BCP: Business Continuity Planning for SAP S/4HANA - made easy with Enterprise Blockchain 🚀

[AndySilvey]

The Threat - Why do we have to care for Business Continuity Planning ?

In most large Enterprise IT we have the High Availability, we have the Disaster Recovery, so why do we have to care for Business Continuity Planning ? Business Continuity Planning is that one layer higher than HA and DR, Business Continuity Planning comes in to play when HA and DR don't solve the problem.

Cincinnati Insurance Companies have a made a very useful Business Continuity Threat Matrix to help Enterprises identify  the threats across all dimensions of their business:

This is the thing with Business Continuity Planning and the threats and the risk and the why to do it, a Business Continuity situation can come individually from different angles, or alternatively it could be the contagion of a number of unrelated events which when combined together lead to the Business Continuity situation.

Gartner in their Glossary describe it as:

For me, coming from the SAP Enterprise Technical Architecture side of the house, 

Business Continuity Planning is about The Data

At the heart of the Business Continuity Plan there needs to be Business Data

No Data - No Business !

Every Enterprise has a Business Continuity Plan, and SAP has got a whole library of helpful document on it over here to help with designing the Business Continuity Plan:

The Solution for Protecting Business Critical Data for the Business Continuity Plan

This blog is going to walk through and show, how very easily, and cost effectively and robustly and simply a basic Enterprise Blockchain can provide the "sleep well at night" technical foundation of a Business Continuity Plan solution.

This is one of my favourite easy peasy Enterprise Blockchain use cases, it is sooo easy to implement for SAP S/4HANA Customers using their SAP technologies, including the SAP BTP, and so simple, and so effective, and it really shows from the perspective of the Business Requirements and the Enterprise Blockchain capabilities how natively out of the box Enterprise Blockchain Databases are so secure and so resilient.

In this blog we will focus on the heart of the holistic Business Continuity Plan, and that is the Data, Master and Transaction.

A sound Business Continuity Plan will include a solution to enable OCD Operationally Critical Data to be available to Key Users in the event of a Business Continuity Scenario.

What is Operational Critical Data? OCD is critical data required to execute to Key Business Processes as defined in BCP playbook. A Business Continuity Scenario would mean that the Company is without access to the S/4HANA for period of up to 4 weeks (or more), along with which there must be a guarantee of business continuity on the most critical operations and availability of the (OCD). 

All Enterprises need to be prepared for a Business Continuity Scenario, where the Company will be running in Emergency Mode, kind of like when a car goes in to Emergency Mode, the car drives, but the car does not perform to the full possibility. We are happy the car is running and we are happy that we can still use the car. 

And this would be the same for Company in a Business Continuity Scenario, not everything in the Enterprise IT will be available, the S/4HANA, the Digital Core, in the worst case could be down for up to 4 weeks, but, what needs to be available is the most basic foundational Business Master and Transactional Data. And that most basic foundational Business Master Data is the Business Partner Master Data, the Customers and Suppliers, the most basic Data which any Company depends on to operate, large or small, you need to know who your Customers are and who your Suppliers are.

Requirements for a Business Continuity Planning solution would look something like this:

Blockchain SAP Business Continuity Planning Requirements atkrypto.io

With the Business Requirements in hand, the next step in the SAP Enterprise Architect Demand Process would be to make an Architecture Review of the Demand from the Business Lead.

The first step of the Architecture Review takes the Business Lead's non-Functional requirements, and matches them to the Enabling Technology Capabilities:

Blockchain SAP Business Continuity Planning Requirements Technology Capabilities Analysis atkrypto.io

Now that we have the key Enabling Technology Capabilities we can look in our SAP Enterprise Technology Standards and see which of our Technology Standards would be the most appropriate to enable the non-Functional Requirements.

The required Enabling Technology Capabilities are as follows:

SAP Blockchain Required Enabling Technology Capabilities atkrypto.io

Looking through our Technology Standards, when we "Let the Use Case find the Blockchain" we find 1 Technology Standard which meets the non-Functional Enabling Technology requirements, and that is, The Enterprise Blockchain Platform.

The Enterprise Blockchain Platform and the Enterprise Blockchain Database have all of these non-Functional requirements Enabling Technology Capabilities natively built in and out of the box.

