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Addressing SAP Backup and Recovery Challenges

Posted on June 12, 2013 by wftadmin

Consistent Landscape Recovery within defined SLAs

Consistent SAP Landscape Backup

Consistent Landscape Backup is a solution that will allow SAP to recover to the same point-in-time across all SAP components running within an organization. In case of a failure, a consistent landscape backup will provide consistent data in all SAP components, thereby eliminating the need to manually perform a time consuming technical or business recovery.

The Challenge

Consistent SAP Landscape Backup is essential to protect mission critical data and avoid downtime associated with manual and time-consuming business recovery.

The ability to recover landscapes to a consistent point within the defined SLA’s is becoming increasingly challenging given increasing business demands, complexity of SAP and growing amounts of data.

SAP Backup and Recovery Tips and Best Practices

How do we ensure that our backup facilitates a consistent landscape recovery?

Execute regular backups of all assets and not just databases and application files. Include
- Application & database binaries
- Operating systems
- Archive logs
- Non-database file-systems
- NFS file-systems
Protect the database logs carefully. Keep a backup on local file system as well as on a remote device (remote file system) to protect them against manual accidents and provide easy retrieval.
Deploy disk snapshot technologies effectively to help restore/recover each SAP component up to a point in time of crash to ensure consistency across the landscape.

How often should we backup SAP data?

SAP database: Backup the SAP database at least once a day. For faster recovery databases may have to be backed up more than once a day. Reducing the impact of database backups on production systems is not a choice but integral part of the database backup solution.

Database log backups: Recovery to point-in-time is facilitated by database logs. Backups of database logs have to be designed based on local Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Frequency & backup destination of the database logs are critical pieces of the backup design.

Other SAP related non-database files: Backup of non-database files should be done at least once a day. For SAP Java components, backups of these files have to be aligned with database backups to avoid discrepancies.
OS backups: Though most of the SAP related files within OS is static, it OS backups should be performed at least once a week or whenever any changes are made to the OS. As a best practice, to reduce recovery time in case of complete system crash, once a day OS backups (incremental or full) is recommended.

How to perform landscape backup with minimal downtime?

Explore a combination of the below three options to achieve the optimal solution for your particular needs:

Perform split mirror backups, integrated with SAP provided tools, of the very large databases.
Implement a full and incremental (differential) backup strategy.
Use database vendor provided tools to achieve more granularities in the data set that is backed up.

How do we test our backups and ensure data is consistent and reliable?

Test restores to an alternate server at least once in six months
Perform a full SAP technical validation on the test restores at least once a month
Test individual components – it is more practical although complete landscape restore tests are desirable.

How do we restore in minutes and not hours?

Leverage split mirror database backups. They allow for restores to be performed within minutes.
Backup to disks and de-duplication devices to facilitate faster restores.
Maintain database logs online or near-line to make them quickly available for faster recovery.
Replicate backup media/device based backups to offsite location for faster recovery in case of a catastrophe.

Do we need new hardware /infrastructure?

No. Most of the enterprise business already owns the required pieces of the puzzle.
Existing operating system and different Storage Technologies can be integrated with SAP & Database Vendor provided tools to design the solution.

For more information on WFT services, please visit http://www.wftus.com or call us at 1-888-533-3113.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged database, SAP, SAP landscape | Leave a comment

10 Things to consider before Implementing SAP in cloud

Posted on June 5, 2013 by wftadmin

Cloud computing has been rapidly maturing over the last few years. Evolving best practices and procedures are accelerating the adoption of cloud in the enterprise companies. SAP customers are leveraging cloud technologies to reduce their infrastructure and operations costs and gain greater flexibility, agility and nimbleness normally seen in smaller organizations. Many SAP customers are already using cloud technology to compete better and faster—and realizing the potential of almost limitless scalability.

Consider the following 10 items to realize real benefits of cloud technologies for SAP:

1. Business Requirements

Assess, Create, and Adopt a Virtualization and Cloud Strategy based on business requirements and service level agreements between IT and Business. Develop a strategy with business requirements as the priority.

2. Security

Cloud technologies achieve cost savings through optimization and ease of access including shared resource pools and self service portals, it is important to tighten the overall security and controls. Data encryption can further enhance the overall application security.

