SAP to use Microsoft Azure in new five year expanded partnership

Microsoft has announced an expanded partnership with German multinational software corporation SAP. As part of the partnership, Microsoft will provide public cloud services for the SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite and SAP will make available its cloud-based human capital management solutions on Microsoft Azure over the next five years.

Overall, the deal is an addition to the already existing partnership between Microsoft and SAP, such as previous integrations made between Office 365 and SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite, as well as SAP Fieldglass Vendor Management System, SAP Ariba and Concur solutions. It also comes as Microsoft recently announced the general availability of Azure large instances, hardware configurations specifically designed for the largest and most demanding SAP workloads.

Additionally, the deal marks SAP’s first move to “supplement its own infrastructure and operate SAP SuccessFactors solutions in a third-party public cloud.” Judson Althoff, executive vice president, Worldwide Commercial Business at Microsoft put the deal best and said:

“Microsoft and SAP share a commitment to empowering digital transformation across every aspect of business… The combination of SAP’s market-leading, innovative human capital management solutions with Microsoft’s intelligent cloud will equip companies around the world to help maximize the potential and skills of their most valuable asset, their people…”

According to a statement from Mike Ettling, president of SAP SuccessFactors, SAP SucessFactors is “the fastest growing core HR solution, and SAP has seen exponential growth in the past two years, with 42 million users benefiting from their market-leading solutions.”