Adjustment of the Hana release strategy

So far, the last major release has been provided with further bug fixes for three years. This currently applies to SPS12 (Hana 1.0), which was originally only in maintenance until May 2019. In this case, the extension by another two years means planning security until 2021.

But there are also some changes with Hana 2.0. As of SPS02, support will be available for two years after release (previously one year), see graphic below. A Support Package Stack will no longer be available twice a year (April and July), but only once in April.

This change is very convenient for many customers, as many Business Suite products such as ERP EhP7 (2420699), CRM EhP4 (2171335) and SCM EhP4 (2171392) have only recently been released for Hana 2.0.

Others such as SRM and Solution Manager are still waiting for such a release. This means that it is only now (eight months after the release of Hana 2.0 SPS00) that it is possible to start secure upgrade and migration planning for Hana 2.0.

So for Hana 1.0 customers already running such SAP products, there is plenty of time to make the switch, as the then maintenance end date of May 2019 (Hana 1.0) would have been quite a tight schedule for many.

When upgrading from Hana 1.0 to 2.0, it is recommended to take an intermediate step and update to the latest Hana revision in SPS12 beforehand to prevent problems with new functions such as MDC (Multitenant Database Container) conversion. MDC is the new standard since Hana 2.0 SPS01 and thus some will have to rethink the previous operating concept.

Hana on Power

With the release of these products, HoP (Hana on Power) customers can now also breathe a sigh of relief. These were faced with the hurdle of SLES11 (BE = Big Endian) and SLES12 (LE = Little Endian). For the former, only Hana 1.0 was released and the associated maintenance end of SLES11 SP4 on March 31, 2019 or with LTSS (Long Term Support Service) on March 31, 2022.

For the latter (LE), Hana 2.0 was released, but not the necessary SAP products such as SCM and CRM. This means that we will see even more projects on this platform in the future than in the past.