Classic SAP hosting, which is also referred to as SAP deployment, can be defined as the technical operation of an SAP landscape, for instance an ERP, or parts of the IT system in a particular location. Overall, you can distinguish between two different options where the system is localized:
- A company decides to run its SAP environment internally in an on-premise data center.
- A company chooses to locate its SAP infrastructure in a cloud environment – may it be a private, a public or a hybrid cloud.
In case of the latter, companies can either choose to host a cloud on their own or let a specialized IT service provider take care of all the administrative tasks. Since these cloud hosting providers manage the system in an external data center, this approach is sometimes labeled with the term SAP outsourcing. In comparison to the classic understanding of SAP hosting, SAP outsourcing also includes related services from external provides, which are often referred to as managed cloud services. Hence, SAP outsourcing can be regarded as an expanded form of the classic SAP hosting concept.
No matter which of the two general options is selected by a company, however, both SAP hosting scenarios always include the implementation of an SAP base layer as well as taking care of system maintenance.