The SolMan from the Cloud?

SAP Solution Manager (SolMan) is the proven on-premises suite for centralized and integrated application lifecycle management (ALM) of the SAP system landscape (SAP ERP or S/4). The ALM solution, which is touted by SAP as a single source of truth, offers a variety of scenarios that support the lifecycle of the SAP application landscape. 

SAP Cloud ALM is another ALM solution that has been available for some time and is often regarded as the successor to SolMan. But it is not, because this solution would have to offer just as comprehensive a range of functions as SolMan. At present, it is primarily suitable for companies that exclusively use cloud solutions from SAP (S/4 Hana Cloud, SuccessFactors or the SAP CX portfolio). Unlike SolMan, however, SAP Cloud ALM can be put into operation quickly and delivers initial monitoring data just a few hours after implementation. 

The means of choice

However, SAP Cloud ALM cannot be used as a central, strategic ALM solution. It does not even enable lifecycle management of Business Suite, ERP and non-SAP applications, and also lacks functions for IT service management (ITSM). 

SAP Cloud ALM becomes the tool of choice under the following conditions: No other monitoring tool is in use, infrastructure and system monitoring is not required, and the built-in integration with ServiceNow's ITSM solution can be used. In practice, this only applies to a few companies. 

The integration of a third-party ticketing tool such as ServiceNow is necessary because the individual ALM tools are used in the overall context of corporate IT, which usually consists of SAP and non-SAP software. The integration of such solutions prevents the creation of data silos and enables end-to-end reporting and automated support processes - a major advantage in times of IT skills shortages. Disadvantage: With ServiceNow - in contradiction to the "single source of truth" concept - an additional ALM tool is used, for which license costs are incurred at the same time. 

However, it is not advisable to do without integration and send monitoring alerts to the e-mail inbox instead. This is because the support employee first has to log into Outlook and then manually process each alert in a time-consuming process - goodbye, single source of truth. This can lead to delays, which can cause a small "fire" such as a performance problem to spread to a "conflagration", in the worst case to a failure of the SAP systems. 

After 2027

Even with the SolMan, all that glitters is not gold. As of today, mainstream maintenance expires at the end of 2027. SAP customers who already use this ALM suite or are planning to use it are rightly asking themselves what will happen after that. Will they have to pay licensing costs? At present, SAP is also no longer planning a new release for SolMan (current version 7.2 with SPS 14) and thus no further development; customers will have to make do with SPS update packages. 

All of this creates a great deal of uncertainty. SAP customers are therefore advised to seek the support of a partner who has experience and the necessary know-how regarding the use of SolMan as well as SAP Cloud ALM. He can provide them with competent advice on selecting the SAP ALM tool best suited to their requirements, so that they can benefit from this investment for quite a long time.