SAP on AWS: The $200K Skill Gap While Everyone's Learning AI

#aws #sap #career #cloud

Last week, I watched a senior developer with 8 years of experience get rejected from a cloud migration project. His resume was impressive—Kubernetes expert, certified in three AWS services, even contributed to some open-source projects. The reason? He had zero SAP experience.

The company was willing to pay $180K for someone who understood both SAP and AWS. They ended up hiring a contractor at $250/hour instead.

That moment stuck with me. While everyone's panicking about AI replacing developers, there's this massive gap in cloud computing that barely anyone talks about.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Enterprise IT

During my internship, a senior architect told me something that changed how I see the tech industry: half the world's business runs on SAP. Not the trendy frameworks we obsess over. Not the latest JavaScript library. SAP.

SAP ERP, S/4HANA, SAP HANA databases—these systems process trillions of dollars in transactions every single day. Your bank uses it. Your favorite retailer uses it. That car you're planning to buy? The entire supply chain runs on SAP.

And here's the kicker: most of these systems are still running in dusty data centers, burning money on hardware refresh cycles and maintenance contracts that cost more than your house.

The AI Reality Check

I've seen the LinkedIn posts. "AI will replace cloud engineers!" "Learn to prompt or become obsolete!"

Here's my honest take: AI absolutely will change this space. I use tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and even newer IDEs like Kiro that help with coding workflows. They're brilliant for explaining SAP concepts, understanding AWS services, or debugging issues. AI will make people in this field more productive, no question.

But here's what I learned during a recent S/4HANA migration that went sideways at 2AM: AI can suggest solutions, but it can't make the call when you're staring at conflicting recommendations and the CIO is asking if we need to roll back. It can't read the room when the SAP Basis team and AWS architects are blaming each other for performance issues. It can't negotiate with the VP who's terrified of downtime during Q4 holiday sales.

AI is a tool that makes skilled people more valuable, not a replacement that makes them obsolete. The gap isn't technical knowledge anymore—Google and AI can fill that. The gap is judgment, experience, and the ability to navigate complex situations where there's no clear right answer.

While everyone's learning prompt engineering, enterprises are bleeding money trying to find people who can actually execute these migrations. That's the opportunity.

What This Actually Looks Like

SAP on AWS isn't about clicking through the AWS Console and launching EC2 instances. It's a different beast entirely.

You're dealing with:

SAP workloads that need HANA-certified instances (x1, x2, u-instances that cost $50/hour)
High-performance storage requirements that make regular EBS look like a toy
Network latency tolerances measured in single-digit milliseconds
Backup strategies for multi-terabyte databases that can't have "oops" moments
Disaster recovery plans that CEOs actually care about because downtime means millions lost per hour

AWS has an entire division dedicated to SAP—SAP on AWS practice, specialized solutions architects, pre-built reference architectures. This isn't some side project. Amazon knows enterprises are spending serious money here.

The Three Paths Nobody Mentions

If you're already in the SAP world: Learning AWS is your ticket out of being seen as "legacy." SAP consultants who add cloud skills instantly jump tax brackets. You already understand HANA, S/4HANA, and the business side. Add AWS architecture skills, and you're suddenly one of maybe 5,000 people globally who can do both well.

If you're an AWS person: SAP is your differentiation. While 50,000 developers are fighting for the same DevOps roles, enterprises are begging for cloud architects who aren't afraid of SAP. You don't need to become an SAP functional consultant. Just understand the infrastructure side—HANA deployments, high availability, backup/recovery, performance tuning.

If you're starting fresh: This is where I am right now. It's honestly intimidating—the learning curve is steep on both sides. But that's also the opportunity. In 3-5 years, you'll have skills that take most people 10+ years to acquire, and you'll be working on projects where budgets have commas in them. I spent a month working with SAP HANA and ERP during my internship, and even that brief exposure showed me how massive and complex this ecosystem is.

So, Where Do I Actually Start?

You need two things: AWS fundamentals and SAP literacy. Not mastery—literacy.

For AWS: Get hands-on. Actually deploy things, break them, fix them. The certification helps, but building real infrastructure teaches more.

For SAP: Understand the basics—what HANA is, what S/4HANA does, why BASIS admins matter. SAP has free learning accounts. Use them.

Then combine both: AWS SAP reference architectures, immersion days, real projects if you can get access.

The truth? Most people quit because it's not as exciting as the latest trend. That's exactly why the opportunity exists.

(I'm working on a detailed learning roadmap with resources, timelines, and hands-on projects. If there's interest, I'll share it—let me know in the comments.)

Why This Matters (At Least to Me)

I'm five months into my career as a developer. I'm still figuring out how to balance learning new technologies with actually getting work done. I'm not making $200K. I'm not leading migration projects.

But that one-month exposure to SAP HANA and ERP systems during my internship showed me how much of enterprise technology operates differently than what we learn in tutorials. The contractor making $250/hour had skills that bridged both SAP and AWS—that's the gap.

I'm starting to invest time in understanding SAP alongside my AWS work. It's vast, it's complex, and honestly, it's not always exciting. But the market gap is real, and someone's going to fill it.

Resources That Actually Matter

AWS Official:

AWS SAP Lens (Well-Architected Framework) - Start here. It's what every SAP on AWS project references.
SAP on AWS Documentation
AWS Partner: SAP on AWS Specialty Certification (advanced, but the target)

SAP Side:

SAP Learning Hub - Free tier available. Focus on HANA basics and S/4HANA overview.

Hands-On:

AWS Skill Builder: SAP on AWS - Free courses and learning paths
AWS Workshops: SAP on AWS - Hands-on labs you can actually do
AWS SAP Community on re:Post - Actual engineers solving actual problems

Reality Check:

Look at SAP BASIS job descriptions—see what skills they value
Compare with AWS Solutions Architect roles focused on enterprise
The overlap is your opportunity

My Plan Moving Forward

Committing to this learning path while maintaining current role and continuing to develop technical skills is going to be difficult especially when there is a race against Ai. It requires discipline—early mornings, focused weekends, and saying no to distractions—but the market demand and career trajectory make it worth the investment.

The challenge is not only about technical. It's staying consistent when progress feels slow, when the concepts are dense, and when friends are learning flashier technologies. But that's also what creates the opportunity. Most people won't put in this work, which is exactly why those who do become valuable.

I'm documenting this journey not as an expert, but as someone in the trenches. If you're considering this path or already working in SAP or AWS, or have insights or thought to share, I would love to connect.