We can consider potential alternatives, but, what is so special about Blockchain Databases and Enterprise Blockchain Platforms, and this was discussed in the previous blogs, is that, out of the box, natively, traditional Database Products do not have the characteristics that the Blockchain Databases have:

atkrypto.io what is a blockchain

For our Business Continuity Business Demand, the requirements are solved out of the box natively by the Enterprise Blockchain Platform. 

Immutable, tick that box, the Blockchain Database has immutability built in. 

Resilience and availability, tick that box, the Blockchain Database Platform is distributed and decentralised, again we have this requirement baked in to the capabilities of the platform. 

As discussed in the previous blog, [ SAP Enterprise Architecture: Positioning Blockchain Database as an Enterprise Technology Standard  ] when we look in to our Enterprise Architecture Technology Standards we see there is only 1 Technology Standard in the Enterprise which is positioned with the capabilities to fulfill all of those requirements out of the box, and that is the, Enterprise Blockchain Platform and Enterprise Blockchain Databases.

Comparison Enterprise Blockchain Database and Traditional Legacy Database - atkrypto.io

Back to the Business Requirements for the Business Continuity Planning solution:

Availability of data across three Continents, we can tick that box, we can install the Enterprise Blockchain Platform on SAP Business Technology Platform BTP Kyma Runtime Service on three separate SAP BTP Instances running in three different continents. We could install the SAP BTP on a Cloud Provider in the USA, we could install SAP BTP on a Cloud Provider in Europe, and we could install the SAP BTP on a Cloud Provider in Asia. And what's more, in each Continent we could use a different Cloud Provider, so we could for example have SAP BTP on AWS in the USA, SAP BTP on Azure in Europe, and SAP BTP on Google  Cloud in Asia, this way we would take the resilience and diversification of Cloud Providers to an even higher level, and that's one of the beautiful flexibilities of the SAP BTP.

Let's just pause on that one, one of the most beautiful things about the SAP BTP is, it is so easy to set up, to spin up the SAP BTP, and when you are spinning up the SAP BTP, you get a list of Cloud Providers that you can set it up on, Google Cloud, Azure, AWS and others, and you just click the one you want and press go.

This is something very special, amazing, because, you are able to spin up your SAP BTP on pretty much any of the largest Cloud Providers, and......  without having to onboard that Cloud Provider as a Vendor ! Because SAP have done that bit for you, SAP have taken care of onboarding the Cloud Providers as a Vendor and you just select the one you want. 

Anybody who has gone through, or has to go through, the process in the Large Enterprise of onboarding a new Vendor will know first hand how painful that is, and how elegant and nice it is that SAP have done that for you with the BTP.

That's one dimension, but in this Business Continuity Scenario it goes further than that. We have said we will spin up the SAP  BTP in three Regions, three Continents, and by spinning up the SAP BTP on a different Cloud Provider in each Continent, each Region, and then running the Blockchain on the BTP across those Cloud Providers we build in even more resilience because we make our solution Multi-Cloud !

Regarding the Security requirement, the Data Store should be secured to the highest level possible, we can tick that box as well, Blockchain Databases out of the box are not only immutable, but also have the Hash Mechanism and the Consensus Mechanism, which no other Database Products on the planet have natively. The Consensus Mechanism and the Hash Mechanism of Blockchain Databases raises the bar of built in security hardening to a level never seen before natively in Enterprise Database Products.

And finally, the S/4HANA Data will be sent to the Enterprise Blockchain Platform which is running on SAP Business Technology Platform kyma Runtime Service because of the four dimensions which were discussed in the previous blog, why place the Enterprise Blockchain Platform in the SAP BTP ?

It's very very simple....

Proximity to the Data (of the Digital Core)

Ethnicity of the Data (in the Digital Core)

Proximity to the Process(es) (in the Digital Core)

Proximity to the Technology (of the Digital Core)

So, we're following our Company's Demand Process, we've taken the Business Demand, and the Requirements, we have processed them according to our Company's Enterprise Architecture Demand Process and we have identified by matching requirements to Enabling Technology capabilities that the Technology Standard which we have in the house to fulfill these Requirements is the Enterprise Blockchain Database Platform.

The next step is to design the Solution Architecture, the Technical Solution Architecture and show the options for fulfilling this requirement.