3. Compliance

Verify compliance requirements of the data, determine whether the geographical location is in compliance with company requirements. Develop and deploy efficient access mechanisms.

4. Technology

Avoid proprietary cloud technologies, consider portability of your systems, selecting an open systems based cloud infrastructure will benefit. Companies can move systems between cloud infrastructures with minimal effort avoiding large system migration efforts in case of a server migration from one cloud system to another.

5. Operations Management

Understand the new cloud infrastructure technology and its impact on operations management, plan using IT service Management tools to manage operations efficiently.

6. Bolt-On and external systems

Analyze and plan for critical SAP bolt-on system migration as well as integration of third-party systems external to your network. This can include upgrade of the software, access control, security and connectivity.

7. Product Compatibility

Verify all system in SAP landscape can be migrated or deployed in the target cloud infrastructure, determine any upgrade or changes required for any components of SAP application, database and underlying software. Use SAP product Availability Matrix (PAM) as a reference.

8. Bandwidth and Connectivity

Measure and plan for network bandwidth and connectivity. This include inter-system connectivity, external system connectivity and user access.

9. System Refreshes

Consider SAP system refresh or system copy requirements, look for infrastructure that can support these processes for software logistics.

10. Business Continuity

Verify the current SLAs and disaster recovery plan’s Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) can be maintained or improved and can support overall business continuity plan. To further optimize consider Recovery as a service (RaaS).

Wharfedale Technologies completed several Private Cloud implementations over the last couple of years for major enterprises. We are a SAP Certified Cloud Services and Hosting partner and work closely with SAP and cloud technology vendors to design, deploy or migrate and manage SAP systems in cloud.

Call 1-888-533-3113 or email us at info@wftcloud.com for more information or click here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cloud, private Cloud, SAP, Virtualization | Leave a comment

Shift to HANA powered enterprise cloud with SAP

Posted on May 30, 2013 by wftadmin

SAP proposes to make the HANA in-memory database available as a service to power enterprise applications in the Cloud.

Modules like ERP, CRM and NetWeaver BW will be available as a Cloud service from SAP with on-demand storage.

If you can remember, earlier this year, the company had announced Business Suite on HANA.

All these exercises are being undertaken by SAP because it believes that the HANA Cloud enterprise service enable organizations to realize faster time-to-value coupled with lower TCO.

Vishal Sikka, CTO, SAP has said that SAP is taking all the required steps to promote HANA in-memory database among its customers. He said that customers can bring their existing Hana licences to pay for the service, which can also be paid for directly as a managed service. He also stated that the service will be suitable for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large enterprises, and confirmed that 60 engagements are already live.

“Customers want more and more options in how they take advantage of the value SAP Hana brings. With [this] we are delivering Hana at scale with instant value and no compromise. We are simplifying customers’ experience and expanding their choice … and we are doing this without disruption through the cloud,” says Sikka.

Sikka also said that managed cloud service will enable organizations to run their SAP applications in the cloud and it plans to deliver the cloud services with its certified Cloud service providers. This is where WFT Cloud comes in. . Once you are with WFT Cloud, you will just have to pay a monthly subscription for SAP HANA that is priced according to size, scale of data and applications used.

And what’s more? If you subscribe to us for HANA on Cloud services, you can save further money by utilizing our revolutionary pay-per-use model.

AboutWFT Cloud :

WFT Cloud (Wharfedale Technologies Inc.) is a leading technology consulting firm specializing in SAP infrastructure integrations and services, as well as private/public hybrid Cloud solutions. As an SAP certified provider of cloud services, Wharfedale also offers SAP solutions around – high availability, disaster recovery, advanced sizing for virtualization, back up/recovery Integration, systems refresh automation and landscape optimization. WFT has been the first official certified partner for providing SAP services on Cloud.

For more information on WFT Cloud services, please visithttp://www.wftcloud.com or reach us at (888) 533-3113. You can also connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cloud, CRM, ERP, HANA, SAP | Leave a comment

HANA Moves to Cloud

Posted on May 16, 2013 by wftadmin

SAP has announced the latest enhancement to its in-memory platform, HANA and has launched SAP HANA enterprise cloud. With this announcement, SAP has provided its customers the option of running a cloud based version of HANA together with the applications that run on top of it such as SAP BW, SAP business suite or other analytic applications.

