Central Vs Distributed installation

[Former Member]

We are doing a new SAP implementation and in the process of an ECC 6 EHP installation planning. It is a Windows 2008/SQL 2008/VM Ware environment. I am debating whether do use a central installation for QA and production. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both. It seems like a central install with mulitple DI instances would be the simplest way to go.

[Former Member]

Hello,

It depends on sizing, hardware budget/scope/contracts, how big is the business. Distributed installation helps in distribution of resources effectively among sap and database instances.

But on other hands, I have seen central system with multiple Apps with some big customers as well.

Personally I would go for Central system (CI+DB on a single host) with multiple application servers for Production.

Thanks

[Former Member]

The company is a $500m in revenue with 8 manufacturig sites and 12 business offices. we will have about 2000 SAP users 24/7 operation. We do not have a big basis team. We employed the services of a system architect and designed a distributed landscape and totaled to about 63 servers. I can reduce this down to half if I went with a central environment. I am leaning towards your recommendation. Is it difficult to convert to a distributed landscape from a central one?

[Former Member]

Hello,

Almost same scenario was with us for a customer, more than 2500-3000 users. We went live with almost all software components ECC, BI, Portal and several Non-SAP components/interfaces etc.

We were in the same dilemma, at last we went for Central system strategy. Platform was IBM p servers (AIX), so we utilized lpars. Maintenance strategy/contract was far better for central, considering the routine Unix support as well.

Is it difficult to convert to a distributed landscape from a central one?

As far conversion is concerned, this is with same complexity - either we convert distributed into central or vice-versa.

Thanks