SAP Can't Build Platforms

SAP BTP lacks the platform gene

According to a recent survey by the renowned Munich-based analyst firm PAC, only a quarter of SAP customers are using the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). SAP positions the BTP as a parallel system to S/4. SAP's goal is a standardized S/4 core in preparation for the public cloud, under the motto “keep the core clean”! At the same time, the Business Technology Platform will become the framework for extensions and customization.

The BTP concept is not without controversy, as it introduces another IT construction site into the SAP universe alongside the S/4 system. In addition, BTP cannot be used as a consolidation platform because it is more of a collection of services than a stringent framework like Microsoft Azure. BTP lacks the platform gene. It lacks a consistent data model, end-to-end process organization, harmonized development tools, and more. With Cloud ALM, Signavio, Joule, Datasphere, LeanIX and AI Hub, there are many valuable building blocks in the SAP universe, but they are neither orchestrated nor harmonized—which would be the task of BTP.

Negative SAP platform record

Many years ago, SAP tried its hand at the platform business with NetWeaver middleware. Long-time SAP customers will remember the dual-stack disaster of Abap and Java and the horrendous costs of separating Abap and Java again. SAP NetWeaver also possessed valuable services and features, but it was far from being a consolidated platform.

Many years later, SAP wanted to position its own SQL database Hana as a platform in the IT scene, but no one wanted to begin non-SAP developments on the Hana database platform. As a result, Hana remained the in-memory SQL engine for S/4 and nothing more. Even the fancy names HCP, Hana Cloud Platform, and HEC, Hana Enterprise Cloud, could not convince anyone of SAP's platform concept.

BTP continues this negative tradition. Like NetWeaver, BTP is a conglomerate of interesting and innovative services. But again, it lacks orchestration and consolidation.

BTP future options

If SAP can harmonize and synchronize the many expectations of the Business Technology Platform, BTP could become a central development and data platform for SAP customers. The ingredients are already in the SAP toolbox. Whether SAP CTO Juergen Mueller has the resources to take responsibility for this orchestration of steampunk, cloud ALM, Joule, Hana, Signavio, LeanIX, and Datasphere remains an open question.

At the DSAG Technology Days 2024 in Hamburg, CEO Juergen Mueller announced that BTP will rely on Cloud Foundry. A good decision in terms of the open source community, but also a leap forward: BTP can now say "Bring Your Own Programming Language", but what about Abap and Steampunk; what about RAP and CAP?

Abap can do more

At the SAP TechEd 2023 in Bangalore, India, SAP Chief Technology Officer Juergen Mueller presented a co-pilot for the creation of JavaScript, which does not yet support Abap, but which would be important as a steampunk functionality for BTP. On the sidelines of the Steampunk and BTP Summits 2024 in Heidelberg, participants learned that Microsoft is already working internally with an Abap co-pilot. What now, SAP? Should SAP customers move to the Microsoft Azure platform for RAP? Steampunk and BTP Summits 2024 in Heidelberg, the participants learned that Microsoft is already working internally with an Abap co-pilot. What now, SAP? Should existing SAP customers switch to the Microsoft Azure platform for RAP?