SAP S/4HANA Operation, Maintenance, Hardware, and Software

The primary distinction between the SAP S/4HANA on-premise and cloud editions is that the on-premise editions are operated, maintained, and managed by you, whereas SAP manages the public cloud editions of SAP S/4HANA. Editions for the public cloud are accessible through SaaS operating methods. All SAP S/4HANA Cloud variants are run at several data centers spread across numerous international nations and regions. The distinctions are detailed in the table below.

The hardware is available in a variety of packages for each public cloud edition, based on the quantity of users and the required storage space for the SAP HANA database. The applications are fully deployed when the cloud system is delivered. SAP is in charge of running, watching over, and maintaining the system (implementing improvements and upgrades) for the public cloud editions.

The following maintenance cycle descriptions are current as of this writing:

1) Hotfix collection: Every two weeks, a hotfix collection is put into effect.

2) Release upgrade: The following SAP S/4HANA Cloud release is upgraded every quarter. New features and hotfix collections are included in upgrades.

3) Emergency patch: If necessary, critical fixes are applied as soon as feasible for a particular client system.

Customers can greatly tailor the range of the supported services and the hardware requirements in the managed private cloud. You can select a two-tier or three-tier system landscape for the hardware (public cloud editions have a two-tier system landscape). You can choose between operation services (incident, problem, and change management and application monitoring) and implementation services (requirements analysis, implementation, data migration, go live) among the services offered. Even small elements, like maintenance dates, are under your control in SAP S/4HANA in SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud.

Interfaces for users

The SAP Fiori role-based approach is the primary target UI technology in all SAP S/4HANA variants. As a result, the public cloud editions were created specifically with this target architecture in mind. In some circumstances, public clouds use SAP Fiori in addition to other web-based SAP technologies like Web Dynpro. You can utilize SAP GUI for Windows in addition to web-based UI technologies in the on-premise edition and the private cloud edition (see table below). The SAP S/4HANA simplification list includes SAP GUI-based transactions that can no longer be run on-premises with SAP S/4HANA. In all SAP S/4HANA variants, the SAP Fiori launchpad should serve as the primary access point for end users.

Gradual migration to SAP S/4HANA is possible because conventional user interfaces are still supported.

Functional Scope and Country Versions Supported

The SAP S/4HANA on-premise and public cloud variants are built using the same program code. As a result, the same product developments and data models are accessible. The functional scope, supported nation versions, and choices for personalizing the business processes vary between the editions.

The private cloud edition and the on-premises versions support the same country versions and share the same business features. With the usual SAP localization, the whole functional ERP scope is provided in 64 countries. The Implementation Guide (IMG) still contains all the conventional configuration options that can be used to tailor these SAP S/4HANA editions to your unique needs.

When compared to the functional scope of the on-premise edition, the functional ERP scope offered in the public cloud editions is slightly different. In the public cloud edition, compatibility packages, for instance, are not offered. The best practices material of the public cloud version, which has been installed as preconfigured, forms the basis of the supported functional scope. More than 40 nations are supported by SAP S/4HANA Cloud, together with their localizations and a wide range of languages. Localizations and the functional scope are continuously expanded.

Options for Improving

In essence, all editions of the SAP S/4HANA product family (see below) support the key user enhancement tools and enhancement choices, which are based on SAP Extension Suite (extension services that run on SAP Business Technology Platform). Through ABAP programming, you can make additional changes to SAP S/4HANA Cloud (private option). These modifications enable modification-free upgrades, which can be applied to user exits and Business Add-Ins (BAdIs).

Beyond that, it is potentially even possible to modify SAP objects in on-premise editions, although we don’t advise doing this due to the rising expenses for future release updates.

While the public cloud editions of SAP S/4HANA are delivered via a cloud subscription model with configurable runtimes, the on-premise versions still offer the conventional license and maintenance model (see next table). The number of users, application scope, and hardware packages chosen all affect the subscription model’s actual costs.

Model for SAP S/4HANA Migration

Customers can select either the brownfield strategy or the greenfield option when using SAP S/4HANA on premises. In other words, you can either install a brand-new SAP S/4HANA system or convert an existing SAP ERP system to a SAP S/4HANA system.

There is always a new installation of the system involved in a migration to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. The SAP S/4HANA Cloud business processes are established in accordance with best practices, and the necessary master and document data is uploaded to the cloud platform.