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Best Practice 17.5 – Consider using on-demand capacity to improve cost efficiency - SAP Lens

Best Practice 17.5 – Consider using on-demand capacity to improve cost efficiency

The on-demand pricing model is suitable for SAP workloads needing reduced operating hours, short-term projects, experimentation, or expanded capacity for small periods of time (for example, performance testing). Determine where you can use on-demand pricing in your SAP architecture.

Suggestion 17.5.1 – Evaluate the use of on-demand for SAP systems needing less than 24/7 operating hours

Based on the break-even point between the use of on-demand and other pricing models. (See [Reliability]: Best Practice 18.1 - Understand the payment and commitment options available for Amazon EC2 ), evaluate if on-demand will provide the lowest cost. As part of this evaluation, consider the overall Savings Plan commitment.

Common use cases include non-production systems that are not needed outside of extended business hours or short-term business experiments, such as trial upgrades and proofs of concept (POCs).

Suggestion 17.5.2 - Evaluate scheduled or dynamic scaling options for peak loads

On-demand capacity is commonly used in SAP workloads for peaks where capacity requirements spike for a short period of time. Consider the following:

  • Use schedule-based SAP application server scaling for known usage pattern peaks such as period, month-end, year-end, or seasonal peaks.

  • Use dynamic scaling of the application tier where peaks are less certain and need to be scaled based on real-time user load. Explore mechanisms which are SAP-aware and provide the required governance and controls.

Note: When evaluating dynamic scaling of the application tier, consider the impact on user connections and batch jobs if an SAP application server is shut down due to the stateful nature of SAP components. AWS, SAP, and APN partner-developed tools can help address this requirement.