What’s this all about? A question often heard in the world of IT, a world that’s changing at breakneck speed.
Today’s youth are growing up with on-demand streaming services. They are growing up alongside this wave of technological progress. As a result, they are accustomed to being able to satisfy their need for information at any time.
Generation Gap
Quite recently, closer to home, I was confronted with this generation gap. I was watching an episode of “Wie is de mol” with my little son, which ended with a huge cliffhanger. Impatiently, he said he wanted to watch the next episode to see how it would end. When I told him we’d have to wait a week for the next episode, he looked at me questioningly and said, “But can’t you just press ‘next episode’?”
These days, it’s so “normal” to have everything at your fingertips with the push of a button that you forget things used to be—or still are—different. See also the following video about a phone.
Are we really that different?
The guys in the video had no idea how an old-fashioned phone worked. But let’s take a closer look: are we really that different when it comes to new technologies? How do we react to the buzzwords from SAP that are constantly being thrown at us? Buzzwords like Digital Core, Cloud, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence, to name just a few. Aren’t we just like these guys? We look at these new technologies with curiosity or from a distance. We ask ourselves: How does this work? What does this mean for my situation? Is the product mature enough to implement yet? At the end of the day, we have no idea where to start.
Try jumping (a little) in the air
How can you safely explore these technologies and innovate? The last thing you want is for your current processes to be put at risk. By integrating your existing SAP landscape with cloud solutions, you can safely explore all the latest innovations. Examples include low-code platforms such as Pega, Mendix, and the SAP Cloud Platform.
The advantage of implementing a cloud solution is that all development takes place on the cloud platform, while your current SAP landscape remains unchanged. This ensures that your current processes are not disrupted by this exploration of new technologies.
The architecture diagram below illustrates what this might look like when implementing the SAP Cloud Platform.
Through the SAP Cloud Connector, you can extract all kinds of information from your current SAP landscape and integrate it with cloud platforms. You can then apply all of SAP’s latest technologies—such as blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence—to this data. This may lead to new insights and enable you to compete much more efficiently.
You might think the price tag is a bit high. But by using cloud services, which typically operate on a “pay-per-use” model, you’ll actually save money compared to rolling out these systems in-house.
Have you always been drawn to new innovations but never known how to get started? Then I’d like to challenge you. Take the leap into the Cloud. You might soon be jumping for joy thanks to new insights. A more innovative world starts with you.
