Users Prefer Suite Solutions

There is a growing trend for users to rely on suite or complete solutions from one vendor for SAP Basis automation, rather than multiple individual tools from different vendors. Of course, such a best-of-breed approach has its appeal and can offer benefits, but only if the benefits of a multi-solution approach can be clearly demonstrated. 

The fact is that many users have recently moved to a multi-application suite to automate their SAP Basis operations. And in a relatively short period of time. This is certainly the case for Empirius with the EPOS suite. Previously, they had extensive positive experience with a single automation solution for creating SAP system copies from the same provider. As a rule, the vote for the suite was based on a previous PoC (with proven time/resource savings, both overall and for the individual applications). Basically, the use of a powerful SAP Basis automation suite opens up a bundle of benefits or efficiency advantages, such as secure and more stable SAP systems, time and cost savings in SAP Basis, as well as the promotion of the guiding principle "act instead of react".

It goes without saying that the vendors are constantly innovating and developing, backed by high levels of investment. This applies to all SAP Basis automation applications offered in the suite. In the case of the EPOS suite, the following features are currently available (under a standardized Web GUI): creating SAP system copies, managing SAP security notes, Hana DB updates and release upgrades, certificate management, setting SAP and Hana parameters (as well as Oracle and DB2 parameters), SAP kernel updates, starting and stopping SAP systems according to a certain sequence, compliance parameters, and last but not least, a separate (cross-sectional) reporting application.

What proactive action means in the context of SAP Basis Automation is briefly outlined using the highly relevant topic of "handling and managing SAP security notes". As an example, in the current and further developed version 24.3, the SAP Basis Automation Suite in question contains a so-called "SAP Sec-Notes Collector", which automatically retrieves and collects the latest SAP Security Notes on a practically permanent basis. This is independent of SAP's "patch day". This ensures that no SAP Security Notes are overlooked or ignored. 

Security Notes check 

The SecNotes application then checks the security notes based on the installed SAP components and suggests which security updates should be installed on which systems. It also automatically detects when security certificates are about to expire and offers the option of initiating a certificate renewal process at an early stage. This approach increases SAP security and reduces the time and effort required to manage SAP security advisories, which can be controlled and monitored centrally. 

With version 24.3 of the Empirius suite, further developments and improvements (mostly based on customer input) have been implemented not only in the "SAP SecNotes" application regarding proactive actions, but also in the Hana updates and Hana parameters, SAP kernel update, DB release or update applications, and in the reporting application.

Reporting is particularly important because it collects all the data from an SAP Basis automation suite and uses it to initiate derivations or trigger automation processes (scheduled). What is new in EPOS in this context is that data can now be evaluated selectively. The selected sections can now be saved. This allows regular proactive evaluation of data (or deviations) with just a few clicks. Another new feature is the ability to collect Hana profile and database parameters.

The reporting application can also be used to query compliance parameters, SAP parameters, certificates, OS, SAP and DB information. This means that up-to-date information, including logging changes to SAP system components, is always available with just a few clicks. This also supports the guiding principle of proactive action, including achieving benefits.

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