European software and services giant SAP has announced plans to exit the Russian market – following scores of western corporations that are pulling out of the country after its invasion of Ukraine.
The announcement builds on the suspension of sales of new products, announced in early March. Now, SAP is planning to shut down all cloud operations in Russia, as well as stop support and maintenance of its on-premises products.
Its main competitor Oracle has already withdrawn all operations in Russia and Belarus, including support services. Both companies were specifically requested to take action by Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
According to Reuters, SAP’s business in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine makes up about 1.5% of its total revenue.
SAP says farewell to Russia
“We continue to believe that coordinated inter-governmental sanctions offer the best way to end the war in Ukraine, and we have implemented them without exception,” SAP said in a note to analysts.
“Today we are announcing further steps toward an orderly exit from our operations in Russia, where we have operated for more than 30 years and have built an excellent team. As we wind down our operations, we will focus on responsibly managing the impact on these employees.”
According to the announcement, SAP will work with non-sanctioned cloud customers to offer them one of three options: have their data deleted, sent to them, or transferred into a third-party data center outside of Russia.
Meanwhile, on-premises customers will be able to continue using their software – but the company warned that it is planning to stop all support and maintenance, and is “evaluating multiple options to execute this decision, each of which will ensure we continue to honor our obligations to non-sanctioned customers.”
And finally, SAP will continue to support victims of the conflict; so far, the company has raised €3.7 million (~$4m) to support refugees in the region. It has also provided free software to humanitarian organizations, and enabled its partners to declare their readiness to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine – with some 2,500 businesses taking part.
“Our hearts and hopes are with the people of Ukraine. More than anything, we want this war to end. Until then, SAP will continue to help those affected and encourage the restoration of peace,” the note said.
