PICK N PAY
Robert Heneke , Head of Cloud , SAP Technology and Development at Pick n Pay , details the largest cloud migration ever carried out on the African continent
For countless companies , the process of moving their entire IT infrastructure to the cloud has the potential to be laborious , complex , and long-winded .
When it came to the Pick n Pay Group – one of South Africa ’ s biggest retailers – there was also the added pressure of the transition being the largest of its kind ever carried out in Africa . Nevertheless , having enlisted the services of Lemongrass based on its proven track record , Pick n Pay ’ s SAP systems have now been successfully migrated using AWS as its cloud provider .
Responsible for overseeing the architecture of this crucial project was Robert Heneke , Head of Cloud , SAP Technology and Development at Pick n Pay . Heneke , who has experience in various industries – including wool spinning , oil , and mining – joined the company back in 2007 when it had around 750 stores . Today , that figure stands at more than 2000 .
Detailing the reasons for Pick n Pay ’ s migration and its decision to use AWS requires “ a step back ”, says Heneke , keen to show his technical working . Cutting costs was , as one might expect , a significant factor , but the firm had also reached an important crossroads where a big call needed to be made .
“ About four years ago , we migrated our BW ( SAP Business Warehouse ) system to the cloud and , at that point , there weren ’ t a lot of hyperscalers around ,” Heneke explains .
200 April 2023