High-Performance SAP ERP Migration to AWS
___For Legacy Landscapes
_____About the Customer…
Ahmad A. Abed Holding is a diversified business group operating across the Middle East in retail, manufacturing, and distribution.
- The company runs its mission-critical financial, logistics, and supply-chain processes on SAP ERP 6.0 EHP7 and needed to modernize its IT infrastructure to support continued growth and innovation.
Our team successfully migrated their entire SAP landscape to AWS Cloud, transforming their infrastructure from a fragmented, IOPS-starved setup to a highly available, cost-optimized, and secure cloud environment using AWS best practices.
The Customer__ Challenge.
The customer’s SAP ERP environment was hosted on aging on-premises hardware running Windows Server 2012 and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 R2.
Key issues included the following:
Performance Limitations
Single-disk configurations led to IOPS starvation and frequent slowdowns in SAP transactions.
No High Availability or DR
A single failure could lead to prolonged downtime.
Manual Backups
Backups ran manually, increasing RPO/RTO exposure and operational effort.
Security Exposure
Direct public IP access to SAPRouter and flat network segmentation.
License Under-Utilization
Microsoft/SQL licensing value left on the table due to hardware constraints.
If left unaddressed, these problems would increase downtime, risk of data loss, and operational costs; as well as restricting the company’s ability to adopt new SAP capabilities
Migration ___Approach.
Minimized downtime; validated post-migration app consistency.
Clean installs with database restore to reduce technical debt.
Multi-volume EBS layout (data, logs, binaries) + Provisioned IOPS for throughput.
AWS Dedicated Hosts (m6i) + 3-Year Savings Plans to maximize SQL/Windows licenses.
Segregated subnets; ALB fronting SAPRouter; KMS encryption; CloudTrail, Config, GuardDuty.
Automated full/log backups to S3; EDR to UAE region; semi-annual DR tests.
The Partner__Solution.
Cloudwrxs, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner with SAP Competency, designed and implemented a migration strategy that combined lift-and-shift with selective rebuild, following AWS and SAP best practices. The solution was explicitly built on AWS to modernize the customer’s SAP ERP environment.
How AWS Service were used:
Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts (m6i)
Provisioned to run the SAP application and Microsoft SQL Server workloads while enabling the customer to bring its existing Microsoft and SQL Server licenses.
Amazon EBS Provisioned IOPS
Implemented to separate SAP database, log, and application files for optimal throughput and to eliminate I/O bottlenecks.
Amazon S3
Configured for automated full and log backups with lifecycle policies, replacing manual tape/disk backups.
AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (EDR)
Deployed to replicate production SAP systems to the AWS UAE Region, enabling rapid failover and DR testing.
Amazon VPC & Subnets
Segregated DEV, QAS, and PROD environments.
Application Load Balancer (ALB)
Placed in front of SAPRouter to remove direct public exposure and filter traffic to essential ports.
AWS IAM & AWS KMS
Implemented least-privilege access controls and encryption for data at rest.
AWS CloudTrail, AWS Config & Amazon GuardDuty
Enabled for continuous compliance, change tracking, and threat detection across the SAP landscape.
How Services Were Delivered
Cloudwrxs handled the full lifecycle of the migration, including:
- Assessment workshops
- Architecture design
- Cost modeling
- Migration to AWS
Post-migration Cloudwrxs provided:
- 24×7 managed services—patching
- Backup monitoring
- DR drills
- Security audits
- SAP Basis support
All ensuring AAA’s environment remains compliant and optimized.
Business__Outcomes.
After migrating to AWS, Ahmad A. Abed Holding achieved measurable improvements
Business continuity risk dropped from days of potential downtime to minutes; IT staff time spent on backups dropped by over 80 %; licensing and hardware costs are now predictable and optimized under AWS Savings Plans.
SAP Performance
Before Migration
Frequent slowdowns
After AWS Migration
Up to 60 % faster transaction response with EBS Provisioned IOPS
Backups
Before Migration
Manual, error-prone
After AWS Migration
Automated S3 backups and log shipping every 2–4 hrs
Disaster Recovery
Before Migration
Potential loss of data
After AWS Migration
Multi-region DR with AWS EDR, biannual DR tests
Security
Before Migration
Direct IP exposure
After AWS Migration
Layered security with ALB, IAM, KMS
Cost
Before Migration
High CapEx
After AWS Migration
~40 % total cost of ownership savings over 3 years
_____About Cloudwrxs
…
Cloudwrxs is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner specializing in migrating and managing SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft workloads on AWS. Cloudwrxs provides end-to-end professional and managed services—assessment, migration, modernization, and ongoing optimization—to help enterprises maximize the benefits of AWS.
