Google Cloud is SAP's preferred hyperscaler partner for RISE, HANA, and S/4HANA deployments — and that partnership creates distinct commercial opportunities and pitfalls. Understanding the SAP–GCP relationship, pricing mechanics, and competing leverage points is essential for negotiating better terms.
SAP and Google Cloud announced a strategic partnership in 2022, designating Google Cloud as a preferred hyperscaler for SAP's cloud product portfolio. This partnership is more than a supplier relationship — it is a commercial and technical collaboration with mutual revenue targets, go-to-market programs, and infrastructure investments. Understanding this partnership dynamic is critical to recognizing where negotiation leverage exists.
The partnership encompasses RISE with SAP (SAP's managed cloud ERP offering), SAP S/4HANA Cloud on GCP infrastructure, SAP analytics workloads on Google BigQuery and Vertex AI, and integration between SAP applications and Google Cloud services. For buyers considering SAP on Google Cloud, the partnership means access to joint programs, co-selling support, and in some cases direct incentives from both SAP and Google Cloud to migrate to and expand on the platform.
This guide is part of our comprehensive SAP license negotiation guide. For deeper context on RISE itself, see our RISE with SAP review. For SAP on other hyperscalers, our SAP on AWS vs Azure guide provides comparative analysis. And for S/4HANA migration economics broadly, see our S/4HANA migration negotiation guide.
RISE with SAP can be deployed on Google Cloud infrastructure. When you sign a RISE contract with GCP as the designated infrastructure provider, you are purchasing a unified subscription that bundles SAP's S/4HANA Cloud software, cloud infrastructure capacity (delivered by Google Cloud), SAP's implementation and support services, and initial training.
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RISE is a per-user subscription model. The base pricing covers a defined user tier (e.g., 100 named users), and adds infrastructure sizing based on your projected transaction volume and data footprint. Google Cloud infrastructure is included in the RISE subscription — you do not pay Google directly for that IaaS capacity. The infrastructure cost is baked into the RISE pricing and invoiced by SAP.
SAP's standard RISE configuration on Google Cloud includes S/4HANA Cloud software, a managed SAP HANA database on GCP infrastructure, standard integration with SAP BTP for extensions and integrations, a limited allocation of cloud infrastructure for non-production (development/test) environments, and 12 months of implementation and 3 years of premium support. The infrastructure is hosted in Google Cloud regions, leveraging GCP's compute instances (Compute Engine), managed databases, and storage services.
RISE pricing includes infrastructure sized for your baseline deployment. If your business grows and you need to scale the database, add compute capacity, or expand storage, those expansions are charged as add-ons to the base RISE subscription. This scalability model creates both an opportunity and a pitfall: if you undersize your RISE infrastructure footprint during negotiations, you will face per-unit add-on charges that are often higher than the per-unit cost baked into the base RISE subscription. Conversely, oversizing at contract signature locks you into paying for unutilized capacity for the full contract term.
The most common RISE negotiation error is agreeing to underdimensioned infrastructure at contract signature, then paying premium add-on rates to expand capacity 12 months in. Pre-contract consumption modelling and infrastructure right-sizing discussion is essential.
For customers running SAP on Google Cloud outside of RISE — either SAP S/4HANA on self-managed infrastructure or other SAP applications — Google Cloud offers certified HANA instances. These are Compute Engine machine types that meet SAP's sizing and performance requirements for running SAP HANA databases.
GCP's SAP-certified instances are based on the m1-, m2-, and m3-series machine families, sized in memory configurations from 12 GB up to 12+ TB. For production SAP HANA workloads, Google Cloud recommends m1-ultramem or m2-ultramem instances (offering 1.4 TB to 5.8 TB of RAM). These instances are priced per hour of use on Compute Engine, with committed use discounts available for multi-year commitments.
When you deploy SAP HANA on self-managed Google Cloud infrastructure (not RISE), you license SAP HANA separately. Licensing is typically perpetual (one-time licence fee) plus an annual support/maintenance fee. SAP's HANA licensing model distinguishes between named instances (e.g., production, development, test) and data volume tiers. Larger instances with more memory may fall into higher licensing bands. The combined cost of HANA licensing plus Google Cloud compute and storage can be significant — often exceeding RISE pricing for equivalent capacity.
