SAP is Complicated

Sometimes I get issues from my customers that they want resolved immediately.  But you know what, SAP servers and the issues are complicated.

We currently have 2 people working on these servers and on the issues that pop up and we do our best to issues fixed as fast as possible.  But to help us, here is what I need from you guys.

When an issue pops up, please send us:

1) Which Server and ID you are using
2) Do a Step by Step from Login with screen shots, until the issue comes. (Imagine we do not know SAP, and this way we can understand what the issue is.  This is the same way you would report an issue at a work location and I want everybody to used to that method. - The reason I ask this is that the basis team are not functional experts and what seems obvious to you as a functional consultant is not obvious to us.  If you can do this we can solve the issues very quickly.
3) Be patient, we are working as hard as we can to solve your issue. - We are a pretty big company now and we have customers from all over the world and currently maintain over 60 servers.  But we only work from 9am-9pm EST USA time.

Network Issues - HANA Server

We have been having network issues over the last 1 week and some were due to the T1 provider, but there was one other issue that we just solved today.  I am sorry to my customers who have been effected over the last 1 week by this slowdown, but it has been solved and you will not see anymore slowdowns.

We have been trying to install HANA test server and we would install SUSE Linux recommend by SAP.

Then we would install HANA.

After 1-3 days the entire network of our T1 lines would be compromised and bandwidth would fall to almost zero and now of the other servers would be accessible.

For a solution I tried a different server, thinking the first server had been corrupted.  Same result.

I had bought both servers from the same vendor and I though that maybe the RAM memory had a built in memory, so I ordered 128GB RAM and installed it and installed the software and same result.

I then bought a new server from a different vendor thinking that maybe the processor had a built in virus.  Installed the Linus software.  We were busy with other work and did not get time to install HANA.  Today, the exact same issue even without installing HANA.

So I guess the final verdict is that the Linux Operating System Software itself is corrupt.

Today I had a network issue and I disconnected server by server thinking we had a virus on it and low and behold the second we unhooked the HANA server everything worked fine again.

It is nice when we figure out the issue, but meanwhile I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on equipment and hardware that I do not need.

We now have 5 servers with the below configuration:

4 6-Core Processors
128 GB RAM
5 x 2 TB Hard Drives

In case you need a hard core server let us know and we can get it ready for your needs.

Googling SAP Access or SAP Server Access

I was Googling SAP Server Access and SAP Access and I was just curious where we stood as far as ranking in Google.

Under SAP Access we are #1 rank

and

Under SAP Server Access we are #2 rank

I have not really looked at Google to see where we rank in such a long time, nor have I tried to get a high rank.

I see so many new competitors from India, and few that have no contact info at all.

I have always said that we do not make much money from our Server Access business and even in the current marketplace it is true.

Most of the competitors are following the model of Ides Access and saying that they charge for Basis Support and that the server access is free.

One competitor even says that providing a licensed server like our is illegal, and that our servers can only be used for production environment and that his INITIAL license is the only only that is legal.

I was laughing at most of the website as I reading them.  Most of them are ridiculous and I could not even imagine how poor their servers and service is.

It is no joke to do what we do, it costs tens of thousands of dollars a month in expenses and license fees.  The margins are razor thin and we eke out a profit each month.

I am fine with that, since I have a large consulting company and other business interests that make plenty of money.

I really only keep this business running, because I know that we are so much better than the competition and eventually quality wins over cost.

A have a lot of Fortune 500 customers and lots of SAP partners that all have their own license, but still want to use our servers as their training servers.  The simply do not want the headache of installing and maintaining servers and they leave that up to us.

They know that we are reliable.
They know they call us, we WILL pick up the phone
They know that we are located in USA
They know that we have been in business a long time and we will here when all these new fly by night operators are long gone.
They know we have a real office and can come and visit us (Yes I have had customers come and visit our data-center and our office before they committed to us for long term contracts)
We currently run 52 dedicated servers
We are constantly expanding, and upgrading.  We now have servers up to 128GB RAM and 4 Quad core chips.  Most of our servers are much more powerful than you fill find at Fortune 500 companies.

Who We Are

SAPAccess.com and rentourserver.com were started with the intention of providing the best SAP Server Access in the world. 

Our prices have always been high, because of the quality of the servers we use, our high licensing fees to SAP and to Majul Enterprises, and our employee costs.

We have a lot of Fortune 500 customers along with a lot of SAP Partners as our customers.

I know most of my competitors and we have always been very different. 

We are located in USA.
We pick up our phone when you call.
We have expert basis team members that can solve any issue.
You can email us and can expect a reply very quickly.
Our servers are located in our own professional datacenter and we currently run 52 SAP Servers
We have our own dedicated T1 connection
We have a license from SAP to provide access

So what is the importance of the above and why should you care.

We are located in USA

Other providers are located in Canada, Europe and a recently a plethora are located in Asia.  I feel it is important to publish a real address of where you are located, it makes you accountable.

We pick up the phone when you call

I see other companies claiming that they solved this many issues or they can do this or that, but not a single one will pick up the phone when you call.  You call us during work hours of 9am-10pm (eastern time zone) and we will pick up the phone to talk to you.   This is so important when you are having issues.  We also are excellent at email communication.

We have expert basis team members that can solve any issue

Our basis team members have worked at Fortune 500 clients.  Our new group of team members can solve any issue.  We are now offering off-shore and on-shore SAP basis support and we plan on expanding this feature of our business.  We hope to become a valuable partner to Fortune 500 companies for their SAP Basis work.

You can email us

I have had people always mention how I can reply so fast.  I have always treated every email I get as something important.  I respect that you took time to email us, and I feel it is my duty to reply as quickly as possible.

Our servers are located in our own datacenter

We have servers with up to 128GB RAM and these servers run at very high temperatures.  An ideal temperature for servers is 65 degree Fahrenheit.  Besides temperature you have to have UPS, monitor the humidity and lots of other factors.  When you can maintain servers at 65F, they preform optimally and you will notice significant performance gains over other providers who host servers are home or in other environments.

We have our own dedicated T1 connection

We have our Business Class T1 connection and this is very important when there is an issue.  in 2012 we had an issue on Thanksgiving day and we lost our T1 connection.  I would have never expected it, but the provider sent someone over on Thanksgiving day and fixed our issue is less than 4 hours.  I sure that a normal connection will work fine for SAP, but we have to have to have the best, so that is why we have our own dedicated T1 connection.

We have a license from SAP to provide access

We have a community license from SAP to provide the access that we do.  Other providers say that they provide Basis support and that is what you are paying for, and the server access is free.  We will stick to our method of providing access.  We are happy to be paying a licensing fee to SAP to allow us to do what we are doing.

We are never going to get rich doing what we do, but we simply enjoy providing the best and that is why we do it.  We love SAP and its products and we especially love the Basis part of SAP, there is nothing more fun to us, then to play with new SAP servers or the thrill when we fix an issue in SAP that no one else can do.