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As cloud computing and virtualization rapidly evolve, business management software specialist SAP (NYSE: SAP) is working in a three-way strategic collaboration with partners EMC (NYSE: EMC) and VMware to develop tools and services that make it possible for businesses to adopt cloud and run SAP systems in cloud infrastructures with increasing levels of automation. The company is deepening its partnerships with EMC and VMware to improve business agility and scale efficiencies by taking advantage of two transformational technologies: cloud computing and in-memory technology.
SAP said it would work closely with EMC and VMware and is currently evaluating options to deliver an end-to-end stack optimized for running SAP applications. Together, the three companies plan to invest and integrate application, database, virtualization, management and information infrastructure technologies, as well as deliver new services to support and accelerate business’ journey to the cloud.
Additionally, consulting services and global support offerings from SAP are planned to focus on helping businesses assess, design, implement and optimize a virtualization and cloud strategy. As a part of this broader engagement, SAP and VMware expect to deliver an extended support program by integrating a configuration and health check for SAP systems running on VMware cloud infrastructure into SAP GoingLive Check services and SAP EarlyWatch Alert service. The development should help customers gain a better ability to monitor and manage their SAP systems running on the VMware platform, the company said.
“We are co-innovating with industry leaders in our vast ecosystem to deliver openness and choice to customers, making it much easier for them to adopt cloud technologies,” said Vishal Sikka, member of the SAP executive board for technology and innovation. “Market observers agree that SAP’s next-generation architecture is truly bringing the power of these disruptive innovations to our customers without disruption. Our work with EMC and VMware demonstrates this. It is possible to bring these benefits to our customers while working together with partners in a spirit of openness, trust and co-innovation.”
SAP also intends to drive an improvement in the manageability of enterprise applications in private clouds by evaluating the delivery of VMware vSphere-based virtual appliances, orchestrated by declarative models in the TOSCA language recently submitted to OASIS for standardization. SAP, VMware and EMC plan to collaborate to develop new automation and management tools that can interpret and execute the TOSCA models provided by SAP. EMC and SAP will also explore collaboration opportunities around the SAP Hana platform to deliver high-end system availability and EMC’s automated storage tiering technologies (FAST).
“With virtualization now pervasive throughout the enterprise and baseline applications deployed, SAP customers are turning their attention to cloud computing strategies for mission-critical environments, ” said Pat Gelsinger, president and COO of information infrastructure products at EMC. “EMC, SAP and VMware are working together to accelerate SAP customers’ journey to hybrid cloud computing. By integrating technologies and delivering new services we hope to both improve business agility and lower IT costs for our mutual customers.”