Who is going to pay for it?
SAP Business Suite is not an island. Whether everyone at SAP is aware of this truism is highly doubtful. Retraining: To operate an SAP ERP system, you need hardware, an operating system, the NetWeaver stack with Abap and Java, and only then the ERP core ECC 6.0 or SAP Business Suite 7.
Now, at the beginning of February, SAP announced the availability of SAP Business Suite 7 with AnyDB until 2030 - a financial Armageddon! This fortunate circumstance for the SAP community is thanks to DSAG board member Andreas Oczko.
From SAP's point of view, it currently seems to me to be the beginning of the end. Who is going to pay the costs for the database licenses, Java license and provision of the maintenance infrastructure in the five additional years from 2025 to 2030?
At the beginning of the discussion, there was the consideration of leaving SoH in maintenance until 2030. This step would also have caused additional costs, but nowhere near the level of the current solution.
SAP Business Suite on Hana (SoH) results in a simplified ERP infrastructure of Intel or IBM power servers with a Linux operating system from Red Hat or Suse. Only the Abap and Java application server (AS) from the NetWeaver stack would have had to be additionally included in the maintenance.
An ERP/ECC 6.0 with AnyDB was the maximum demand of DSAG board member Andreas Oczko and is now the maximum collateral damage of SAP. Who is going to pay for it?
Now, the entire known ECC-AnyDB-Abap-Java infrastructure must be kept alive until 2030 in order to provide appropriate care to existing SAP customers.
Not only does SAP have to maintain this comprehensive and complex infrastructure for five years longer, but the necessary personnel must also be kept on hand.
SAP has just said goodbye to thousands of "old" employees with ERP/ECC and Abap know-how, and immediately afterwards there was the announcement that SAP now needs precisely this ERP knowledge for five years longer.
AnyDB is the horror of SAP. It is a historical development, so SAP Business Suite 7 can run on many different operating systems and databases.
One man's joy, another man's sorrow: SAP existing customers can also obtain favorable database runtime licenses from IBM, Microsoft and Oracle for their ERP licenses. It was planned that these licenses would be terminated by 2025.
SAP's promise to deliver Business Suite 7 with AnyDB by 2030 means that the contracts between SAP and the database vendors must also be extended. Currently, there is a green light from IBM and Microsoft to continue as before in harmonious partnership with SAP until 2030.
SAP does not seem to have reached an agreement with Oracle alone - after all, a lot of money is at stake! But the Oracle solution will be decisive, since more than half of all existing Suite 7 customers work on this database.
SAP will probably spend a great deal of money to continue maintaining the Abap and Java stack for Business Suite 7. SAP could face massive staffing problems in the Abap area over the next ten years.
For Java, the job market looks much better and more relaxed, but here high license payments will probably be due to Oracle. The original plan was to end the NetWeaver Java stack in 2023. Now SAP guaranteed the availability of AS Abap and AS Java until 2030 - respect!
There is still no explanation from co-CEOs Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein or CFO Luka Mucic as to how these high additional costs will impact SAP's earnings from 2026 to 2030.
Even a proud owner of some SAP shares, I am also surprised by the passivity of the financial analysts, stock market and business media - maybe I missed something?
I fear that in the end the additional costs will be passed on to us existing SAP customers through hidden price increases. SAP's PKL leaves a lot of room for this!