The basics of the Technical Solution Architecture are:

. SAP S/4HANA contains Business Partner Master Data

. Every time Business Partner Master Data changes we need to send it to the Enterprise Blockchain Database Platform

. The Enterprise Blockchain Platform Tenant will run on the SAP Business Technology Platform Kyma Runtime Service

. The Enterprise Blockchain Platform Tenants will be deployed in three SAP BTP locations around the world

. The Enterprise Blockchain Platform Tenants will be deployed in each location on the SAP BTP on a different Cloud Hyperscaler

In terms of SAP Enterprise Technical Architecture it is pretty clear what the Solution Options are, and we will draw all of the Solutions Options here in the blog, but one variable, one open question which we haven't solved yet, is how to get the Business Partner Master Data out of S/4HANA and to the Enterprise Blockchain Platform.

To solve this, to get the Data from the S/4HANA there are a number of options, and in this blog we will focus on:

. Events - Event Driven Blockchain [this will need the SAP Advanced Event Mesh]

. API's - API Driven [this will need CI to call the Business Partner API on S/4 and then call the API on the Blockchain]

we will now elaborate the Technical Solution Architecture of both alternatives, Event Driven Blockchain, and, API Driven Blockchain.

Business Continuity Planning Technical Solution Architecture SAP S/4HANA, Events, Enterprise Blockchain Platform

in this option, the SAP S/4HANA is connected to the SAP Advanced Event Mesh running on the SAP BTP. SAP S/4HANA publishes a Business Partner Event including the Data, the Payload of the Event to the SAP Advanced Event Mesh on the SAP BTP. The SAP Advanced Event Mesh on the SAP BTP has Topics and Queues created and puts the Business Partner Event and Data into one of the Queues. The Enterprise Blockchain Platform which is running on the SAP BTP Kyma Runtime Service is connected to the SAP Advanced Event Mesh Queue as a Subscriber and listens for new Business Partner Data arriving. As soon as the new Business Partner Data arrives in the Queue the Enterprise Blockchain Platform places that Data as a new Block in the Enterprise Blockchain Database.

S/4HANA on SAP RISE PCE on Azure in Europe -> SAP BTP Advanced Event Mesh Azure (Europe) -> 

-> SAP BTP Advanced Event Mesh on SAP BTP on AWS Europe

-> Enterprise Blockchain Platform on SAP BTP Kyma Runtine on AWS Europe

-> SAP BTP Advanced Event Mesh on SAP BTP on Azure USA

-> Enterprise Blockchain Platform on SAP BTP Kyma Runtine on Azure USA

-> SAP BTP Advanced Event Mesh on SAP BTP on Google Cloud Platform Asia 

-> Enterprise Blockchain Platform on SAP BTP Kyma Runtine on Google Cloud Platform Asia

SAP Event Driven Blockchain Advanced Event Mesh Multi Cloud Business Continuity Planning atkrypto.io

The picture clearly shows the distributed Regional/Continental resilience of the solution, and the Multi-Cloud resilience of the solution.

Business Continuity Planning Technical Solution Architecture SAP S/4HANA, API's, Enterprise Blockchain Platform

in this option, the SAP S/4HANA is connected to the SAP BTP Cloud Integration running on the SAP BTP. A Periodic Job running on SAP Cloud Integration calls the Business Partner API on SAP S/4HANA and gets the latest Business Partner Data Changes. SAP BTP Cloud Integration then calls an API on the Enterprise Blockchain Platform which is running on the SAP BTP Kyma Runtime Service and puts the new Business Partner Data on to the Enterprise Blockchain.

SAP BTP Cloud Integration (Europe) calls an API on -> S/4HANA on SAP RISE PCE on Azure in Europe 

SAP BTP Cloud Integration then calls an API on the Enterprise Blockchain Platform 

-> Enterprise Blockchain Platform on SAP BTP Kyma Runtine on AWS Europe

-> Enterprise Blockchain Platform on SAP BTP Kyma Runtine on Azure USA

-> Enterprise Blockchain Platform on SAP BTP Kyma Runtine on Google Cloud Platform Asia

SAP API Driven Blockchain Integration Suite Cloud Integration Multi Cloud Business Continuity Planning atkrypto.io

The picture clearly shows the distributed Regional/Continental resilience of the solution, and the Multi-Cloud resilience of the solution.