Self-managed SAP HANA on Google Cloud requires deep operational expertise and has higher total cost of ownership than RISE for most enterprise customers. Ensure RISE vs self-managed economics are modelled explicitly before committing to self-managed infrastructure.
Total cost for SAP on Google Cloud consists of three distinct commercial streams, and understanding how they stack is essential for forecasting and negotiation.
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RISE bundles software, infrastructure, and support into a single per-user subscription. The subscription is fixed for the contract term (typically 3 years), and includes annual price escalation clauses (typically 2–5% per year). Pricing is based on user count tier (e.g., 100 users = X per year), infrastructure baseline sizing, and region (GCP has multi-region pricing variations).
If you exceed your baseline RISE infrastructure allocation (database size, compute cores, storage), you incur additional charges. These are typically priced per unit (per GB of database growth, per additional core) at rates that are higher than the per-unit cost embedded in the base RISE subscription. These overage charges are not fixed and can fluctuate based on GCP's infrastructure pricing changes.
RISE includes 3 years of Unlimited Support; after year 3, you must renew support separately. Support pricing is based on your user count and the specific support tier (Standard, Premium, Premium Plus). Beyond support, SAP may bill for professional services if you require additional implementation work, data migration services, or custom development outside the standard RISE implementation scope. These services are priced separately and are often underestimated in financial planning.
| Cost Component | Structure | Scalability | Negotiability |
|---|---|---|---|
| RISE base subscription | Per user per year | Fixed per contract | High — discount by user tier |
| Infrastructure scaling | Per unit overage | Variable | Moderate — per pricing list |
| Support (Year 4+) | Per user per year | Fixed renewal | High — bundling opportunity |
| Professional services | Time and materials | Highly variable | Very high — negotiable scope |
Buyers considering SAP on Google Cloud often evaluate two paths: (1) RISE with SAP on GCP, or (2) self-managed SAP on Google Cloud infrastructure. Each has distinct cost, operational, and commercial tradeoffs.
RISE offloads infrastructure management, patching, backups, and disaster recovery to SAP. You receive a fixed-price subscription covering software and infrastructure, predictable annual costs (except for scaling overages), access to SAP's managed services team, and a modernized S/4HANA Cloud instance (as opposed to self-managed S/4HANA, which requires ongoing customization and patching). RISE is ideal for organisations lacking deep SAP operational expertise or those prioritizing rapid cloud migration over cost minimization.
Self-managed SAP on Google Cloud (S/4HANA on-premise deployed on GCP infrastructure) offers greater control over your deployment, potentially lower per-unit compute costs if you optimize infrastructure sizing carefully, and flexibility to mix SAP with non-SAP workloads on the same Google Cloud project. Self-managed is more suitable for organisations with large, stable SAP estates and existing SAP infrastructure operations teams.
For most enterprise customers, RISE is cost-competitive with or cheaper than self-managed SAP on Google Cloud once you factor in licensing, operations, infrastructure, and support costs. RISE eliminates the operational burden and provides a clearer business case for finance teams. However, for organisations with complex, highly customized SAP deployments or those planning to run SAP for 10+ years, self-managed infrastructure costs may become favorable in years 5–10.
Google Cloud is one of three major hyperscalers offering SAP. Comparing GCP against AWS and Azure reveals distinct partnership structures, incentive programs, and infrastructure capabilities.
| Dimension | Google Cloud | Amazon AWS | Microsoft Azure |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAP Partnership Status | Preferred (2022+) | Deep incumbent | Balanced co-sell |
| RISE Availability | Available | Available | Available |
| HANA Instances Certified | Yes (m1/m2/m3) | Yes (R/X families) | Yes (Mv2/Mv3) |
| Joint Migration Funds | GCP–SAP 50/50 | AWS programme varies | Azure programme varies |
| Competitive Win Incentives | GCP targets Oracle to GCP | AWS targets Oracle to AWS | Azure targets Oracle migration |
| Analytics Integration | BigQuery native | Redshift/Athena | Synapse deep |
| Regional Footprint | Smallest (40 regions) | Largest (32 regions) | Largest (60+ regions) |
Google Cloud's preferred status with SAP means more aggressive co-selling, higher incentives for SAP migrations from competitors (especially Oracle), and tighter integration between SAP applications and GCP services (SAP Analytics Cloud on BigQuery, SAP Data Intelligence on GCP ML services). For organisations evaluating GCP as a strategic cloud provider, this partnership creates deal acceleration opportunities that may not exist on AWS or Azure.
