AWS Solution Provider Lemongrass Now Partnering With Microsoft, Google Cloud

‘In the past, I’d say we were an AWS partner first who happened to be hyper-specialized in SAP. Now we can be an SAP partner who specializes in public cloud,’ Lemongrass CEO Mike Rosenbloom tells CRN.

Lemongrass, an Amazon Web Services partner that specializes in migrating SAP workloads to the cloud, has added new partnerships with Microsoft and Google Cloud to meet customer demand and continue growing the capabilities of its offerings.

The Atlanta-based company--which is a member of CRN’s Elite 150 managed service providers--has already landed new Microsoft cloud customers and will work to add Google Cloud customers in the fourth quarter, Lemongrass CEO Mike Rosenbloom told CRN. The company will also use its new partnerships to expand the capabilities of its Lemongrass Cloud Platform offering.

“We ignored customers who were not going to AWS,” Rosenbloom said. “We’ve seen more and more who have approached us because of our brand and reputation and asked if we would be willing to help them on other hyperscalers. In the past, we said no. [We] decided that we need to listen to the call for action.”

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Lemongrass announced its new Microsoft Gold competency in a statement Sept. 21 and its Google Cloud partnership last week. Lemongrass has more than 6,000 SAP servers and 300,000-plus users under management.

The company expects AWS to remain its largest hyperscaler over the next two or three years, according to Rosenbloom. Lemongrass has 400 full-time employees worldwide and expects to grow by as much as 50 percent next year as it builds its Microsoft and Google Cloud capabilities.

Rosenbloom is also seeking co-development opportunities with both companies, such as using the Microsoft Teams collaboration application as the front end of an SAP application.

“In the past, I’d say we were an AWS partner first who happened to be hyper-specialized in SAP. Now we can be an SAP partner who specializes in public cloud.”

Lemongrass counts life sciences, consumer packaged goods and energy among its industry specialties. The company has raised $39.3 million in funding to date, with its latest round a $10 million Series C round last year.

In a statement, Google Cloud President Rob Enslin said that Lemongrass’ expertise “will help businesses benefit at scale from Google Cloud’s global infrastructure, and capabilities in AI, ML, and analytics.”

“We’re proud to partner with Lemongrass to accelerate customers’ migrations of their most critical workloads to Google Cloud,” he said.

Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark said in a statement that Lemongrass’ Gold competency proves “its commitment, capability and expertise in Microsoft products and technologies.”

Rosenbloom said his company is open to more vendor partnerships, particularly with smaller vendors that offer a functional complement to Lemongrass’ technical managed services.

The company’s investment in new cloud partnerships reflects how businesses have adopted the technology and want to move legacy systems, Rosenbloom said.

“It’s finally reached that tipping point where, in the past, people were skittish about moving their SAP applications to the cloud for various reasons,” he said. “At this point now, ‘why wouldn’t you move to the cloud?’ is becoming the thought process.”

He still sees plenty of opportunity for cloud migration, saying that three-quarters of Lemongrass customers are in the cloud and that 80 percent of customers are doing a “two-step” migration to SAP’s S/4HANA enterprise resource planning tool, in which customers get to the cloud first and figure out operational enhancements, such as rapid testing, later.