Etex sets digital path moving large SAP workloads to Azure

The challenge

Etex, founded in 1905 and headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, is a pioneer and global leader in new construction methods and lightweight construction materials. Working within a soon-to-expire infrastructure hosting contract for enterprise IT services, Etex sought a new partner that could offer more flexible, cost-effective terms. The existing contract used a pricing model that led to an undesirable automatic full month of billing. Additionally, the company wanted to migrate to a hyperscale cloud that offered agile data processing and greater flexibility and scalability. There were also network design complexities to be solved with a well architected migration design to avoid integration challenges. In summary, Etex wanted to migrate complex, large database SAP workloads from the incumbent data center to the target cloud with the least amount of downtime. 

Our approach

Etex chose Cognizant to assess its hyperscale cloud solution and support the evaluation of solutions offered by Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. We assisted Etex to select the right target cloud platform based on several parameters that aligned to its future roadmap for both SAP and non-SAP workloads, and the choice was Microsoft Azure. We utilized our unique, accelerated, four-phase approach to cloud migration using the Cognizant SAP Cloud Assessment and Transformation (cCAT) framework for SAP cloud enablement. Our accelerators reduce the manual efforts of cloud design and leverage the substantial experience we have gained through executing SAP transformation projects in the cloud.

To reduce risk and minimize business disruption Cognizant used the Azure migrate tool (AMT) for application migration, which allowed Etex to retain hostnames and database types and versions. Cognizant also recommended a customized migration approach for each SAP product landscape based on the database product and size for optimal business downtime. Cognizant grouped tightly coupled systems in waves and performed migrations, one wave after another. This mitigated risk due to lower network bandwidth challenges.

Azure adoption enables greater efficiency and flexibility

The SAP transformation offered Etex benefits such as the power of the cloud, improved performance, and cost savings. Cognizant’s lean focused functional testing process resulted in near-zero reported defects. Our use of AMT for application migration reduced testing efforts and led to cost savings. Etex now has greater flexibility to scale up or scale down, in addition to minimum reserved capacity for better spend on cloud infrastructure. Beyond the immediate gains, Cognizant aligned project efforts with business downtime, per Etex’s requirement to avoid a longer IT outage maintenance window.