Google Cloud has a smaller global footprint than AWS (40 regions vs 32 for AWS), which may create latency or compliance issues for multinational organisations requiring deployment in all global regions. However, GCP's infrastructure is optimized for data analytics and machine learning workloads, which aligns well with SAP's analytics strategy. AWS offers the broadest instance selection and the most mature Savings Plans ecosystem. Azure integrates most tightly with Microsoft products and has the strongest European regional presence.
One of the most powerful — and often overlooked — sources of value in SAP-on-GCP negotiations is joint funding from SAP and Google Cloud for migration activities. These programs can significantly offset migration costs or provide credits that reduce overall cloud expenses.
Google Cloud offers a SAP Migration Accelerator program that provides co-funding for organisations migrating SAP to Google Cloud. The program typically covers a percentage of migration costs (implementation services, infrastructure assessment, data migration) up to a defined cap. Eligibility is based on your SAP licensing commitment on GCP and your current deployed SAP footprint. The more SAP you commit to on GCP, the larger the migration funding pool available.
SAP also runs co-branded migration incentive programmes specifically for customers moving from other hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, on-premise) to Google Cloud. These programs may include SAP licence discounts, extended payment terms, or direct funding for implementation services. The existence and terms of these programs are negotiable — they are not uniformly available and the funding amount depends on your commercial importance to both SAP and Google Cloud.
If you are evaluating a hyperscaler switch for SAP, explicitly ask SAP and the target hyperscaler about migration funding. These programs exist, but are only offered if you raise them in negotiation. The funding can materially reduce your net cloud transition cost.
Migration funding programs are typically time-limited (12–24 months from contract signature) and require you to meet defined migration milestones. Budget the full scope of your SAP migration in advance — if you underestimate migration costs and request additional funding mid-way through the project, you may not be eligible for top-up grants.
Google Cloud's Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) are multi-year purchasing commitments on Compute Engine and other GCP services that provide discounts of 25–52% off on-demand pricing. For organisations running SAP on GCP outside of RISE, CUDs can reduce infrastructure costs significantly. However, the interaction between CUDs and RISE pricing requires careful analysis.
If you are on RISE, your infrastructure cost is bundled into the SAP subscription and you do not buy GCP infrastructure separately. RISE infrastructure includes some discount benefit (SAP negotiates aggregate GCP rates), but you do not get an additional CUD discount on top. The infrastructure cost in RISE is already discounted from GCP's standard pricing but not as deeply as if you purchased CUDs directly.
If you are running SAP on self-managed Google Cloud infrastructure, CUDs are highly valuable. A 3-year CUD on m2-ultramem compute instances can reduce your per-instance monthly cost by 40–50%. For a production SAP HANA instance running continuously, this is typically the single biggest opportunity to reduce infrastructure cost.
During RISE negotiations, you can propose bundling multi-year infrastructure commitments into RISE pricing in exchange for a GCP–SAP agreement to apply CUD-equivalent discounts to your RISE infrastructure costs. This is not a standard offer but can be negotiated with strategic accounts — effectively creating a RISE contract that includes CUD-like discounts on infrastructure while keeping everything under one unified SAP subscription.
Understanding the commercial dynamics driving the SAP–GCP partnership is essential for recognizing where negotiation leverage exists. Both SAP and Google Cloud have defined financial targets for growing their mutual RISE, S/4HANA, and analytics workload on GCP. These targets create leverage you can use.
SAP benefits from RISE adoption because it locks in long-term recurring subscription revenue and reduces the demand for perpetual SAP licences. RISE on Google Cloud specifically benefits SAP's cloud transition strategy. SAP's sales organization has quota targets for RISE bookings by cloud provider — and hitting GCP-specific targets drives compensation and career progression for SAP sales teams. This means your SAP account team is motivated to win your RISE deal on GCP.
Google Cloud benefits by acquiring enterprise-grade workloads (SAP is one of the largest per-workload cost generators) and by acquiring customers who expand to analytics (SAP customers adopting BigQuery, Vertex AI) and additional Google Cloud services. GCP's account managers have quota targets for enterprise workload acquisition and expansion. A multi-year RISE contract represents high-value, defensible revenue for Google Cloud.
