Executive Summary

Kitsilano Technologies Limited, an AWS Advanced Partner, successfully executed the migration of Tarmal Steel’s SAP Business One environment powered by HANA from on-premises infrastructure to a robust, secure AWS cloud environment. This comprehensive deployment leveraged AWS’s extensive suite of cloud services to resolve existing operational bottlenecks, optimize costs, and enable scalable growth. By implementing a phased migration strategy – Assess, Mobilize, Migrate, and Modernize – Kitsilano Technologies ensured a seamless transition to the cloud while enhancing Tarmal’s disaster recovery capabilities and security posture.

Customer Challenge

Tarmal Steel, a leading steel manufacturer in East Africa, faced significant challenges with its legacy IT infrastructure, particularly in supporting its critical SAP Business One workloads on HANA databases. Key challenges included:

✅ Inadequate scalability to handle increased transaction volumes and data growth.
✅ Insufficient visibility into system performance, increasing operational risk.
✅ Escalating maintenance costs and limited resources to manage the infrastructure.
✅ Absence of a comprehensive disaster recovery and data backup strategy.

Without addressing these challenges, Tarmal Steel risked prolonged system downtimes, potential data loss, and inefficiencies that could disrupt production and hinder strategic business expansion.

Partner Solution

Kitsilano Technologies employed a structured AWS Migration & Modernization framework, encompassing four key phases:

Phase 1: Assess – Infrastructure Analysis and Planning

✅ AWS Migration Evaluator was utilized to assess the on-premises infrastructure, identifying workload dependencies and sizing recommendations for SAP Business One and HANA databases.
✅ AWS Application Discovery Service was deployed to map out server dependencies, ensuring comprehensive visibility into data flows and interdependencies.
✅ A detailed financial analysis using AWS Pricing Calculator provided cost projections for running SAP workloads on AWS, including anticipated savings from resource optimization.

Phase 2: Mobilize – Setting Up a Secure AWS Landing Zone

✅ AWS Control Tower was implemented to establish a secure, multi-account AWS environment with governance controls for resource management.
✅ AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) was configured to enforce role-based access and multi-factor authentication (MFA), safeguarding critical SAP data.
✅ AWS Systems Manager enabled centralized management of instances, simplifying operational tasks such as patch management and configuration compliance.

Phase 3: Migrate – Deployment of SAP Business One and HANA on AWS

✅ Amazon EC2: M6i.4xlarge instances were provisioned for SAP Business One application servers, offering balanced performance and scalability.
✅ Amazon EC2 R5.xlarge: High-performance memory-optimized instances were employed for the HANA database server to handle intensive data processing and real-time analytics.
✅ Amazon S3: Daily database backups were automated using S3 with encryption enabled via AWS Key Management Service (KMS). Data lifecycle policies were configured to transition snapshots to S3 Glacier after 30 days for cost-effective long-term retention.
✅ AWS Database Migration Service (DMS): Data was securely transferred to the new SAP HANA environment with minimal downtime, maintaining data integrity throughout the migration process.
✅ AWS Direct Connect: To minimize latency and ensure consistent data transfer, Direct Connect established a dedicated network link between Tarmal’s on-premises data center and the AWS environment.

Phase 4: Modernize – Operational Optimization and Cost Management

✅ AWS CloudWatch and SNS: Comprehensive monitoring was implemented for CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network traffic, with real-time alerts for critical performance thresholds.
✅ AWS Config: Continuous monitoring of infrastructure configurations ensured compliance with security best practices and organizational policies.
✅ AWS Security Hub and GuardDuty: Advanced threat detection and security monitoring tools provided comprehensive protection against potential vulnerabilities and suspicious activities.
✅ AWS Cost Explorer: Post-migration cost optimization included instance rightsizing and identifying unused resources, resulting in a 25% reduction in monthly operational expenses.

Results and Benefits

Following the successful migration to AWS, Tarmal Steel experienced significant improvements in operational performance, cost efficiency, and data security:

✅ Improved Uptime: System uptime increased to 99.9% through the deployment of high-availability EC2 instances and data redundancy across multiple Availability Zones.
✅ Enhanced Security Posture: Full encryption of all data at rest and in transit, comprehensive logging and monitoring, and automated security assessments mitigated potential security risks.
✅ Optimized Costs: The transition to S3 Glacier for long-term backups and instance rightsizing reduced infrastructure costs by 30% annually.
✅ Operational Agility: Automated monitoring and alerting minimized downtime, allowing IT staff to focus on strategic initiatives rather than routine maintenance.

Conclusion

Kitsilano Technologies successfully guided Tarmal Steel through a strategic migration and modernization initiative, leveraging AWS’s robust cloud infrastructure and advanced monitoring capabilities. The deployment not only resolved existing operational challenges but also laid the groundwork for continued digital transformation through scalable, secure, and cost-effective cloud infrastructure. With a modernized SAP environment on AWS, Tarmal Steel is now well-positioned to support future growth and operational excellence.