The end of SoH

Based on the current SAP service note, there can be no Business Suite on Hana, i.e. SoH, from 2025! In the SAP service note 1648480 (the PDF document is available to E-3 Magazine), the end of support for the Abap stack of NetWeaver 7.5 is specified as 2025. For the Java stack of NW 7.5, the end is already 2024.

The bad news: SAP Business Suite 7 naturally needs NetWeaver as its "runtime system". The good news is that the SAP service note only discontinues the system we know today.

SAP may continue the NetWeaver Abap stack with an increased maintenance fee or there may be "extended maintenance". For the time being, the end of maintenance for NetWeaver 7.5 only relates to maintenance with the 18 percent fee.

Perhaps SAP will increase the maintenance fee to 25 percent and keep NetWeaver 7.5 alive. There could also be alternatives for Oracle's Java and thus also a replacement for the NetWeaver Oracle Java stack.

At the annual congress in Nuremberg, we asked DSAG boss Marco Lenck whether the members are sufficiently informed about the end of maintenance? However, DSAG boss Marco Lenck's statement is certainly not true:

"The Business Suite will continue to run with NetWeaver 7.5 even after 2025."

Technically speaking, Lenck is of course right, because the essential NetWeaver 7.5 will not disappear into thin air on January 1, 2025. But what Marco Lenck overlooks: For existing SAP customers, an operationally running system is only half the battle.

SoH users also need legal certainty regarding their licenses, maintenance, support and legal changes, etc. The SAP service note has put an end to this for the time being, even if, as Marco Lenck said at the DSAG press conference, the systems are naturally moving forward in purely technical terms. (pmf)