Food Manufacturer Dafgårds Migrates to AWS
Dafgårds, a Swedish family-owned food manufacturer, successfully migrated its SAP workloads to AWS and upgraded to S/4HANA with Pearl Group as implementation partner.
The cloud migration, completed during the COVID-19 pandemic, delivered impressive results: 35% faster application response times, 55% improvement in database performance, and 20% lower costs than projected. Using the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), Pearl Group helped Dafgårds transform from infrastructure maintenance to business value creation, while achieving 60% savings on backup costs and eliminating the need for lengthy system shutdowns.
Challenge
As a food manufacturer operating continuous 24/7 production, Dafgårds faced critical operational constraints with their existing IT infrastructure. System upgrades required shutdowns of up to 48 hours, directly disrupting manufacturing operations that normally run around the clock.
The company needed a modern, scalable solution that could support growth while maintaining the operational continuity essential for food production. Traditional infrastructure maintenance consumed valuable IT resources that could be better utilized for business value creation.
Solution
Dafgårds evaluated major cloud providers after attending the AWS Summit in 2019, ultimately selecting AWS for its manufacturing expertise.
"We could clearly see that AWS had the strength, skills, and experience in manufacturing that we needed," says Fredrik Dafgård, Chief Digital Officer. "Because we are a family firm, we were able to make a quick decision."
The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) proved decisive in their choice. "MAP was the tipping point. We could see this was a big opportunity and the investment to build the proof of concept was very important to us," explains Daniel Stenmark, Chief Information Officer.
Selecting the right implementation partner was equally important. After evaluating several companies, Dafgårds chose Pearl Group as their AWS Advanced Consulting Partner. "They have an informal culture, like us, and make decisions fast," says Stenmark. "The team really felt like the perfect fit with our culture."
The migration to AWS was completed alongside an upgrade to SAP S/4HANA, executed methodically during the COVID-19 pandemic with remote work protocols.
Customer's benefits
The transformation exceeded expectations across multiple dimensions. System costs came in 20% below business case projections, with ongoing optimization efforts driving costs even lower.
Users experienced remarkable performance gains that directly addressed previous operational pain points. Average response times for application server tasks improved by 35%, while database response times accelerated by 55%. Most critically, the company eliminated the need for lengthy system shutdowns that previously disrupted continuous manufacturing.
"We were all surprised at the performance improvements. And we have freed staff from infrastructure tasks so they can spend more time on security and improving systems," notes Fredrik Dafgård.
Operational transformation
The migration fundamentally changed how Dafgårds' IT team operates. Staff previously tied up in maintenance and infrastructure tasks were freed to focus on adding business value, security improvements, and system optimization. The company can now spin up test environments on demand without waiting for servers.
An unexpected benefit was a 60% reduction in backup costs using AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA workloads. This reliable offsite backup capability is particularly valuable given that almost all manufacturing occurs on one site, supporting business continuity planning for a facility where cooking and baking operations present fire risks.
We were all surprised at the performance improvements. And we have freed staff from infrastructure tasks so they can spend more time on security and improving systems.
- Fredrik Dafgård, Chief Digital Officer, Dafgårds
