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In my day job as a SAP Architect driving innovation and digital transformation, I spend quite a bit of time helping customers to understand how S/4HANA is different from SAP ECC so they can build the business case to move.
One of the key areas where it can be very different is how you manage (or actually don’t manage) the infrastructure, software installation/patching, configuration and extensions (custom code).
I think you have 4 basic options and I have summarised these below :-
Other : In this option you pretty much carry on the way you are in now with ECC especially if you convert your current ECC system to S/4HANA. You could choose to start adopting Best Practice config (this is predefined config from SAP that they manage like it was code – they ar... but this is only really an option if you take a Greenfield approach. You could also look to adopt the new ways to extend the solution (In App and On-Top in SCP). At the infrastructure end you could take this as an opportunity to move to the cloud using one of the certified hyper-scale cloud providers like Microsoft Azure, AWS or Google Cloud Platform. You also typically have a perpetual licencing model.
HANA Enterprise Cloud : In this option you get SAP to provide the Infrastructure (in turn they may sub-contract this but your contract is with SAP) and depending upon the contract you sign they can provide different levels of Basis, Application and other support (see this link for details). Beyond this the options are very much the same as the "Other" option above. My experience is that you typically have a perpetual licencing model but I understand subscription is available.
(Public) Cloud – Single Tenant : In this option you have to start Greenfield and SAP manage software upgrades (at least one per year with the option for 2 - UPDATE As of 2019 SAP provide 2 optional upgrades per year with a forced upgrade every 4 years) and infrastructure. You can choose to adopt SAP Best Practice configuration (recommended) and where this isn’t yet available for the S/4HANA feature you need you roll your own config or you can bring your own config. Given you have to go Greenfield it makes sense to only extend using the new approaches but you can also bring your own ABAP code / add-ons. You have to have a subscription license.
(Public) Cloud – Multi Tenant : In this option SAP manage everything except the extensions which have to be done in the new ways (In-App or On-Top). The key difference here is the strict usage of Scope Items- If it isn't a Scope Item it doesn't exist ! This can be confusing for SAP config experts, as some of the options available in the On Premise version are not available in the Multi Tenant Cloud. Sometimes this is because SAP haven’t yet delivered those features as Scope Items, but in others it is a deliberate decision by SAP as those features are considered “edge” use-cases and as such they will never be delivered - keep a close eye on the 3 year roadmaps. So whilst the S/4HANA code base is the same, what you can get at isn’t. The key upside with this option is that deployment is quicker (as we have fewer choices to make) and we get updates/innovation every quarter.
Conclusion
In the end (as discussed in this blog), I think the vast majority S/4HANA customers will run S/4HANA in the Public Cloud Multi Tenant model (potentially with multiple tenants) so I recommend that decisions are made from the perspective of
When you come up with reasons that you can’t, bring them to SAP as they will be keen to remove anything stopping you – or comment on this blog / contact me and I can feedback via the SAP Mentor S/4HANA Focus Group.
One of the key areas where it can be very different is how you manage (or actually don’t manage) the infrastructure, software installation/patching, configuration and extensions (custom code).
I think you have 4 basic options and I have summarised these below :-
Other : In this option you pretty much carry on the way you are in now with ECC especially if you convert your current ECC system to S/4HANA. You could choose to start adopting Best Practice config (this is predefined config from SAP that they manage like it was code – they ar... but this is only really an option if you take a Greenfield approach. You could also look to adopt the new ways to extend the solution (In App and On-Top in SCP). At the infrastructure end you could take this as an opportunity to move to the cloud using one of the certified hyper-scale cloud providers like Microsoft Azure, AWS or Google Cloud Platform. You also typically have a perpetual licencing model.
- Pro – Low change profile / Continue to run your own custom code (depending upon the code this could be seen as a Con)
- Con – Low change profile (innovation at on premise (years) speed) / Have to acquire skills to run SAP HANA
HANA Enterprise Cloud : In this option you get SAP to provide the Infrastructure (in turn they may sub-contract this but your contract is with SAP) and depending upon the contract you sign they can provide different levels of Basis, Application and other support (see this link for details). Beyond this the options are very much the same as the "Other" option above. My experience is that you typically have a perpetual licencing model but I understand subscription is available.
- Pro – Low change profile / SAP Provide skills to run SAP HANA
- Con – Low change profile (innovation at on premise (years) speed) / Have to work within very structured SAP HEC SLAs
(Public) Cloud – Single Tenant : In this option you have to start Greenfield and SAP manage software upgrades (at least one per year with the option for 2 - UPDATE As of 2019 SAP provide 2 optional upgrades per year with a forced upgrade every 4 years) and infrastructure. You can choose to adopt SAP Best Practice configuration (recommended) and where this isn’t yet available for the S/4HANA feature you need you roll your own config or you can bring your own config. Given you have to go Greenfield it makes sense to only extend using the new approaches but you can also bring your own ABAP code / add-ons. You have to have a subscription license.
- Pro – Upgrades pushed at least one per year / Can go beyond Scope Items
- Con – Have to do Greenfield / Have to work within very structured SAP Cloud SLAs
(Public) Cloud – Multi Tenant : In this option SAP manage everything except the extensions which have to be done in the new ways (In-App or On-Top). The key difference here is the strict usage of Scope Items- If it isn't a Scope Item it doesn't exist ! This can be confusing for SAP config experts, as some of the options available in the On Premise version are not available in the Multi Tenant Cloud. Sometimes this is because SAP haven’t yet delivered those features as Scope Items, but in others it is a deliberate decision by SAP as those features are considered “edge” use-cases and as such they will never be delivered - keep a close eye on the 3 year roadmaps. So whilst the S/4HANA code base is the same, what you can get at isn’t. The key upside with this option is that deployment is quicker (as we have fewer choices to make) and we get updates/innovation every quarter.
- Pro – Maximum adoption of new features / Faster deployment
- Con – Have to do Greenfield / Have to work within very structured SAP Cloud SLAs
Conclusion
In the end (as discussed in this blog), I think the vast majority S/4HANA customers will run S/4HANA in the Public Cloud Multi Tenant model (potentially with multiple tenants) so I recommend that decisions are made from the perspective of
“Why can’t we move to the S/4HANA Public Cloud – Multi Tenant ?”
When you come up with reasons that you can’t, bring them to SAP as they will be keen to remove anything stopping you – or comment on this blog / contact me and I can feedback via the SAP Mentor S/4HANA Focus Group.
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