Key Takeaways
- The infrastructure component of RISE with SAP is typically priced 20–35% above current hyperscaler market rates — and most enterprises never benchmark it.
- EDP and CUD alignment between your existing hyperscaler commitments and RISE infrastructure can generate credits that reduce net cost by 15–25%.
- BTP credit utilisation efficiency is a cost optimisation lever in its own right — the average enterprise uses less than 60% of included BTP credits.
- Infrastructure benchmarking rights — the right to challenge the fee at defined intervals — are negotiable but rarely appear in standard RISE Order Forms.
- Unused hyperscaler capacity within RISE can be recovered and redeployed, but requires explicit contract provisions to enforce.
Where the RISE with SAP Hyperscaler Overpayment Actually Lives
RISE with SAP hyperscaler cost optimisation begins with understanding where the overcharge is embedded in the contract structure. SAP bundles the infrastructure fee into the overall RISE ACV (Annual Contract Value), which means most enterprises never see a line item for the infrastructure component separately. This opacity is intentional — it makes benchmarking difficult and challenge nearly impossible without independent analysis.
When we decompose RISE pricing in our RISE with SAP advisory engagements, the infrastructure component typically represents 25–40% of the total ACV, depending on the scale of the environment and the hyperscaler region. That infrastructure fee is set against hyperscaler list prices from the contract signature date — which for many enterprises means they are paying 2022 or 2023 infrastructure rates on a contract that runs through 2027 or beyond. Hyperscaler compute and storage pricing has fallen significantly since those dates, meaning the infrastructure premium embedded in many RISE contracts represents pure margin for SAP and the hyperscaler, with no corresponding benefit to the customer.
The second source of overcharge is the BTP credit package. RISE includes a bundle of BTP cloud credits — typically several hundred thousand euros or dollars of notional BTP capacity. The average enterprise consumes fewer than 60% of these credits before they expire. That unconsumed portion represents paid-for value that disappears at contract end. Addressing this is a cost optimisation issue that sits alongside the infrastructure pricing question, and requires a different set of contractual provisions to resolve.
Infrastructure Benchmarking: The Most Underused Cost Lever
Infrastructure benchmarking is the practice of comparing the per-unit infrastructure cost embedded in your RISE contract against current market rates for equivalent hyperscaler compute, storage, and network services. It sounds straightforward, but it requires both the contractual right to conduct the benchmark and the technical expertise to translate the RISE infrastructure specification into comparable hyperscaler SKUs.
Most RISE contracts do not include an explicit benchmarking right. SAP's standard terms are deliberately structured to avoid this exposure. However, infrastructure benchmarking provisions are negotiable for enterprise customers — particularly at contract renewal, where the threat of competitive tender creates genuine negotiating leverage. The specific language to seek is a right to conduct an independent infrastructure benchmark at 24-month intervals, with a contractual mechanism requiring SAP to adjust the infrastructure fee to within a specified percentage (typically 10–15%) of the benchmark result within 90 days.
When we have conducted these benchmarks on behalf of enterprise clients, the findings are consistently significant. On a mid-size RISE deployment (ERP environment supporting 2,000–5,000 named users), the gap between embedded infrastructure pricing and current hyperscaler market rates typically ranges from €200,000 to €800,000 per year. Over a five-year RISE term, that is a material overpayment that compounds with each contract renewal.
💡 Benchmarking Methodology
An effective RISE infrastructure benchmark requires four inputs: the infrastructure specification from the RISE Order Form BoM (Bill of Materials), current pricing for equivalent SKUs from the hyperscaler's public pricing API, enterprise discount rates achievable at your organisation's scale and EDP tier, and a regional adjustment factor for data residency requirements. SAP's commercial team will dispute benchmarks that fail to account for all four dimensions correctly — independent advisory ensures the methodology is audit-proof.
EDP and CUD Alignment: Turning Existing Commitments into Cost Reductions
One of the most commercially significant RISE cost optimisation opportunities is the alignment of your existing hyperscaler Enterprise Discount Programme (EDP) or Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) with the RISE infrastructure workload. This is the mechanism by which enterprises that already have large hyperscaler commitments can generate credits that directly offset their RISE infrastructure fee.
