HCP: Linux, OpenStack and Cloud Foundry are set

The impression that the majority of the SAP community has embraced S/4 Hana as the successor to the Business Suite could be seen at this year's DSAG-Annual Congress win. This is not necessarily because of the customer or installation figures cited by SAP. Rather, it is because there has been a noticeable increase in awareness of the need to implement the S/4 migration sooner rather than later. Perhaps also because the realization has matured that digitization projects without new technological IT foundations have feet of clay.

Also, the awareness of SAP users towards the Hana Cloud Platform (HCP) as a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service)-Cloud-solution including in-memory technology has increased. With HCP, a platform is available with which (Web)Applications and solutions can be developed, deployed and delivered easily, cost-effectively and quickly.

These can be extension or add-on solutions up to customer/industry-specific add-ons, but also completely new solutions for digitalization/business transformation or for the IoT.Insert Trade included Big Data (with Hadoop usage). At the same time, the HCP stands for the integration of Applications and data, for example from Cloud- and on-premiseApps.

As basic technological elements play Open Source-solutions and open standards for SAP play an important role: Linux in connection with the Hana–Insert general, OpenStack at Cloud–IaaS-(Infrastructure as a Service) environment and Clound Foundry for PaaS or HCP.

In addition, there is Hadoop when it comes to Big Data scenarios. Therefore, by the way, the SAP acquisition of the company Altiscale for the Cloud-Deployment of Hadoop services via HCP. Specifically Cloud-Foundry as a quasi-foundation for an open source PaaS-.Insert is currently experiencing a boost, as can also be seen at the Cloud Foundry Summit in Frankfurt. The number of members of the Foundation has now risen to 65 (in addition to user groups, contributors and core committers).

But not only that. Well-known companies like VW, Alliance or Bosch use Cloud Foundry for own development or as PaaS-Cloud-Base. The OpenStack Foundation certifies the various PaaS solutions of the Cloud-Foundry members. This ensures that Cloud-platforms are compatible and consistent with each other on the basis of a uniform and open standard.

Suse acts in practically all known Open Source Foundations actively with. Both with Linux as well as with OpenStack and Cloud Foundry, there is close partnering between Suse and SAP.

The focus is on the use of the OpenStack Cloud Provider Interfaces BOSH OpenStack CPI. It provides the communication between Cloud Foundry and the underlying OpenStack-infrastructure securely. And this in a simple way and automated.

Cloud Foundry Dojo

In the new SAP training center "Cloud Foundry Dojo" in Walldorfwhich opened in September, Suse and SAP are also working together. Dojo serves as a center of excellence for developer knowledge exchange and is also a program for Developer. This also includes instructions for changing developer workflows in order to achieve rapid access to Open Source-projects.

At the same time it supports Developer active to act as so-called committers in Cloud-Foundry projects or to be able to realize them. And also in such projects that, for example, can be realized with the Hana Cloud Platform Starter Edition for Cloud Foundry Services were created. It has been available since the Sapphire Now customer event in May.

The guideline in terms of HCP and Cloud Foundry is clear: applicationApps develop, test, roll out and use flexibly and, above all, quickly according to business needs, as Cloud- or on-premise solutions - also or especially against the background of digitization.