Alibaba Cloud vs SAP S4HANA on AWS comparison

Alibaba and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are both solutions in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category. Alibaba is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.3, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.9. Alibaba holds a 12.6% mindshare in ISI, compared to Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s 4.0% mindshare. Additionally, 75% of Alibaba users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users who would recommend it.

Alibaba Cloud

Read 19 Alibaba Cloud reviews

6,546 Views
5,232 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

SAP S4HANA on AWS

Read 41 SAP S4HANA on AWS reviews

2,511 Views
2,104 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Alibaba Cloud

SAP S4HANA on AWS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

SAP S4HANA on AWS and Alibaba Cloud compete in cloud computing, focusing on ERP and infrastructure services respectively. SAP S4HANA on AWS seems to have the technological upper hand with advanced features and robust database management, but it faces criticism for high costs, while Alibaba Cloud offers a more economical solution with flexibility for SMEs.

Features: SAP S4HANA on AWS offers high-performance capabilities with the HANA database, enabling efficient real-time processing and integration. Its AWS integration minimizes the need for extensive on-premises setups, enhancing scalability. Alibaba Cloud provides economical solutions with flexible tools similar to AWS, offering a user-friendly interface and appealing pricing for SMEs, especially in Asia.

Room for Improvement: SAP S4HANA on AWS could benefit from reduced complexity and a better user interface, alongside more comprehensive documentation and expanded cloud provider support. Alibaba Cloud needs to address latency issues outside China, improve technical support, and enhance its SDK services.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP S4HANA on AWS offers reliable integration across various cloud environments, supported by AWS's robust infrastructure support, although costly. User satisfaction with support varies. Alibaba Cloud is noted for its simplicity in deployment within public cloud infrastructures but requires improvements in technical support and community resources.

Pricing and ROI: SAP S4HANA on AWS is a high-cost solution justified by its advanced features and long-term cloud hosting savings. Pricing varies with licensing models. Alibaba Cloud, with its competitive pricing, is attractive to businesses in Asia, promising cost savings and a stable ROI compared to major competitors.

To learn more, read our detailed Alibaba Cloud vs. SAP S4HANA on AWS Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Alibaba Cloud vs. SAP S4HANA on AWS

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Alibaba Cloud

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

9th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP S4HANA on AWS

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category, the mindshare of Alibaba Cloud is 12.6%, up from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP S4HANA on AWS is 4.0%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

Featured Reviews

Min HtetOo

Chief Marketing Officer at Soft Intelligence

The solution is useful for application development, but the user interface and user experience must be improved

The product must be made easier to use. The design is a bit tricky. When we log in to the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace and browse products, they look very small. The user experience must be improved. Alibaba Cloud must increase its partner network and brand awareness in our country. It will give our customers more opportunities to scale and save in the long run.

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Bhavesh Shah

SAP Cloud Engineer SAP Commvault Backup Administrator- DC Migrations on AWS at CLARIANT SE

With good documentation in place, the solution offers good technical support to its users

CPU architecture is an area where the solution currently has some issues. Improvement in CPU architecture could improve the performance side and the adherence to the parameters set by SAP. As suggested by SAP, we should do HANA mini checks on a daily or weekly basis. All the parameters related to HANA should be equal to improve performance. So, some of the parameters I can see on the SAP side are related to memory, and so we have to check on each landscape whether the parameters related to SAP are properly set or not. Regarding the right CPU from AWS and SAP recommended nodes, we have to check whether the performance is good or not because we have to give this almost on HANA since, on some side, we have to be swapping that on voice level also, and so that screening part is a requirement from OS/DB side. In short, we have to check all parameters. My solution is IOPS related to EC2. So I have just done a very good optimization. I have seen some parameters related to Linux that is from SAP side, where the problem is very fast, and CPU load is very low. So that is an OS/DB recommendation parameter from the SAP that it should be set over there on all systems. As a basic start, we have to check OS/DB recommendation settings, and everything should be kept on. Those experienced in SAP S4HANA need not worry about any part. I think overlay IP should be linked to gateway web architecture. It should be in a proper way to the community for the security part. Apart from that, we have to follow Amazon and SAP books. There have to be some adjustments made from the finance and GRC side. So, we have to check some of the functional sides and whether these parameters are properly set in for SAP s1 in terms of logistics, MRV, and some of the code. I can recommend that SAP's 86 custom code should be a proper way to develop a very good experience going online for the custom tools. So, it would be good to improve such features and everything. Also, the system should not be at any end of support since it will impact its performance. I have faced some of the, you know, clients, where they have some end of support, comes into 7209, and they just back it up. I need to get some extended support from the SAP, and some software should be there. So before the end of maintenance, everybody has to awaken all the features of the solution. On a daily production side, we can do this maintenance activity, whether it may be outdated or not outdated, and support patches should be done properly.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We use the product for storage and as a VPN."

"Feature-wise, it provides many features. ECS, VM, SP, bucket object storage, and databases are the most valuable."

"Alibaba Cloud allows for easy setup of mirror sites and backup servers, ensuring data redundancy and high availability."

"The most valuable feature of Alibaba Cloud is the communication it allows between two servers."

"I rate Alibaba Cloud's scalability an eight out of ten."

"It's easy to use, cheaper than other solutions, and more secure."

"We use the solution to run VMs."

"Alibaba Cloud has lower costs and good support."

More Alibaba Cloud pros

"We have approximately 1,000 people using the solution in my organization. The solution is scalable."

"This product is much better than most of the other products in this categaory as far as financial capabilities."

