SAP on AWS vs Azure vs GCP: A Comparison for Indonesian Enterprise

Once the strategic decision to migrate an enterprise SAP landscape to the cloud has been agreed, the next discussion often stalls on the choice between Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Each vendor arrives with a deck claiming superiority, yet rarely with quantitative data the team can verify. The comparison below relies on parameters that can be checked independently.

In short, a hyperscaler is a global-scale public cloud provider. For SAP workloads, the three platforms most commonly used are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. All three support SAP on officially certified configurations and all three operate a region in Indonesia. The main difference lies in which certified configurations are actually available in the region you are targeting.

Are AWS, Azure, and GCP Equally Certified for SAP?

Yes, though that statement can mislead once you reach the sizing stage. Certification is not granted to AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud as whole platforms, but only to specific instance types within them. The list of certified instance types is maintained by SAP in the SAP Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory, which all three vendors reference.

Each hyperscaler tests and certifies configurations together with SAP, then points to the results through a platform-specific SAP Note: 1656099 for AWS, 1928533 for Microsoft Azure. The contents of those Notes are accessible only through the SAP Portal.

One consequence is often overlooked. Non-certified instance types may still be used, but only for non-production workloads such as development and testing; AWS documentation cites SAP Note 2271345 for that rule. Using them for production means stepping outside the support boundary.

Comparing AWS, Azure, and GCP for SAP: Indonesian Regions and Certification

The three regions opened almost five years apart, from June 2020 to April 2025, and each contains three availability zones . Because that baseline requirement is now equally satisfied, the remaining differentiator shifts to which certified instance families are offered in each region.

The instance family row gives examples, not a complete catalog; the list changes quickly.

Read the table as a feasibility map rather than a scorecard. Region age says nothing about platform capability; Indonesia Central, the newest of the three, still offers certified memory-optimized VM families. The real difference lies in which instances are genuinely available in each region, and that is where assumptions most often go wrong.

Does a Jakarta Region Automatically Mean SAP Can Run There?

The existence of a region does not automatically guarantee that certified configurations are available inside it. “The region is available” and “the certified configuration is available in that region” are two different things, and they are frequently not checked separately. Instance catalogs can vary between regions, and even betweenavailability zones within a single region. Two vendors state this explicitly in their official documentation.

The AWS documentation for SAP notes that certain instance families, including X1, X2idn, X2iedn, and High Memory, may not be available across every availability zone in a region, and requires confirmation of availability in the target zone during planning. Google Cloud states that some machine types are not available in all of its regions.

Three practical rules turn this into concrete steps:

• Fix the configuration first, then the region. Start from the SAP sizing result, then check whether that instance is available in Jakarta.
• Check at availability zone level, not region level. A high availability architecture requires the same instance in more than one zone; AWS provides the describe-instance-type-offerings command for exactly this check.
• Prepare a fallback plan. If the configuration you need is not yet in an Indonesian region, the options are the nearest Southeast Asian region, with data residency consequences, or a different configuration.

So What Criteria Actually Decide the Choice?

All three platforms meet the baseline requirements, so the decision usually comes down not to the hyperscaler brand but to three factors: availability of certified configurations in the target region, the cloud ecosystem already running in the company, and the chosen operating model. Two companies can reach different conclusions and both be right.

• Configuration availability in the target region. The check described above is the first filter, not the final consideration.
• Existing ecosystem and commitments. Contracts, team expertise, and tools already in use typically influence migration cost far more than feature differences. In practice, this factor is often the deciding one.
• Operating model. On the RISE with SAP route, infrastructure runs on a hyperscaler but is contracted through SAP, so the platform question does not disappear; only the mechanism changes.

The more fundamental question of why SAP is run on rented infrastructure at all is covered separately in why enterprises choose IaaS for SAP.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Which hyperscaler is best for SAP?

No platform wins universally. AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud all provide SAP HANA certified configurations and all operate an Indonesian region with three availability zones. The deciding factor is whether the certified configuration you need is available in your target region, not the platform brand.

Can any server type on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud be used for production SAP HANA?

No. Only instance types listed in the SAP Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory are permitted to run production SAP HANA. Non-certified types can still be used, but only for non-production workloads such as development and testing. AWS documentation cites SAP Note 2271345 for this rule.

Conclusion

The question of “which hyperscaler is best for SAP” rarely produces a clear answer because it is the wrong question. What decides the outcome are verifiable questions: whether the certified configuration your company needs exists in a given region, and how many availability zones are available there. As an SAP Platinum Partner through United VARs, Soltius provides SAP implementation and support on third-party hyperscaler platforms, from region and configuration selection through to post- go-livesupport.

To discuss region and configuration selection for SAP on AWS, Azure, or GCP across your enterprise landscape, visit soltius.co.id.