But what benefit do customers get with SAP HANA on Cloud?

If you want to deploy the in-memory platform, HANA on Cloud provides you more flexibility vis-à-vis configuration and setup. The customers can hand over some of the more mundane tasks associated with HANA’s set up and configuration such as provisioning hardware and disaster recovery whilst also being able to utilise the cloud’s elasticity to scale up resources as needed. In other words it has the potential to speed up the time to value of a HANA implementation.

However, customers still need to go through some sort of assessment services to determine which applications are going to benefit the most from HANA of Cloud deployment.

We advise the customers to have a HANA license ready with them before considering Enterprise Cloud to have a feel before-hand about the benefits HANA’s in-memory services can offer you. If you want to get an assessment done about your infrastructure and it’s compatibility with HANA on Cloud, you can always get in touch with us. We are sure SAP HANA on Cloud is going to benefit you a lot and you should certainly consider moving to Cloud. Once you are in the Cloud, you will just have to pay a monthly subscription for SAP HANA that is priced according to size, scale of data and applications used.

And what’s more? If you subscribe to us for HANA on Cloud services, you can save further money by utilizing our revolutionary pay-per-use model.

AboutWFT Cloud :

For more information on WFT Cloud services, please visithttp://www.wftcloud.com or reach us at (888) 533-3113. You can also connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cloud, Enterprise Cloud, HANA, SAP | Leave a comment

The Cloud Modelling and Architecture Process:

Posted on May 16, 2013 by wftadmin

The Cloud Modelling and Architecture Process may be depicted in the following figure:

A brief Description of the complete steps involved may be as follows:

1. Cloud Modelling: If you want to determine, map and align your business drivers and key requirements with the range of potential cloud services and resources available, then you have taken a big step towards a proper Cloud modelling plan. It forces the explicit definition of business needs and establishes the technical patterns and resource models best suited for those business requirements. Service Models define the capabilities that are being provided to the “consumer” or end user of the service. There are three basic main types of service models

Software as a Service (SAAS)
Infrastructure as a Service(Iaas)
Platform as a Service (Paas)

For example, a business requirement for CRM application is a Cloud service that is different from a business requirement that would want to achieve better server utilization through the usage of Cloud services that focus on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

2. Cloud Deployment: The result of your Cloud modelling exercise is going to help decide about your Cloud deployment model. Based on the Cloud Modelling outcome of the Cloud Modelling efforts, one can decide about the Cloud Deployment model that best suits your organization’s business requirements and technical needs. It will help you decide whether you need a third party Cloud service provider’s assistance or you can setup an internal/private Cloud. Deployment Models define how the cloud infrastructure is provisioned to the consumer. There are four main types of deployment models

Private Cloud
Community Cloud
Public Cloud
Hybrid Cloud

3. Cloud Architecture: Once the Cloud deployment model has been decided based on the Cloud modelling practices, the Cloud architecture can be defined. Defining a Cloud architecture is paramount irrespective of the fact whether you are planning a purely internal private cloud or if you intend to leverage external public Clouds. Even if you decide to go for a third party Cloud service, you still need to be actively involved with your third party Cloud service provider to develop a robust Cloud architecture that is going to satisfy your business needs. Also, don’t forget to document, evaluate and test the proposed Cloud architecture before you actually deploy the same.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, IaaS, PaaS, private Cloud, Publc Cloud, SaaS | Leave a comment

SAPPHIRE NOW 2013: A WFT Cloud Perspective

Posted on May 15, 2013 by wftadmin

HANA has been the main focus for SAP at all SAP events since the past couple of years and that trend is continuing even at Sapphire 2013. The two topics that are generating lot of interest among attendees are SAP Business suite on HANA and the HANA Enterprise Cloud. HANA Enterprise Cloud is hosted in SAP datacenters and one interesting aspect of the HANA Enterprise Cloud is that it runs on bare metal for top performance. A SAP cloud offering without virtualization!

SAP will productize its HANA management stack (Cloud Frame) and share this IP as a blueprint with its large SAP hosting partners. SAP is also considering a managed service offering for on-premises installations. The licensing is not subscription based and it has to be acquired the same way as for other SAP products. This led to some mixed reviews from analysts.

Forrester Research analyst Stefan Ried had this to say regarding the announcement.