The basic commercial logic is straightforward: when SAP runs your RISE environment on Azure, AWS, or GCP, the hyperscaler receives substantial infrastructure revenue. If you have an existing EDP or CUD with that hyperscaler, that revenue should count against your committed spend — generating credits that flow back to you. In practice, the standard RISE commercial structure routes the hyperscaler revenue through SAP's infrastructure agreement with the hyperscaler rather than your organisation's enterprise agreement, which means the credits do not accrue to you automatically.
Correcting this requires explicit negotiation with both SAP and the hyperscaler simultaneously. The negotiation with the hyperscaler focuses on amending your EDP or CUD to include the RISE workload as eligible committed spend. The negotiation with SAP focuses on obtaining confirmation that the RISE infrastructure workload revenue will flow through your enterprise agreement with the hyperscaler rather than SAP's. This is a complex three-party commercial arrangement that requires independent advisory to structure correctly — but the resulting savings can be substantial. We have seen enterprises achieve effective infrastructure cost reductions of 20–28% through well-structured EDP alignment arrangements.
For enterprises currently negotiating RISE, see our article on RISE with SAP hyperscaler choice negotiation strategies for the specific commercial tactics needed to bring all three parties to the table in the right sequence.
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Stop Overpaying for RISE Infrastructure
Our RISE with SAP advisory team has benchmarked the infrastructure component of 50+ RISE contracts and identified overpayments in virtually every one. We negotiate the correction — before signature or at renewal. Book a free consultation to understand your specific exposure.
Book a Free Consultation →BTP Credit Utilisation: Recovering Value You Have Already Paid For
The BTP credit package included in RISE with SAP represents a significant and frequently wasted cost element. SAP includes BTP credits as part of the RISE bundle partly to demonstrate value and partly to create a dependency on SAP's BTP platform for future digital transformation initiatives. The commercial reality for most enterprises is that the included BTP credits expire at the end of the contract term at a utilisation rate well below 100%.
This creates a dual cost optimisation opportunity. First, unused BTP credits represent direct value leakage — you have paid for capacity you are not using. Recovering this requires either increasing BTP utilisation before contract end, or negotiating a credit carryover or cash-back provision that prevents expiry. Second, the BTP credit package is frequently overspecified for the enterprise's actual near-term BTP requirements — meaning you may have negotiated to pay for a larger BTP bundle than you will consume, based on SAP's aspirational projections of your BTP usage rather than your verified requirements.
The cost optimisation tactic for BTP credits is to conduct a formal BTP credit utilisation audit 18 months before contract renewal. This audit should quantify: the volume of credits included, the volume consumed to date, the projected consumption rate through contract end, and the gap between included and projected consumed credits. The output of this audit feeds directly into the RISE renewal negotiation — you can use the utilisation gap as evidence that the BTP bundle is overspecified, and negotiate a reduced bundle (and therefore reduced overall RISE ACV) at renewal.
The detailed guide to RISE with SAP BTP credit cost optimisation provides a framework for conducting this audit and deploying its output in renewal negotiations.
Hidden Cost Traps in the RISE Hyperscaler Structure
Beyond infrastructure pricing and BTP credits, the RISE with SAP hyperscaler structure contains several hidden cost elements that accumulate silently throughout the contract term. Identifying and addressing these before they crystallise is part of a complete RISE cost optimisation programme.
Data Egress and Transfer Charges
RISE infrastructure generates data egress charges when data moves between the SAP environment and non-SAP systems — API integrations, analytics platforms, data lakes, third-party applications. These charges are billed by the hyperscaler and typically sit outside the RISE ACV, appearing as unbudgeted infrastructure costs. The mitigation is to negotiate a data egress cost cap or allowance as part of the RISE Order Form, with any overrun shared between SAP and the customer.
Hyperscaler Region Change Fees
If your data residency requirements change during the RISE contract term — due to regulatory changes, M&A activity, or operational restructuring — moving the RISE workload to a different hyperscaler region triggers infrastructure migration costs that are not covered by the standard RISE fee. These costs can run to several hundred thousand euros for large environments. The mitigation is to negotiate a region mobility clause that allows a defined number of region changes within the contract term without additional infrastructure fees.
Premium Support Tier Upsells
SAP's commercial team routinely presents RISE proposals with premium Enterprise Support or RISE premium support tiers that increase the infrastructure component cost by 10–15%. These premium tiers are presented as standard — they are not. The baseline RISE contract includes standard SAP support at 22% of the software licence fee. Any infrastructure-level premium support tier above this is an upsell that deserves independent scrutiny before acceptance.
