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3 CUSTOMERS SAY RUNNING SAP WORKLOADS ON AWS YIELDS ROBUST BUSINESS BENEFITS These findings correlate with a large body of research that has established that cloud adopters tend to accelerate usage as they gain familiarity with the platform and realize indirect benefits beyond short-term cost savings. For example, IDG Research found that 43% of customers who have used SAP on AWS for more than two years report improved organizational efficiency, compared to 28% who have less than two years of experience. Forty percent more long-term users also reported payoffs in increased inno- vation compared to their less-experienced counterparts. Nearly three times as many experienced customers said they have seen time-to-market improvements as a result of efficiencies gained from reduced administration and easier provisioning. Long-term customers are also more likely to report improve- ments in customer experience, primarily due to better reliability, improved availability, and performance. As organizations increas- ingly take on digital transformation initiatives, the quality of customers' and business partners' online experience assumes greater importance. With availability rates of 99.99%, AWS eclipses all but the largest enterprises in this respect. The only areas in which newer customers report greater benefits than long-term customers are in improved productivity and cost savings, probably reflecting the immediate impact of their move from on-premises environments. This is consistent with overall industry adoption trends, which point to short-term expense reductions as a primary driver of cloud migration as customers shift dollars from capital to operating budgets. PLANS TO EXPAND The most significant indicator of customer satisfaction is future adoption plans, and in that area customers were clear: Nearly two-thirds say they plan to move additional SAP solutions to AWS. When asked which SAP solutions they plan to migrate to the cloud in the future, customers identify supply chain management (SCM) and portals as their top choices, followed closely by CRM. SCM is a natural candidate for cloud adoption because the ability to integrate with a wide variety of solutions from other supply chain partners naturally lends itself to a cloud platform. Market Pulse This preference can also be explained by some of the top benefits users experience from migrating SAP workloads to AWS. They include improved efficiency through centralization, improved security, and better availability. All are critical in supply chain automation. MOTIVATIONS TO MIGRATE The research also delved into the reasons why customers migrated SAP workloads to the cloud initially and the actual benefits they realized. Cost savings and operational efficiency benefits dominate in both areas, although longer-term customers show a preference for broader business benefits. These findings dovetail with the metrics customers use to measure the success of deployments, which are IT productivity (mentioned by 57% of respondents) and cost savings (50%). The top reason organizations initially move their SAP workloads to the cloud is to save money, with 24% of respondents citing that as the number-one or number-two most important factor. Improved storage and archiving efficiency follows at 19%. Although the four top reasons users make the move relate to infrastructure, the business-related factors of innovation and improved organi- zational agility are fifth and sixth, respectively. In fact, as many people mention innovation as a number-one or number-two benefit as mentioned second-ranked storage efficiency. When it comes to cost reduction, organizations' expectations are generally realized. Forty-three percent of respondents report having saved on hardware and software, 37% cite operational savings, and 36% say they've saved on maintenance. Those three categories also top the list of the areas with the greatest cost-saving impact. In many cases, savings exceeded expectations. One in six customers are surprised by the extent of savings experienced. A nearly equal number are positively surprised by efficiency and innovation benefits. Those benefits were followed closely by improved ability to focus on core competencies, another business-focused outcome. Experienced SAP-on-AWS users overwhelmingly report strong overall benefits, with initial payoffs in cost savings, giving way to more critical transformative factors like improved agility and customer experience.