About ZEISS
It all began in 1846 when Carl Zeiss founded a workshop for optical and precision instruments in Jena, Germany. Today, ZEISS is one of the world's leading technology companies in the optical and optoelectronic industries. ZEISS optical products are used in the manufacture of microchips, in research into infectious diseases and in the production of award-winning films. As a manufacturer of medical products in risk class I, ZEISS is obliged to operate a quality management system and ensure the reproducibility of all processes.
This also applies to its IT infrastructure and SAP landscape.
The Challenge
ZEISS maps all processes and financial flows in SAP. The approximately 80 systems were hosted on-premises by a contractual partner, had grown very monolithically over more than 20 years, and were closely intertwined. The landscape was outdated and therefore not very flexible, difficult to operate, and difficult to modernize. As a result, IT processes were lengthy and slow, and automating recurring processes seemed virtually impossible. In 2019, the decision was made to adopt a cloud-first strategy - also for business-critical SAP applications - together with PCG as an experienced go-to-cloud partner. The focus was on independence from dedicated on-premises hosters, an increase in in-house operational performance and an increase in the level of automation.
The Solution
ALPACA as a Project Accelerator
In order to migrate the extended, business-critical applications cleanly, the environment to be migrated was first cleaned up. This was followed by the conceptual design of the target landscape. In particular, requirements for security, T-shirt sizes, IP address management, high availability via 2 AZs, backup procedures, adaptive design and ANF for snapshots had to be met. The subsequent proof of concept involved testing the target design with ALPACA. “We were looking for a suitable target infrastructure, but above all for a new technological approach to deployment.”
ALPACA, which provides SAP systems fully automatically according to the Infrastructure as Code principle, was the missing piece of the puzzle. PCG was also able to close the gap between SAP Basis and the new cloud world.
ALPACA is an operating platform and orchestrates the management of SAP systems in the cloud. New project instances can be rolled out at the push of a button, making it a massive accelerator. This has already been demonstrated in the POC.
Agile Methods For Continuous Delivery From Lab To Prod
After successful initial testing, agile implementation can begin. PCG is responsible for developing best practices with ZEISS. DESIGN, BUILD & TEST & APPROVE, RUN is used as an iterative process throughout the project. All setups and developments are tested and optimized in a laboratory environment. ALPACA as a ready-made operating concept facilitates and accelerates the work through best practice solutions, but as an open framework it also offers the possibility of being adapted to specific ZEISS requirements. This is followed by automatic adaptation in the production environment. Agile project methods enable continuous deployments from the reference environment (LAB) to the production environment. In this way, the development and deployment processes go hand in hand. Step by step, SAP systems are successfully migrated to the cloud.
Results and Benefits
Advantages of Next-Level SAP Operation with ALPACA
- Increased internal performance in SAP application operation, use of self-service functions for operational routines
- Implementation of own policies and architecture requirements
- Increased operational reliability through a high degree of automation across the SAP lifecycle
- Meet stringent regulatory requirements for GxP quality assurance through complete standardization
Benefits of SAP on Azure
LEVERAGE THE FLEXIBILITY OF THE CLOUD
- Systems can always be kept up to date with the latest technology
- Respond to load changes at any time (FY/Q/M close)
RAPID PROVISIONING OF SAP SYSTEMS
- Previously: 12 weeks including hardware procurement
- Today: 5 hours, including full integration with current operating environment
HIGH AVAILABILITY ACROSS ZONES WITH AUTO FAILOVER
Quality Management, Automation and Security In One Solution
As ZEISS also manufactures medical products, these are subject to strict quality management and documentation requirements. Thanks to ALPACA, ZEISS no longer has to check the approximately 80 SAP systems manually, but can automate the process and work much more cost and time efficient. The same applies to compliance with documentation requirements. ALPACA offers ZEISS the option of using process automation for the installation processes. This means that once a process has been qualified, it can be automatically applied to any number of systems and at the same time documented in a traceable and audit-proof manner. The ALPACA automation solution also provides ZEISS with increased operational reliability, as all systems are rolled out according to a defined process.
All systems are rolled out according to a defined scheme, thus eliminating sources of error caused by manual activities.
Working together
From the very beginning, the cooperation was characterized by a very cooperative partnership and even with a large, interdisciplinary project team, the focus of everyone involved was always on “THE GOAL”! PCG supports ZEISS not only in migrating their SAP system landscape to Azure, but also in equipping their SAP team with the necessary cloud expertise for the future operation of SAP on Azure. With the support of ALPACA, ZEISS is able to take over the complete operational responsibility in-house without the previous outsourcing service provider. PCG is the ALPACA initiator, sparring partner and cloud service provider in the role of a trusted advisor. Further projects are already in the pipeline: On Prem offsite data replication is planned for business continuity. The SAP cloud landscape will also be further automated to provide Zeiss with even more flexibility, scalability, and security.
Thanks to the successful partnership between Zeiss and PCG, the large-scale SAP2Azure project will even be implemented for Zeiss in China via 21Vianet.
About PCG
Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.
With a product portfolio designed to accompany organisations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.
We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.