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It began simply enough – a colleague asked about Fiori and the various deployment options. We then started brainstorming about various potential architectures and certain limitations presented by the present Fiori architecture.
What are Fiori-like apps?
In this blog, it is important to distinguish between Fiori and Fiori-like apps.
Fiori apps currently all originate from SAP. At the present time, there are 25 apps in the available. It looks like 25 new Fiori apps will be released at this week’s TechEd.
These apps also have a particular architecture:
[SOURCE]
The limitations associated with this architecture is that the requirements on the back-end (Gateway, etc) restrict the number of customers who can use this technology that that required by Fiori apps.
Fiori-like apps
Fiori-like apps are applications which are based on the Fiori design principles but may use alternative technologies.
[SOURCE]
What technologies are used to create such apps is secondary although the use of OData and SAPUI5 certainly simplifies their creation.
What I’m not suggesting is that all applications created using OData and SAPUI5 can be classified as “Fiori-like” apps. The design principles mentioned above are also important criterion.
Cloud Options for Fiori apps
There are three options for deploying Fiori apps in the cloud:
- Hosting Gateway and the Business Suite on the AWS cloud and then installing Fiori. I’ve found descriptions of hosting Gateway on AWS and the Business Suite is available on AWS as well.
- Hosting Gateway and the Business Suite on a private cloud and then installing Fiori.
- Hosting Gateway and the Business Suite on the HANA Enterprise Cloud and then having SAP install Fiori on this environment. I have no idea if this is currently supported.
Note: I’m not forgetting the HANA Cloud Platform’s Gateway as a Service in this context but this is really for OnPremise-based Gateway environments rather than cloud-based ones.
Cloud options for Fiori-like apps
There are a variety of technologies which could be used to create Fiori-like apps. I’d like to focus on one that holds the most potential.
The ability of HANA XS to provide an excellent foundation for developers using OData is well documented and this platform provides an excellent foundation for creating Fiori-like apps.
The following options are available for cloud deployment of such HANA XS-based Fiori-like apps.
I’ve never seen HANA XS being used in the HANA Enterprise Cloud but this might be an option in the future.
The latest edition to this list – that of the HANA Cloud Platform - is the most interesting in that it provides partners a PaaS to create Fiori-like apps that could be deployable to multiple customers.
My POV
SAP’s UI strategy places Fiori apps largely as an important component to renew existing applications. I see Fiori-like apps (especially ones that are cloud-based) as the way forward for many scenarios including new applications.
[SOURCE]
What I’m not saying is that the all new applications will be Fiori-like apps – rather I’m suggesting that particular apps that meet the associated scenarios be developed in this fashion.
Ideally, the use of the same design principles for each scenario would provide a cohesive UI experience that bridges the Cloud-OnPremise gap – making the distinction between new and existing applications non-existent.
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