ITWire

According to the company, "The certification means all Macquarie Telecom sites are officially recognised as being able to sustain SAP's solutions with complete hosting packages and on-demand infrastructure, software and services.

"Macquarie Telecom is one of only three providers in Australia that is SAP-certified in hosting services; and one of only two providers SAP-certified in cloud services." The company said that its certifications were valid in conjunction with an SAP partner that provides the required SAP skills.

Telstra gained certification to SAP cloud services in September 2011 at which time, Mark Pratley, general manager, Telstra Cloud Computing, explained to iTWire the distinction between certification to host SAP apps and to offer SAP apps as a cloud service.

"You can certify a particular instance [of SAP] for each customer - a bespoke platform that you certify and put into a delivery model is typical. What is not typical, and needs a lot of upfront investment of money and time, is to pre-certify a whole platform, a whole operational team and a whole support team."

He described the process of obtaining certification as "a very detailed piece of work: it covers the facilities, the operation model, the platform itself, the systems and tools we use to run it and a commitment to be regularly audited."

Macquarie Telecom said that, to gain certification, it "underwent an extensive audit process that validates the operational integration of the provider's cloud and hosting capabilities with SAP applications... As part of certification, Macquarie Telecom was assessed by SAP for IaaS – managed cloud server, cloud performance server, virtual servers, and dedicated hosting environments.

"SAP-certified provider of hosting services means Macquarie Telecom offers in conjunction with an SAP Services Partner that provides the required SAP skills complete hosting packages for SAP Business Suite and SAP NetWeaver at an exemplary level."

Macquarie Telecom's managing director, hosting, Aidan Tudehope, said: "Being SAP-certified in hosting and in cloud services further extends our capabilities in serving the needs of business and government in the highly secure, sustainable and redundant environments of both Intellicentre 1 and 2.

"We are now exploring further opportunities to collaborate with SAP, particularly around the growing business needs for software-as-a-service and mobility within the applications space. Being an SAP hosting partner will allow Macquarie Telecom and SAP to leverage our respective strengths to deliver more intuitive and comprehensive solutions to our consolidated client base."

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