Amazon vs EMC, Virtustream for SAP Cloud Customers

Virtustream, now owned by EMC Corp., positions itself as a cloud services provider (CSP) uniquely positioned to run and support SAP workloads. Now, Amazon Web Services is aggressively countering Virtustream's market position.

Indeed, Amazon claims AWS is gaining momentum as a platform for running business-critical SAP applications. And the cloud giant is naming SAP customers that now run on Amazon. They include GE Oil & Gas, Kellogg’s, Brooks Brothers, Ferrara Candy Company, GPT Group, Hoya Corporation, Lionsgate, McMillan Publishers India, RWE Czech Republic, Zappos.com, Bart & Associates Inc., and plenty more. 

Amazon's statement surfaces during SAP Sapphire Now 2016, a major user and partner conference this week in Orlando, Fla. Of course, Amazon doesn't have a monopoly on the SAP relationship. IBM, for instance, has a deep relationship with SAP. And Lenovo points to SAP as one of its core partners on hyperconverged data centers.

Running SAP in Virtustream Cloud

Still, Virtustream -- part of the EMC Federation of companies -- has a strong following in the SAP cloud market. During the recent EMC World 2016 conference in Las Vegas, Virtustream CEO Rodney Rogers described how his company's cloud is architected for SAP and other SaaS applications (see video below):

True believers in the Virtustream strategy include Florida Crystals CIO Don Whittington. He describes Florida Crystals' decision to run SAP applications in Virtustream's cloud in the video below:

Virtustream is believed to have crossed the $100 million annual revenue mark in 2014, and sources say revenues are still growing quickly. Many pundits believe Virtusteam is now EMC's preferred public cloud provider (over VMware's vCloud Air). And the recent Virtustream Storage Cloud launch could allow EMC customers to extend their on-premises storage into  Virtustream's cloud for off-premises protection.

Amazon, Virtustream: Embracing ISVs

Still, Amazon appears fixed on its ISV partners -- striving to position AWS as the best platform for third-party SaaS applications. And that potentially means intensifying competition for Virtustream.

Oh, and one more thing: Microsoft Azure is promoting new SAP Hana support... Good news for customers and partners that want market choices....