An In-Depth Guide to Estimating Infrastructure Costs for SAP Migration to AWS

Migrating SAP workloads from on-premises to AWS is a transformative move that promises scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. However, understanding and forecasting the associated infrastructure costs is crucial to optimize performance and budget. This comprehensive guide walks through the SAP migration project cost analysis, from estimating on-premises resource requirements to selecting AWS services and calculating the overall costs for hosting SAP on AWS.

Overview of the SAP Migration Project from On-Premises to AWS

Migrating an SAP environment to AWS involves moving databases, applications, and infrastructure currently hosted on on-premises servers to Amazon Web Services. This migration is often driven by the need for a more scalable and resilient infrastructure, faster time-to-market, and reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). For enterprises, AWS offers a flexible platform that can accommodate SAP environments with high availability, compliance, and robust backup and disaster recovery options.

This migration typically encompasses several vital stages:

Assessment and Planning: Evaluating the current on-premises SAP landscape and planning resource requirements.
Resource Sizing and Selection: Determining which AWS resources are best suited for hosting SAP workloads.
Cost Analysis: Using AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate ongoing costs.
Deployment and Testing: Configuring, deploying, and testing SAP workloads on AWS.
Optimization: Adjusting configurations for optimal performance and cost.

Methodology for Estimating On-Premises Resource Requirements

Before calculating migration costs, accurately estimating on-premises resource requirements is essential. Understanding current infrastructure usage is crucial in deciding which AWS services and instance types are appropriate. This involves assessing:

Compute Power: Analyze CPU, memory, and disk utilization.
Storage Requirements: Measure the storage capacity used by SAP HANA or other databases.
Networking: Calculate data transfer needs to ensure the migration plan accommodates AWS bandwidth.
Backup and Disaster Recovery: Identify requirements to ensure reliable backup and failover strategies on AWS.

Tools like AWS Migration Evaluator can facilitate the initial assessment, providing insights on the sizing and configurations needed for optimal performance on AWS.

Utilization of AWS Pricing Calculator for Detailed Cost Estimation

The AWS Pricing Calculator is an invaluable tool for forecasting expenses tied to AWS hosting. To accurately estimate costs, the calculator allows for:

Customizable Instances: For each instance, you can choose the specific configurations, such as vCPUs, memory, storage, and network bandwidth.
Storage Options: Select the type and volume of storage (e.g., EBS, S3) to be allocated.
Data Transfer: Define expected data transfer between regions and availability zones.
Support Costs: Factor in costs for AWS Support plans, such as Enterprise Support, which provides 24/7 access to technical support.

By inputting these values, organizations can gain a realistic view of their monthly and yearly AWS costs and make data-driven decisions for the migration process.

Selection of AWS Services for Hosting SAP Workloads

AWS offers various services tailored explicitly for SAP workloads. Critical service choices for SAP migrations typically include:

Amazon EC2: SAP-certified EC2 instances, particularly the X1 and R5 series, deliver high-performance memory options necessary for SAP HANA.
Amazon EBS: Elastic Block Store provides durable storage options for SAP databases with high throughput and reliability.
Amazon S3: S3 offers scalable storage with cost-efficient pricing tiers for backup and archive storage.
Amazon RDS: For organizations using SAP ASE or SAP IQ, RDS simplifies database management with high availability and automated backups.
AWS Backup: Ensures automated backups, providing a centralized console to manage all backup activity.

Choosing the right combination of these services ensures that the infrastructure is reliable, scalable, and cost-effective for SAP workloads.

Impact of Enterprise Support Plan on Total Migration Costs

AWS Enterprise Support is highly recommended for mission-critical SAP applications. It provides around-the-clock access to AWS engineers and account managers specializing in SAP environments, assisting in architecture reviews and best practice consultations. However, Enterprise Support fees can increase overall costs, as they are typically calculated as a percentage of monthly AWS usage. While this adds to the total price, the support for troubleshooting, training, and resource optimization is often essential for high-availability SAP deployments.

Presentation of Estimated Monthly and Yearly Costs for AWS Hosting

The AWS Pricing Calculator provides a detailed estimate of monthly and yearly costs based on resource utilization, storage, and networking configurations. Here’s an example breakdown:

Compute: $12,000 monthly for high-memory instances
Storage (EBS + S3): $2,500 monthly
Data Transfer: $800 monthly
Enterprise Support Plan: Calculated at 5% of AWS usage, approximately $780 monthly

Total Estimated Cost: $16,080 monthly, translating to roughly $193,000 annually.

While these numbers vary depending on the specific SAP landscape and chosen AWS services, they provide a strong foundation for estimating cloud expenses.

Conclusion

Migrating SAP to AWS requires meticulous planning to gauge and control costs accurately. Organizations can structure a scalable, secure, and financially viable infrastructure for SAP workloads using the AWS Pricing Calculator and carefully selecting services like EC2, EBS, and S3. Factoring in Enterprise Support ensures resilience, enabling organizations to unlock the full potential of AWS for SAP applications.