If you are evaluating SAP on multiple clouds (GCP vs AWS vs Azure), signalling genuine competitive tension creates leverage with both SAP and Google Cloud to offer incentives. Larger user-count tiers create more leverage — a 500-user RISE deployment has more negotiating power than a 50-user deployment. Migration from competitor infrastructure (especially Oracle on AWS or other major initiatives) creates partnership-aligned incentives. Willingness to expand analytics (adopt BigQuery, commit to AI workloads) gives you additional leverage with Google Cloud.
Before committing to GCP for SAP, formally evaluate AWS and Azure in parallel. Request detailed RISE pricing, infrastructure sizing, and total cost of ownership models from all three hyperscalers. This competitive tension is real and creates leverage — SAP and GCP both have incentives to win against AWS and Azure. Organisations that evaluate only one cloud typically pay 10–15% more than those running genuine three-way competitive evaluations.
During RISE negotiation, explicitly model and negotiate your infrastructure baseline separately from the software subscription. Request a defined infrastructure baseline (e.g., "RISE subscription for 200 users includes 2 TB HANA database, 8 compute cores") and a clear price cap for scaling overages in years 1–3. Avoid accepting open-ended infrastructure escalation at "SAP list price" — negotiate a cap of 110–120% of the blended per-unit RISE rate for infrastructure overages.
Propose that in exchange for committing to a 3-year RISE deployment on GCP and agreeing to defined infrastructure baselines, SAP and Google Cloud apply CUD-equivalent discounts to your infrastructure costs. This requires direct alignment between SAP and GCP account teams but is negotiable for strategic customers. The benefit is locking in infrastructure cost savings without needing to purchase and manage CUDs separately.
Early in RISE negotiations, ask SAP and Google Cloud account teams about available migration funding. Do not wait until contract finalization — raise this during commercial discussions. Request a defined migration budget (as percentage of total contract value or absolute dollar amount) that covers implementation, data migration, and infrastructure assessment. This funding should be contractually committed, not subject to future approval.
Negotiate an explicit cap on per-unit overage rates for infrastructure scaling (e.g., "Overages capped at 115% of contracted per-unit rate, true-up negotiated annually"). This prevents infrastructure overage bills from becoming uncontrolled if consumption unexpectedly spikes. Pair this with an annual true-up clause that allows you to adjust your baseline infrastructure if actual consumption significantly exceeds forecast — avoiding perpetual payment of premium overage rates.
RISE includes support for the first 3 years. At year 4, you must renew support separately at SAP's then-current pricing. To avoid price shock at year 4, negotiate multi-year support pricing (years 4–6 or 4–7) in your initial RISE contract. This is standard in enterprise software negotiations and SAP typically grants it for 3-year RISE deals. By locking support pricing early, you create predictability and remove leverage SAP would have at the year-3 renewal.
RISE and infrastructure agreements should include explicit protections around the following items. If these are missing, request addenda before signature.
Ensure your RISE agreement explicitly defines your baseline infrastructure allocation (database size, compute cores, memory, storage) and the per-unit pricing for scaling above that baseline. Include a ceiling on overage rates — do not accept unlimited overage pricing at SAP's discretion.
SAP RISE includes defined SLAs for availability and performance. Confirm that these SLAs apply to your deployment on Google Cloud and are not excluded or reduced for cloud-based deployments. Request credits or service level failures if SLAs are breached.
Ensure your contract specifies which Google Cloud region(s) your SAP instance will be deployed in. If you have data sovereignty or residency requirements (EU, UK, specific country rules), ensure these are explicitly committed and not subject to unilateral SAP/GCP changes.
Unlimited Support under RISE is valuable, but define what "unlimited" means. Request explicit response time SLAs for critical issues (P1), definition of severity levels, and escalation procedures. Request in-country support (or native language support) if you have multilingual operations.
If SAP or Google Cloud offers migration funding or co-funding programs, ensure these are contractually committed with defined funding amounts, milestone schedules, and claim procedures. Migration funding that is "subject to future approval" has zero value.
Confirm that your contract does not include exclusive commitments preventing you from running SAP on other clouds (AWS, Azure) if you choose to do so in the future. While RISE is per-cloud, your organization may legitimately want hybrid or multi-cloud SAP deployments.
The SAP–GCP partnership creates competitive negotiation opportunities most buyers miss. Independent assessment of your cloud strategy and RISE terms can unlock millions in value.