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( votes)Connects protected network to Azure.
SAP ERP system
SAP ERP system- The Department of Defence will push its first major workload into a public cloud environment after selecting Microsoft to host its new SAP enterprise resources planning (ERP) platform.
Microsoft has revealed that the department has begun using its Azure region in Canberra to develop and deploy the system.
That comes a year after IBM was selected as the systems integrator for a project that is ultimately expected to cost in excess of $1 billion and take up to eight years to complete.
IBM is tasked with delivering the initial design work for the ERP system and helping Defence move to SAP’s Defense Forces and Public Security solution and S/4 HANA cloud platform.
“Defence have securely connected their Protected Network to Azure AU Central which is hosting SAP S/4 HANA to develop and deploy the new ERP,” Microsoft said in a statement.
“Using SAP S/4 HANA and trusted cloud capabilities, Defence ERP will enable the resilience, security and performance the department requires now and into the future.”
The new ERP system, which Defence is progressing under its massive ERP modernisation program, is expected to help rationalise as many as 500 systems across the department.
This includes up to 90 percent of its existing ERP applications, as well as other systems used to manage finance, HR, logistics, procurement, engineering, maintenance and estate functions.
The department has previously said that consolidating these with a single ERP system will give it a “near real-time view of critical information across Defence to better inform decision making”.
But as a critical system that 85,000 Defence personnel are expected to access, Defence required protected-level cloud infrastructure to host the system and settled on Microsoft Azure.
Azure is one of only a handful of cloud services certified to protected security classification under the now-shuttered cloud services certification program.
Microsoft will host Defence’s ERP dev and production environments from Canberra Data Centres, while also supporting the department’s security certification and accreditation needs.