"SAP S4HANA's most valuable features include backup, security, storage, infrastructure, and enabling AI."

"The product’s high availability is its best feature."

"The internal integration within departments and integration with third parties is simplified in the system."

"I would rate this solution as a nine out of ten because it covers all the fields, has a big maturity, and has something other solutions are missing, which is speed."

"We deployed the database from another team called ECC into an SAP HANA system. The implementation project took about eighteen months. That team handled the technical aspects."

"The solution is scalable."

More SAP S4HANA on AWS pros

Cons

"Alibaba Cloud's initial setup is somewhat complex."

"The solution should have more integration."

"The solution’s user interface could be improved."

"The user experience must be improved."

"I think that sometimes the customer service for Alibaba Cloud is inefficient.... Sometimes it's hard to reach out to them."

"Alibaba Cloud needs to increase availability in Thailand."

"The solution needs to improve its graphical user interface."

"It is not robust."

More Alibaba Cloud cons

"The product could use more capabilities in the areas of robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, but these improvements are already on the way."

"The platform's front-end user interface needs improvement compared to other applications."

"SAP S4HANA on AWS could improve by having the entire solution available as a web solution. They only have Fiori right now, and it's a solution for certain modules, but not for all the modules that SAP currently has. We would like to see the GUI removed, it is not very good. We want it to be web-based."

"The user-friendliness is questionable. The interface and interaction with the technical team require intensive training."

"The pricing is a little bit high."

"The solution's overall enterprise support could be improved."

"I would like to see a lower price for the solution."

"I would rate my experience with the initial setup a three out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy."

More SAP S4HANA on AWS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing for Alibaba Cloud is a little bit cheaper. It has reasonable pricing."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."

"The cost of Alibaba Cloud is lower than that of AWS, but I feel that its price is on the higher end of the spectrum. Alibaba Cloud charges its users a price in dollars"

"The cost is better than similar solutions."

"We cut our costs significantly by migrating our infrastructure to the cloud. Alibaba Cloud employs a pay-as-you-go model, so that minimizes many costs for us."

"Alibaba Cloud is cheaper."

"The solution's pricing is the same as AWS'."

"The product is not that expensive."

More Alibaba Cloud pricing and cost advice

"It is a significant investment, around six hundred thousand dollars, and it involves both a one-time on-premises installation on servers and a cloud subscription with different flavors for SAP S4HANA."

"The vendors have different pricing, ways of serving, security, and providing the service. You go and compare the offerings. Some might be better with smaller companies. For example, Microsoft Azure can handle small and medium-sized companies best but still can cover some large companies. Whereas Amazon AWS and IBM are going to cover sized companies. There's no clear advantage. Probably Amazon AWS may have been the first to be certified by SAP as a cloud-hosting partner. Then Microsoft Azure and IBM were certified at the same time. You have to partner up and be certified by the software."

"SAP S4HANA on AWS has reasonable pricing."

"I rate the product price a six on a one to ten scale, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"It's expensive. It would be good if AWS and Azure could reduce the computing cost for people who move to the public cloud."

"The pricing is a little bit high."

"The pricing is on the higher end."

"We pay an annual subscription fee for the solution, which is slightly expensive."

More SAP S4HANA on AWS pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

University

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alibaba Cloud?

ECS is the most valuable feature of the solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alibaba Cloud?

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Alibaba Cloud?

Alibaba Cloud needs to improve emails. Its pricing can also be lower. Regarding security issues, Alibaba Cloud is more complex and better suited for developers and R&D teams. On the other hand,...

See all answers

What do you like most about SAP S4HANA on AWS?

With extensive data and a sizable client base, this ensures seamless operations, responsiveness, and overall reliability, addressing our enterprise-scale needs effectively.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP S4HANA on AWS?

The initial setup required a higher investment, but the return on investment has justified the cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP S4HANA on AWS?

Currently, we have some integration areas like Concur and Ariba that could be improved. Having these integrations as a single source rather than working in silos would be beneficial for customers.

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Cloud vs Alibaba Cloud

Compared 33% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Alibaba Cloud

Compared 30% of the time

Tencent Cloud vs Alibaba Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Alibaba Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

More Alibaba Cloud Competitors

Microsoft Azure vs SAP S4HANA on AWS

Compared 67% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs SAP S4HANA on AWS

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud vs SAP S4HANA on AWS

Compared 8% of the time

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud vs SAP S4HANA on AWS

Compared 7% of the time

More SAP S4HANA on AWS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alibaba Cloud

May 2025

Download Alibaba Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP S4HANA on AWS

April 2025

Download SAP S4HANA on AWS product report

Also Known As

No data available

SAP S/4HANA on AWS

Overview

Alibaba Cloud offers a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to support growing enterprises worldwide, including data storage, relational databases, big-data processing, and content delivery networks.

Alibaba

SAP customers of all sizes can fully realize all the benefits of the SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition on the AWS Cloud. With SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition on the AWS Cloud you can:

Achieve faster time to value with the AWS on-demand infrastructure
Rapidly provision infrastructure for SAP S/4HANA with no upfront cost or long-term commitment
Pay for only what you need Don't spend upfront costs purchasing hardware for what you can't forecast
Test and evaluate SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition with a free trial offering from SAP on AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Schneider Electric, BorderX Lab, Royal Philips, Catchpoint, Conversant, Blogmint

Brigade Group, DoHome, Royal FloraHolland

Buyer's Guide

Alibaba Cloud vs. SAP S4HANA on AWS

April 2025

Free Report: Alibaba Cloud vs. SAP S4HANA on AWS

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