transformation Suite for SAP applications by Laurent Montaron and [Accelerate your SAP S/4HANA journey with IBM Transformation Suite for SAP Applications by Ramy Buechler, about this comprehensive offering designed to simplify and accelerate the migration to SAP S/4HANA® and RISE with SAP.

IBM's Commitment to Your Cloud Journey

To further ease the transition to RISE with SAP on Power Virtual Server, IBM is launching a customised investment program. This program is designed to support early-stage technical assessments by System Integrators (SIs) or resell partners, aid in migration execution, and facilitate the deployment of surrounding non-RISE workloads to the cloud. See IBM Power and IBM Cloud Investment program for RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server.

IBM also offers consulting and professional services, such as IBM Consulting, see SAP consulting services, and IBM Technology Expert Labs–Cloud, which provides deep technical expertise and proven methodologies for architecting and building IBM Cloud solutions. Additionally, managed services like IBM Cloud Platform Engineering Services and the PRISM cloud management platform offer automated planning, provisioning, and management of workloads in multi-cloud environments, leveraging AI and automation for IT operations. See Cloud Platform Engineering Services.

By understanding the capabilities of RISE with SAP, the strategic importance of surround workloads, and the unique advantages offered by IBM Power Virtual Server, organisations can confidently embark on their Cloud ERP modernisation journey, building a resilient, secure, and innovative digital core.