Navigate SAP's Cloud Landscape Without Getting Locked In
SAP's cloud portfolio — RISE with SAP, S/4HANA Cloud, BTP, and SuccessFactors — is evolving rapidly while SAP aggressively pushes customers toward migrations. RLM provides independent advisory on SAP cloud strategy, RISE evaluation, and contract negotiation that represents your interests, not SAP's.
What RLM Delivers on SAP Cloud
RLM advises enterprises on SAP cloud migration strategy, RISE with SAP evaluation, BTP architecture, hyperscaler hosting for SAP workloads, and the contract structure that protects your investment.
How We Approach SAP Cloud
Every SAP Cloud engagement starts with what you have today and ends with something running in production — with independent evaluation in between.
SAP Landscape & Roadmap Assessment
We assess your current SAP landscape — ECC vs. S/4HANA, on-premises vs. managed services, HANA version, and support timeline — and evaluate the migration paths and timelines that make sense for your business.
RISE with SAP Evaluation
RISE with SAP bundles S/4HANA Cloud with infrastructure, support, and business transformation services. We evaluate RISE economics against alternative approaches — hyperscaler-hosted S/4HANA, managed services partners, or phased migration.
BTP Architecture & Integration
SAP Business Technology Platform is increasingly central to SAP's cloud strategy. We advise on BTP use cases, integration with non-SAP systems, and the governance model for BTP development.
Contract Negotiation Strategy
SAP contracts involve significant complexity — cloud credits, indirect access, license metrics, and RISE pricing. We advise on negotiation strategy and commercial terms that protect your interests over the contract term.
SAP Cloud Evaluation Criteria
What follows is the SAP Cloud evaluation checklist we actually use — the criteria that predict outcomes rather than demo well.
RISE TCO vs. Alternatives
RISE bundles infrastructure, licenses, and services at a package price. Decompose the RISE pricing and compare component by component against hyperscaler-hosted S/4HANA and managed services alternatives.
Migration Complexity & Timeline
S/4HANA migration from ECC is a significant undertaking. Evaluate realistic migration timelines, data conversion complexity, custom code remediation, and the business disruption risk during cutover.
Indirect Access & License Compliance
SAP's indirect access licensing model creates significant exposure for organizations that integrate third-party applications with SAP. Audit your integration landscape before any SAP cloud commitment.
BTP Dependency & Lock-In
Building integrations and extensions on BTP creates SAP dependency. Evaluate the portability of BTP integrations and the commercial implications of BTP volume commitments.
Hyperscaler Hosting Alternative
SAP workloads can run on AWS, Azure, or GCP-certified infrastructure rather than RISE. Evaluate the economics and operational model of hyperscaler-hosted S/4HANA against RISE.
Support Model
RISE includes SAP support; hyperscaler-hosted SAP requires separate arrangements. Evaluate the support coverage, SLA differences, and escalation path quality under each model.
"Our migration was stalled for months. RLM came in, assessed the gaps, and helped us select a managed services partner that got us across the finish line in 60 days."
We are paid by the provider you choose, which means we have no reason to steer you toward any particular one.
Where This Matters Most
Sector-specific considerations we see repeatedly in cloud and managed services engagements.
A Sample of the Cloud & Managed Services Providers We Evaluate
RLM is vendor neutral. These are among 600+ providers in our evaluation set — inclusion here is not an endorsement, and we are paid by the provider you choose, not by any provider in particular. How that works →
Ready to Get SAP Cloud Right?
Start with a no-cost conversation with an RLM cloud advisor — vendor neutral, no agenda, just clarity on the right path forward.
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