Hyperscaler Version Upgrade Charges
When SAP moves the underlying infrastructure between hyperscaler instance types or generations — driven by SAP's infrastructure refresh cycle rather than your requirements — the transition is not always cost-neutral. Version upgrade charges for infrastructure components can appear as add-on Order Forms mid-contract. Negotiate a stable-price infrastructure commitment that covers standard version upgrades within the original ACV.
Cost Optimisation at Renewal: The Highest-Leverage Moment
The RISE contract renewal is the single highest-leverage moment for cost optimisation across every dimension of the deal — infrastructure pricing, BTP credits, support costs, and hyperscaler terms. SAP's commercial structure creates an asymmetry at renewal: you are facing significant migration costs if you leave, which reduces your apparent negotiating leverage. But the renewal is also the moment when SAP most wants to secure the next term — which creates real commercial pressure on SAP's account team that can be exploited by a well-prepared buyer.
The cost optimisation priorities at renewal are: first, conduct the infrastructure benchmark described above and present the results to SAP at least 180 days before contract end; second, conduct the BTP utilisation audit and use the gap as evidence for a reduced BTP bundle; third, align your hyperscaler EDP terms with the renewed RISE infrastructure period to maximise credit generation; fourth, negotiate infrastructure benchmarking rights into the renewal term so the process becomes automatic at the next renewal cycle.
For a comprehensive view of RISE renewal and exit options, see our guide to RISE with SAP exit strategy for 2026. For SAP Licensing Experts' view of the full RISE commercial landscape, our RISE with SAP guide provides the complete independent reference.
✓ Case Study Reference
A global manufacturing enterprise on RISE with SAP (Azure infrastructure, 3,500 named users) engaged our advisory team 14 months before contract renewal. Infrastructure benchmarking identified a 28% overcharge versus current Azure market rates (€680,000 per year). Combined with EDP alignment and BTP bundle right-sizing, the total cost reduction achieved at renewal was €2.4M over the next five-year term. Independent SAP licensing advisory — not affiliated with SAP SE.
Expert SAP Contract Negotiation
Your RISE Renewal Is a Cost Optimisation Opportunity
Our SAP contract negotiation service prepares enterprises for RISE renewals with forensic analysis of the current contract, benchmarking of infrastructure and software components, and a negotiation strategy designed to recapture the overpayment that has accumulated since the original signature. Book a free consultation to start the process.
Book a Free Consultation →Frequently Asked Questions
How much can enterprises realistically save on RISE hyperscaler infrastructure costs?
In our advisory experience, enterprises that conduct independent infrastructure benchmarking and pursue EDP alignment consistently achieve effective infrastructure cost reductions of 15–30% on the infrastructure component of RISE. For large deployments, this translates to six- or seven-figure annual savings. The exact achievable saving depends on the size of the deployment, the original contract date (older contracts tend to have larger overcharges), and the existence of relevant hyperscaler EDP commitments that can be aligned to RISE.
Can I negotiate infrastructure pricing on an existing RISE contract, or only at renewal?
Both are possible, but renewal is the higher-leverage moment. Mid-contract infrastructure renegotiation requires demonstrating a material change in circumstance — such as a significant divergence from the original infrastructure specification, a regulatory change requiring infrastructure reconfiguration, or evidence of systematic overcharging validated by independent benchmark. Renewal is commercially simpler because the risk of customer departure provides natural leverage. Starting the process 18–24 months before renewal gives the best chance of a successful outcome.
What happens to unused BTP credits at the end of a RISE contract?
Under standard RISE terms, unused BTP credits expire at the end of the contract term without refund or carryover. This is one of the most significant value leakage points in RISE contracts. The mitigation is to negotiate a BTP credit carryover provision (allowing unused credits to roll into the renewal term) or a credit cash-back mechanism. Both are achievable for enterprise customers but require explicit negotiation — they will not appear in the standard Order Form.
Does choosing a different hyperscaler (e.g. AWS instead of Azure) automatically reduce infrastructure costs?
Not automatically. The infrastructure fee within RISE is determined by SAP's internal pricing structure, not directly by hyperscaler list rates. However, if you have significant existing commitments with AWS or GCP — Reserved Instances or CUDs — that can be aligned to the RISE workload, the effective cost reduction through EDP credit generation may be larger than would be achievable through Azure alignment. The hyperscaler choice should be assessed alongside your existing commitment portfolio, not in isolation.
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