- SAP Managed Tags
After being a mainstay of SAP’s strategy for multiple decades, mainstream maintenance for SAP Solution Manager is due to expire at the end of 2027. While this may seem like a “tomorrow problem” at first glance, it’s safe to say this isn’t a long time in the world of business software. For users of this well-established product, SAP therefore recommends transitioning to SAP Cloud ALM well before this date.
The good news is that customers are not alone, SAP is on hand to provide the support and tools needed to prepare and execute this transition. At the upcoming SAP ALM Summit EMEA 2024 in Mannheim, Germany (Sep 24-27), there will be a dedicated track of sessions outlining exactly what you need to consider, and how to go about it. To give you a small taste, expect to hear all about Solution Documentation, Test Management, Change Request Management, and first-hand experiences from SAP customers. Read on to find out more!
To guide customers through the transition and make it as smooth as possible, SAP is breaking it down into distinct stages for our customers, primarily zooming in on the first two columns shown below:
As you’ll see, already today customers can – and should – consider adopting SAP Cloud ALM for operations and SAP Cloud ALM for service. Not only will this minimize their update efforts, crucially it will simplify their monitoring tasks and ease their use and consumption. Going forward, customers can then adopt SAP Cloud ALM for implementation at their own pace as functionality is added progressively throughout this year and beyond.
Beyond that, customers may also consider adding SAP Focused Run if they need to monitor large landscapes or high volumes of data.
Kicking off the transition with the SAP Readiness Check
If you look at the overview graphic below, you’ll see the journey starts with the SAP Readiness Check. The latest version of the SAP Readiness Check was just released on June 12, 2024, so now is the ideal starting point to work out what your current usage is, and how the transition can benefit you even further.
SAP will be providing various recommendations depending on what customers are using their SAP Solution Manager for. The last thing anyone wants is any nasty surprises, so customers must ensure they read all the available information carefully to assess their own situations. If you’re still not sure where to start, the Transition section on the SAP Support Portal is a great place to begin. Also keep your eyes open for an SAP Cloud ALM transition roadmap based on SAP Activate Methodology to guide our customers through the transition.
Migrating Data with the Selective Data Transfer
The plan is for our customers to use the Selective Data Transfer (SDT) to migrate their relevant data from SAP Solution Manager to SAP Cloud ALM. Once the right tools are available, they should then be able to define and tailor their scope flexibly, ensuring that their important data is retained in their future setup. Customers will be able to use the SDT for certain data as soon as it is available and then going forward, they stand to benefit from the full potential offered by the SDT. At the same time, it’s also worth remembering that monitoring and operations capabilities require no data migration at all.
Once available, the plan is that SAP Solution Manager customers on SP19 will be able to call up the SDT and even the Transition section of the SAP Support Portal directly from within their launchpad (customers on certain earlier SPs should also be able to access the SDT via a transaction instead of the launchpad).
Handling Change Control Management
Regarding the Change Request Management (aka. ChaRM) needs of our customers, note that data migration is not provided. SAP’s advice here is to follow the SAP Cloud ALM roadmap until everything you need is there, while already familiarizing yourselves with Deployment Management in SAP Cloud ALM. And for any customers not currently using ChaRM at all, this may be the ideal opportunity to improve their software logistics and stabilize their environment by using the Deployment Management features offered by SAP Cloud ALM.
Closing Words
As your main take-away, just keep in mind that this transition needs to be tackled sooner rather than later, and that SAP is on hand to support customers every step of the way with the following tools and guidance:
Find out more at the SAP ALM Summit EMEA 2024 this September in Mannheim, so sign up today to join us and other top experts. Feel free to share this within your community network and get involved. Thanks as always for your time!
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