As technical architect, I am often asked about the latest news in the technical area of SAP S/4HANA. In these 3 blog posts I would like to review the main changes and innovations that SAP have introduced in the last years to explain the evolution SAP Netweaver platform towards the new ABAP platform from a technical perspective.
I have divided the content in 3 blog posts:
- ABAP Platform – Part 1 – Evolution from SAP Netweaver
- ABAP Platform – Part 2 – New programming models
- ABAP Platform – Part 3 – what’s new for the basis administrators
PART 1 – Evolution from SAP Netweaver platform
The SAP kernel is the core component of any SAP system. It consists of the executable files that run on the server to handle connections to the system and execute the SAP programs.
The development of the SAP kernel started in 1988, although SAP R/3 was officially launched in 1992. The SAP kernel has been the foundation for almost all SAP products in the last 30 years.
Over the years, the kernel and the basis layer evolved. Adding support for more databases and operating systems but also adding more functionality.
One of the first important changes were done in 2002 with SAP R/3 4.7 and the inclusion of the SAP Web Application Server. It was the .COM era and SAP Kernel was extended with the Internet Communication Manager (ICM) and Internet Transaction Server (ITS) to be able to manage HTTP connections and provide support for XML, BSP and JAVA.
SAP NetWeaver was released in 2004 as a technology stack that allowed organizations to integrate data, business processes, elements and more from a variety of sources into unified SAP environments using a common technology platform. For the last 16 years, SAP NetWeaver has been the technical foundation for the SAP applications.
Evolution of the SAP Basis and SAP Netweaver
In 2008, SAP released the SAP Business ByDesign, the first SaaS product developed by SAP. After 20 years, a major renovation was needed as the SAP R/3 Kernel code was huge and complex, so a new kernel was developed, new ideas and improvements were implemented. Internally at SAP this new kernel was called Kernel 8.x and the project was called NGAP Next Generation Platform.
Obviously, SAP HANA deserves a special mention in the evolution and modernization of the SAP products. Although SAP HANA was officially launched in 2011, the first SAP ERP 6.0 version compatible with SAP HANA was launched in 2014 based on SAP Netweaver 7.40 SP02. Many new ideas and improvements implemented in the SAP Kernel 8.x were down ported to the SAP kernel 7.x line together with all the HANA and FIORI specific innovations.
SAP offers “innovation without disruption”, so the idea has been always to introduce new functionality but maintain as much as possible the backward compatibility to let customers adopt the technical (and business) innovations at their own pace.
If you have a look at the architecture of the SAP Business Suite and the underlying SAP Netweaver platform, you can see a perfect example of this “innovation without disruption” approach that makes SAP technology a solid platform to run complex business software. For more than 15 years, the evolution of the SAP Netweaver platform offered a solid foundation to adopt new technical innovations to our SAP Business Suite customers:
SAP Netweaver – Kernels
As you know, support for SAP Business Suite will end in 2030. SAP offers SAP S/4HANA as the evolution of the SAP Business Suite products and customers need a new technology platform to run their business.
Although SAP S/4HANA 1511, 1610 and 1709 were S/4HANA systems, these 3 versions were developed on top of the existing SAP Netweaver platform, the same SAP Netweaver that was the foundation for the SAP Business Suite since 2004.
SAP Netweaver version 7.50, 7.51 and 7.52 can be considered as a transition platform. These 3 SAP Netweaver versions are still compatible with the “old” SAP Business Suite products but also are the technical foundation of the first S/4HANA Releases:
Evolution of SAP Netweaver towards ABAP Platform
SAP Netweaver 7.52 is the last version of SAP Netweaver, currently SAP has no plans to deliver additional SAP Netweaver versions although the existing Netweaver platform will be maintained until the end of 2030 as part of the SAP Business Suite end of maintenance policy.
Don’t get me wrong, the SAP Netweaver versions used as the foundation for S/4HANA 1511, 1610 and 1709 had many technical innovations and there has been also modernization of key components like the new Enqueue Server (ENSA2), support for HTTP/2 protocol and many internal changes to keep SAP as a modern platform to run your business. But the idea was to keep the compatibly as much as possible and allow a gradual transition for our customers:
Evolution of SAP Netweaver towards ABAP Platform – Full stack view
With SAP S/4HANA 1809 there is a big change, S/4HANA 1809 runs on top of the new ABAP Platform and it’s based in a new Kernel line (Kernel 7.7x) breaking the compatibility with the old SAP Netweaver systems.
Want to know more about the stack changes in 2020? Have a look to Roland Krammer’s blog post: Upgrade to S/4HANA 2020 – Time to change
In my next 2 blog posts I will discuss in detail what are the main changes introduced by the ABAP platform in 2 diferent areas: programming and basis
- ABAP Platform – Part 2 – New programming models
- ABAP Platform – Part 3 – what’s new for the basis administrators
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