Accelerating M&A integration through cloud migration.
How JRC migrated a mission-critical SAP S/4HANA environment from VMware to AWS in four weeks, with virtually zero downtime and a 40% performance improvement, and how skie.io has operated it since.
JRC is a mining group with operations across Peru, Mexico and Canada.
Following the acquisition of Compañía Minera Cuzcatlán (CMC), JRC needed to transition CMC's technology environment into infrastructure under its own control while creating a platform capable of supporting future expansion and modernization.
The business trigger
An acquisition created an immediate technology deadline.
The acquisition required JRC to separate CMC's VMware-based infrastructure and migrate its critical workloads under an aggressive transition timeline. Four priorities had to be met at once.
Protect business-critical SAP operations
Migrate SAP S/4HANA without disrupting ongoing business operations or compromising data integrity.
Meet the acquisition timeline
Complete the infrastructure separation quickly to support the broader acquisition and transition process.
Meet enterprise governance and security requirements
Support SAP workloads while aligning with JRC's corporate governance and security policies.
Build beyond the immediate migration
Rather than replicate the VMware environment, create a flexible, scalable cloud foundation for growth, modernization and faster provisioning.
The skie.io approach
Moving fast without compromising control.
skie.io combined the migration with the creation of a new AWS foundation, addressing the immediate separation requirement while establishing the architecture and operational controls needed for what came next.
Secure AWS foundation
A multi-account environment with AWS Organizations and Control Tower: centralized identity, logging, governance, and preventive and detective guardrails.
Low-risk SAP migration
AWS Application Migration Service replicated the VMware-hosted SAP servers to Amazon EC2 for a controlled production cutover with virtually zero downtime.
SAP-ready architecture
S/4HANA and HANA deployed on SAP-certified AWS infrastructure sized for performance, storage, availability and backup.
Phased validation and cutover
Development first, to validate connectivity, backups and Basis operations; production after validation; a new QA environment provisioned natively on AWS.
Operational readiness from day one
Monitoring, security, backup, patching, inventory and compliance built into the environment as part of the migration, not added afterward.
Technical foundation: built for SAP performance, security and resilience
- Compute: Amazon EC2 r7i instances certified for SAP HANA workloads
- SAP environment: SAP HANA 2.0 SPS07 and SAP S/4HANA 2023 on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5
- Storage: Amazon EBS gp3 and io2 volumes following SAP-certified storage patterns
- Network and security: dedicated VPCs, segmented SAP application and database layers, least-privilege IAM, MFA, AWS KMS encryption
- Backup and recovery: SAP HANA Backint integration with Amazon S3 and AWS Backup policies for the infrastructure layer
- Monitoring and management: Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Systems Manager for monitoring, patching, inventory and compliance
Results
Migration completed. Operations improved.
JRC met the acquisition timeline and moved its mission-critical SAP environment to AWS while improving performance, resilience, governance and day-to-day manageability.
Business impact
- Completed the SAP migration in four weeks
- Met the infrastructure separation requirements created by the acquisition
- Established a scalable AWS platform ready for future expansion and modernization
- Enabled faster, on-demand provisioning of new cloud resources
Operational impact
- Virtually zero downtime during the production cutover
- Reduced infrastructure maintenance burden through automation
- Centralized account management, governance and security
- Automated patching, inventory tracking and compliance monitoring
Technology impact
- Improved the performance of key SAP transactions by 40%
- Achieved 99.995% availability
- SAP-certified infrastructure optimized for HANA
- Monitoring, security, backup and recovery integrated into the AWS environment
Ongoing relationship
From migration to continuous cloud operations.
The engagement did not end at cutover. skie.io continues to operate JRC's SAP landscape and the supporting AWS environment under Guardian, moving the relationship beyond a one-time migration into a model focused on maintaining and continuously improving the environment.
24/7 monitoring and service desk integration
Monitoring and alarms across the SAP and infrastructure layers around the clock. Alerts become service-desk tickets rather than notifications someone must notice.
Incident management
Defined severity levels and response times give JRC a clear process for issues affecting SAP availability or performance.
Monthly patching
Operating system patches go to non-production first, then to production after validation.
Backup management
SAP HANA backups via Backint to Amazon S3, with AWS Backup policies covering the infrastructure layer.
Security and operational visibility
AWS Security Hub and Amazon GuardDuty monitored continuously, with monthly reporting on inventory, utilization, SLA performance, security posture and backup status.
Well-Architected Reviews
Regular reviews against AWS best practices produce a prioritized remediation plan for continued improvement.
What comes next
Building on the AWS foundation.
JRC and skie.io plan to continue expanding FinOps and optimization practices to improve cost transparency and identify ongoing opportunities. The secure, scalable, governed AWS foundation created through the migration is ready to support JRC's next stages of growth and modernization.
Planning a complex SAP or VMware migration?
Two clocks are running. Make one decision, not two.
See how skie.io moves SAP and everything around it off VMware to AWS, lands it optimized, and operates it from day one.