Best practices for SAP on AWS greenfield implementations - AWS Prescriptive Guidance

Best practices for SAP on AWS greenfield implementations

Almaz Thornton, Johnny Frye, and Raveendra Voore, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

July 2024 (document history)

A greenfield SAP implementation is typically a part of a large-scale business transformation project that includes new installations of SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications. Greenfield SAP implementations on Amazon Web Services (AWS) differ from SAP on AWS migrations, because there is no existing server footprint on premises or in the cloud to migrate—instead, new servers are sized and provisioned. Additionally, greenfield projects tend to have a broader scope technically and functionally. Because greenfield implementations are less common than migrations, it is generally difficult to find guidance for these projects.

This guide provides recommendations and best practices for IT leaders and project managers who are involved in greenfield SAP implementations. These guidelines are also relevant to SAP migration projects, to help you avoid obstacles as you manage your migration or greenfield implementation. The guidelines are organized into three chapters, based on the three main phases of a migration or implementation project:

  • Planning phase – Initial planning, establishing the team, requirements gathering

  • Design phase – Transforming the requirements into architectural diagrams, build specifications, and design documents

  • Build phase – Development, configuration, and testing of the greenfield SAP implementation

This guide assumes that you have 100-level knowledge of AWS and SAP services, strong familiarity with IT project management, and awareness of the SAP on AWS migration methodology and SAP HANA patterns for AWS migrations.