SAP and NetApp work closely together to deliver the lowest possible total cost of technology ownership for the enterprise. NetApp storage solutions address SAP software requirements for storage consolidation, disaster recovery, backup and recovery, and archiving. NetApp lowers SAP storage and data-management costs by up to 50% compared with other storage solutions – and accelerates SAP upgrades and deployment cycles.

Alliance Overview

NetApp is an SAP global technology and software partner and a member of the SAP enterprise services architecture partner ecosystem. The SAP Customer Competence Centers in Walldorf, Germany, and in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, focus on joint development initiatives and customer support.

NetApp and SAP also have a joint global customer support agreement to support enterprises that run SAP software on NetApp technology. NetApp is a founding development partner of FlexFrame, the first solution for the SAP adaptive computing infrastructure, which was jointly developed by SAP, Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), and NetApp for low total cost of ownership (TCO) and superior flexibility. NetApp won an SAP Pinnacle Award for delivering advanced enterprise storage solutions tailored to SAP adaptive computing environments.

Key Customer Benefits

NetApp delivers two key benefits: lower TCO and faster SAP deployments and upgrades. NetApp lowers SAP storage and data management costs by up to 50% compared to alternate storage solutions in the market and helps IT management better deploy staff and improve asset utilization. In addition, NetApp storage and software management tools enable stress testing with cloning and fast backup and recovery, reduce test cycle periods, and facilitate smooth rollouts – all of which help to reduce the downtime and risk associated with upgrades and migrations.

Capabilities and Industry Expertise

NetApp simplifies the SAP storage infrastructure and enables rapid deployments and upgrades of SAP software in the following areas:

• Consolidation – Help you simplify your landscapes to increase the manageability of the SAP infrastructure
• Upgrades – Help you reduce risk, avoid downtime, and accelerate upgrade processes
• Business continuity – Provide automated SAP data management solutions for rapid, space-efficient, disk-based SAP backup, rapid restore and recovery – facilitating nondisruptive replication of heterogeneous SAP data
• Adaptive computing – Help you lower TCO within a flexible SAP infrastructure, lower the server and storage resources on demand, and increase IT asset utilization
• Archiving and compliance – Integrate SAP archived data within a secure, tiered storage framework and improve SAP application performance, as well as fulfill compliance regulations

Alliance Focus Areas

• SAP ERP application upgrades
• SAP application life-cycle management
• Adaptive computing and enterprise services computing
• Integration of service-oriented architecture (SOA) with SOA-based storage services
• Archiving with WebDAV
• Microsoft-SAP collaboration on Duet

NetApp/SAP References

NetApp and SAP are mutual customers. SAP runs business-critical software production and e-mail systems on NetApp technology. NetApp runs its entire service management operation on SAP software. Enterprise customers worldwide, such as CONSOL Energy, Braun Medical, Bennett, Coleman, and Siemens Shanghai Mobile deploy SAP software on NetApp solutions to reduce SAP storage and data management costs, to facilitate rapid SAP deployments and upgrades, and to enhance their competitive edge in the marketplace. Detailed case studies are available.