Siemens Energy plots multi-petabyte datacentre migration with Google Cloud

Siemens Energy is embarking on a multi-year datacentre migration project with Google Cloud that will see it move more than 2.6 petabytes of data off-premise over the course of 15 months.

The energy technology giant creates products that are used to assist with the generation and transmission of renewable power, as part of a wider effort by the organisation to help decarbonise the economy.

In support of this work, the firm has set its sights on working with the Google Cloud team to move its company-wide SAP workloads out of its datacentres and into the search giant’s cloud.

These include its SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Central Component and Supply Chain Management applications and data, which are used by more than 750,000 users across 84 countries.

Siemens Energy has also committed to adopting RISE with SAP as part of this process, which is a portfolio containing several of the business application firm’s core technologies, including the cloud version of the SAP S/4 HANA ERP system.

The migration is due to begin during the second half of 2021, with the data pertaining to Siemens Energy’s manufacturing and supply chain operations all set to be shifted into the public cloud within 15 months as part of an internal sustainability push by the company.

“Siemens Energy has committed to becoming climate neutral by 2030, and Google Cloud will support them with a carbon neutral cloud, matched 100% with renewable energy, helping them meet the ambitious goals,” said Siemens Energy, in a statement. “Google Cloud will partner with Siemens Energy and bring industry-specific innovation and expertise to help the company become a cloud-first and even more agile organisation.”

Kian Mossanen, chief information officer at Siemens Energy, said it was not just Google Cloud’s sustainability credentials that prompted it to select the firm as its migration partner.

“We searched for a partner that could not only deliver availability and scalability, but also challenge us to grow beyond our comfort zone,” said Mossanen.

“We knew that choosing Google Cloud would ensure more reliability and less downtime for our systems, which is critical in the energy industry,” he said. “But it was also Google Cloud’s collaborative and innovative culture that made them the perfect partner as we embark on this massive digital transformation.”

Adaire Fox-Martin, president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Google Cloud, said the company was looking forward to getting stuck into helping Siemens Energy create a technology platform that will support its future growth in a sustainable way.

“The energy market is rapidly evolving as sustainability becomes a primary focus, and consumer habits and global demands on the industry change,” said Fox-Martin.

“We’re proud to support Siemens Energy’s digital transformation with clean cloud infrastructure, partnering to build a technology platform that will support future growth and change.”