On Tuesday, Google and SAP jointly announced the integration of SAP’s enterprise applications and solutions into the Google Cloud Platform. Some of the company’s most important platforms like SAP HANA will run natively on GCP.
SAP’s head of Product and Innovation, Bernd Leukert, was joined on stage by Diane Greene, Google Cloud’s SVP, to make the announcement. The upscale in service support is the result of a partnership between the two tech giants, made just over two months ago.
The enterprise software titan has agreements with all three cloud computing powerhouses: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Amazon Web Services already offered support for most of the services debuting in Google Cloud, while Microsoft Azure’s scope is more limited and remains oriented to proprietary developments.
Google and SAP want enhanced productivity for the enterprise
Essentially, the latest announcement by the two companies means that SAP applications and solutions for enterprise customers will run directly on the Google Cloud Platform, rather than on a proprietary or third-party platform.
It also represents the start of a more seamless integration with Google services, from which both companies will benefit. Machine learning technology from SAP and Google will result in service enhancements beyond the enterprise segment.
SAP HANA, the company’s signature database management system, will now be supported in two flavors over at GCP: BYOL and Express Edition. The Business Suite Software will also come to Google’s cloud, featuring SAP S/4 HANA, SAP BW/HANA, SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse, and SAP Business Suite.
Under the BYOL (Bring Your Own License) model, corporate customers will have up to 416 GB of scale-up memory, and the possibility to have 1664 GB of scale-out. In the Express Edition, however, only 32 GB are available, and license acquisition is required from that point on.
Both platforms let users build and run data processing applications and models, including text, tables, graphs, streaming, and predictive analytics frameworks for businesses and organizations.
The partnership also seeks improvement beyond business
SAP’s own Cloud Platform, in turn, now offers support for G Suite and Google Cloud Platform through its Identity and Access Management system to let users connect with both ecosystems’ apps regardless of device or platform.
A byproduct of this partnership includes the shared knowledge on machine learning research and development, which both companies are trying to harness and channel into smarter applications in and out the enterprise environment.
Google and SAP want to infuse services like Google Translate and APIs like Google Speech with more advanced artificial intelligence in hopes of finding innovative and attractive solutions to business partners and the general public alike. Bernd Leukert said he believes this is the way to go:
“ENTERPRISES IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY HAVE THE POWER TO BENEFIT FROM ECOSYSTEMS THAT ARE NOW STRONGER THAN EVER IN A HIGHLY CONNECTED WORLD. ONLY BY COMBINING FORCES CAN WE TAKE OUR CUSTOMERS TO THE NEXT LEVEL.”