“Since HANA [became] available, I talked to many service providers and CIOs who wanted to operate HANA in a shared way for many customers, tenants or business divisions, unfortunately HANA was until today, basically bound to a physical hardware. Virtualization concepts or shared resource pools of memory did not really work. With HANA Enterprise Cloud, SAP seems to address this with an advanced management layer on top of the existing HANA software stack,” he added.

But SAP’s “bring your own license” model for the HANA cloud service is problematic, in Ried’s view. “While this is great for customers that have already a HANA license and [would] like to re-locate it into the cloud, it is useless for customers that might have largely fluctuating data volumes or user numbers and might specifically use a cloud because of its elastic business model.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“The Big 5 of Cloud” Does SAP Cloud deliver on five vital parameters – Part 5

Posted on April 29, 2013 by wftadmin

Marketing: SAP definitely has an edge over in the industry when it comes to marketing its products as it has a great marketing setup within the organization.

There are some great predictions for Cloud Computing trends in 2013:

As the cloud market matures, niche vendors continue to be consolidated; it is expected that SaaS acquisitions would exceed $25 billion over the next 20 months, a 50% increase from the past 20 months.
More than 25% of mid-market firms will leverage Cloud Computing services in 2013.
CIOs’ adoption of a “cloud first” strategy will double to 70% by 2016 as CIOs define architecture standards and service management processes.
Industry specific PaaS offerings will continue to emerge and will grow nearly 35% in 2013.
Cloud security will be another significant growth pillar. While North America will continue to have the largest revenue share, analysts predict emerging markets and Eastern Europe to have the fastest growth.

Based on the above trends, we can safely conclude that Cloud Computing has lot of scope for SAP to grow further into the industry across geographical borders if it markets its Cloud based offerings religiously.

There can be three main groups which can be targeted for SAP’s marketing strategies vis-à-vis Cloud computing as below:

Existing Customers: They should know what benefits they could achieve by shifting to Cloud and the marketing team can explain them the benefits of the same.
New Customers: Pitching in to new customers about SAP’s Cloud based infrastructure and services certainly forms one of the most important functional area of the SAP marketing teams.
Certified Partners: Getting in touch with the certified partners of SAP who will resell, host and extend the functionality of SAP’s base offerings, and explaining to them the benefits of selling the Cloud based services. Certain partners like WFT Cloud are already into providing Cloud based SAP infrastructure and this is a trend which is here to stay and grow further.

More small and medium enterprises will take advantage of the cost-efficiency and agility that cloud computing service provides. Since many cloud computing platforms are improving their database offerings to be able to compete well with others, SMEs will consider migrating to cloud-hosted database systems for better performance in data applications. With the advancements we see in the cloud computing Industry, it is evident that cloud computing will soar high in 2013 and future years.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cloud computing, SAP, SME | Leave a comment

“The Big 5 of Cloud” Does SAP Cloud deliver on five vital parameters – Part 4

Posted on April 15, 2013 by wftadmin

Mobility: These days, people are well and truly excited about how mobile computing can change the face of the world and how it can change the way they do their business along with being more efficient as well as saving more money.

SAP ERP, CRM and BW systems are largely closed systems and are pretty complicated. SAP has tried many a times to address this difficulty over the years by releasing numerous web enabled services as a part of their Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) strategy. The problem arises when one realises that this SOA layer is just a replica of the complexity that exists below it and hence, it is still complex.

To counter this, SAP has already launched the project gateway which aims at providing a service layer that would ensure a simplified version of the complex processes and business entities of SAP, like CRM, BW etc, and make these entities available to users via modern user centric computing devices that would certainly include your favourite mobile platform. These devices are lightweight and easy to access and go in line with the vision of Mr Vishal Sikka, SAP CTO, to liberate all those legacy SAP systems from their complexity by moving over to a mobile platform and making it available to the next generation web 2.0 expert.

With all the hype surrounding the HANA, we believe that there could hopefully be a combined strategy that would serve SAP HANA on a Mobile platform as is the case with Project Gateway for other legacy SAP Business Processes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged BW, CRM, HANA, SAP | Leave a comment

Addressing SAP Backup and Recovery Challenges

SAPPHIRE NOW 2013: A WFT Cloud Perspective

“The Big 5 of Cloud” Does SAP Cloud deliver on five vital parameters – Part 4

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