Wrapping up, the goal of this blog, was to remind us all, that if we happen to have fallen in to the bad habit of trying to find a Use Case for the Blockchain, not to worry, but at the same time, forget doing that, and get back to doing Enterprise IT Architecture the way we always have done and with proven Demand Evaluation Processes which will always lead the Business Demand to the most appropriate Enabling Technology Standard, and therefore, let the Use Case find the Blockchain instead of the Blockchain finding the Use Case.

There are many many Use Cases where Blockchain is the obvious choice for the Enabling Technology Standard. 

In my opinion, Business Continuity Planning, is one of the many, a "no brainer" Use Case, for the Enterprise Blockchain Platform.

Business Continuity Planning is one of my favourite Use Cases for Enterprise Blockchain, it is so simple, so elegant, and everything is done for you. Less than 10 years ago, to achieve the same resilience and security as an Enterprise Blockchain Platform would have required a shopping list of software and procedures, some automated, some human. And this is the beauty of the Blockchain Technology.

This S/4HANA and SAP BTP and Enterprise Blockchain use case is for me, the boiling an egg equivalent of Enterprise Blockchain Database implementations, it is so simple, so elegant, so easy to set up, and so brings out why the Enterprise Blockchain Platform is so special.

Wrapping Up 

To wrap up, a simple reminder, 

The Digital Transformation of Information Security is Enterprise Blockchain

Enterprise Blockchain is the Next Generation Data Integrity, Originality, Confidentiality Protection

Enterprise Blockchain, Enterprise Distributed Ledger Technology is re-imagining information security

If you want the easiest, simplest, most resilient foundation to an Enterprise Business Continuity Planning Solution, just send your S/4HANA Operational Critical Master and Transaction Data to The Enterprise Blockchain. voila.

And ultimately, this is all Why I love SAP and Blockchain Databases and why you should too 🚀.

In the next blogs, week by week I will be blogging Use Cases, the blogs will follow a template where the Business Demand, the Use Case is discussed, the Architecture Demand Process will be followed and the outcome will show, week by week, Use Case by Use Case, why Blockchain is the best Enabling Technology Standard for that Use Case and Demand. The blogs will also describe all of the Solution Architecture Options. 

If you have a Use Case you would like illustrated, let me know in the comments and I will blog the Solution Architecture.

The good news is, as we discussed in the previous blog, this is no longer hype, we can do all of this today, and now, within the SAP Partner Edge Open EcoSystem there are enabling technology Blockchain Products designed and built by SAP Experts specifically for the needs of SAP Customers to make doing Blockchain and SAP easy, and so you can do SAP and Blockchain, today it's real and there's nothing stopping you.

So what are we waiting for ? Oh yeah, more use cases, ok, that will continue in  the next blog  This blog is the sixth in the series, the previous blogs are  here, here, here here and here.

What do you think, are the words Blockchain, Web3, Distributed Ledger Technology, starting to appear in your Company's visions and technology visions ? What use cases are you looking at ? Let's chat about it in the comments.

For now, over and out.

Andy Silvey.

Independent SAP Technical Architect and CEO of atkrypto.io

Author Bio:

Andy Silvey is a 25 years SAP Technology veteran [15 years SAP Basis and 10 years SAP Tech Arch including Tech, Integration, Security, Data from 3.1H to S/4HANA PCE on RISE and the BTP and everything in between, and former SCN Moderator and Mentor alumni].

Andy is also co-Founder of atkrypto inc, an startup whose ambition is to make Blockchain easy for Enterprise.

atkrypto.io's flagship product is the atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP,  and atkrypto.io is a SAP Partner Edge Open EcoSystem Partner. 

The atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP has been designed by SAP Independent Experts for the needs of SAP Customers and to be deployed on the SAP BTP Kyma Runtime Service and leverage native integration to SAP Products.

atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP has a number of unique qualities, including being the only Blockchain software in the world which has a DataCenter version and a light mobile version which can run on Edge/IoT/Mobile devices and enables data to be written to the Blockchain at the Edge where that same Blockchain is running on a Server in the DataCenter, protecting the integrity and originality of data from the Edge to Insights. Taking Blockchain to the Data at the Edge instead of taking the Data to the Blockchain.

All of this makes atkrypto,io the DePIN Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Network solution for Enterprise.