Customer Profile

Customer: Sharjah Asset Management (United Arab Emirates)
Industry: Government, Asset & Investment Management
Core Business: Managing and optimizing commercial, financial, and real estate assets for the Emirate of Sharjah
Employees: 500–1,000
Geography: UAE, headquartered in Sharjah

Project Timeline

April 2024 – October 2024

Business Challenge

Sharjah Asset Management operated critical SAP systems on legacy on‑premises infrastructure. As the organization expanded, several challenges emerged:

• Limited scalability to support new business initiatives
• High dependency on aging infrastructure
• Increased operational overhead and maintenance requirements
• Need for a secure, resilient architecture aligned with modernization goals
• Desire to maximize the value of SAP systems through cloud‑native capabilities

To ensure long‑term stability and innovation readiness, the organization required a complete migration of all SAP landscapes—including SAP HANA and traditional SAP databases—into Microsoft Azure.

ALIANDO’s Migration Methodology

ALIANDO executed the migration using a structured, SAP‑aligned, Agile‑driven cloud transformation methodology. The process ensured low risk, predictable outcomes, and minimal disruption to business operations.

1. Discovery and Analysis

The engagement began with deep analysis of the SAP and non‑SAP environment:

• Assessment of existing infrastructure hosting SAP systems
• Review of OS‑level (Linux) and database layers (SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, SAP HANA)
• Dependency mapping between applications, interfaces, and SAP modules
• Identification of sizing requirements and performance characteristics

This provided a complete picture of the digital estate and informed migration sequencing.

2. Design and Deployment

ALIANDO designed a new, enterprise‑grade Azure Landing Zone, including:

• Network architecture
• Identity integration
• SAP‑specific security baselines
• High‑availability and disaster‑recovery architecture
• Logging, monitoring, policy enforcement, and governance structures

Azure‑ready environments were deployed to support both test and production SAP landscapes.

3. Cloud Assessment for SAP Applications

Using SAP‑certified tools and Azure Migrate, ALIANDO performed:

• Compatibility checks for SAP on Azure
• Database migration strategy selection (HANA, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase)
• Target VM sizing and benchmarking for SAP application and database servers
• HLD/LLD creation for each SAP component
• Runbook creation for complex SAP migration waves

This ensured every workload had a clear blueprint before execution.

4. Test Migration (For Complex Systems)

For highly integrated or high‑risk SAP components:

• A full test migration was executed
• Performance validation and interface testing were conducted
• Adjustments to sizing, storage, and networking were made
• Pre‑cutover steps were refined

This reduced downtime and ensured a smooth production migration.

5. Live Migration

All production workloads were migrated into Azure, including:

• Linux virtual machines hosting SAP application servers
• SAP HANA databases moved into SAP‑certified Azure VM environments
• Oracle, SQL Server, and Sybase databases transitioned to Azure‑based equivalents
• SAP central services, interfaces, and batch processing systems
• Supporting infrastructure such as file shares, monitoring agents, and integration components

ALIANDO coordinated with SAP Basis teams and business stakeholders to minimize downtime during the cutover.

6. Post‑Migration Adjustments

Following the go‑live, ALIANDO performed:

• Performance tuning across compute, storage, and SAP application layers
• Backup and disaster recovery configuration
• Log Analytics, SAP Monitor, and Azure Monitor setup
• Validation of HA/DR scenarios
• Strengthening of governance and security guardrails

This ensured the environment met enterprise reliability standards.

7. Managed Services Setup

Finally, ALIANDO established a Managed Services model to ensure long‑term stability:

• 24/7 monitoring of SAP and infrastructure
• Monthly optimization cycles
• Patch and update management
• Cost optimization through FinOps practices
• SLA‑based support for incidents and service requests

This created a mature operational framework to support continuous improvement.

Results

✔ Modern, Cloud‑Optimized SAP Environment

All SAP systems were successfully migrated from on‑premises to Azure, enabling scalable and resilient operations.

✔ Improved Performance and Stability

Optimizations across compute, storage, and database tiers increased SAP system responsiveness and reliability.

✔ Strengthened Security and Governance

Azure-native controls improved identity, access management, and compliance posture.

✔ Reduced Operational Overhead

With automated monitoring, backups, and managed services, the organization significantly reduced internal IT load.

✔ Future‑Ready Foundation

The new architecture enables integration with analytics, AI, and automation initiatives aligned with the organization’s digital roadmap.

Conclusion

Through a structured methodology, SAP‑certified expertise, and Azure best practices, ALIANDO helped Sharjah Asset Management modernize its SAP landscape and build a secure, scalable, cloud‑ready foundation. The migration enabled operational efficiency, reduced IT complexity, and positioned the organization to leverage advanced technologies in the future.