Our take-aways from the SAP TechEd 2021 Executive Keynote from a developer perspective
On November 16th, the SAP TechEd 2021 Executive Keynote was presented by the
SAP Chief Technology Officer and Executive Board Member Juergen Mueller. We want
to provide you with our key take-aways from this Keynote.
Challenges
Three challenges:
Pandemic: Global health and economic crisis - think about the chip shortage and product delays. Also supply chain disruptions due to shipping container shortages.
Digitalization and Climate change - rethink how we make products, consume, handle waste ...
Equality: Inequality of opportunities and technology talent gap.
Rise with SAP
The place to innovate at scale and to build resiliency is in the cloud. Earlier this year
SAP launched the "Rise with SAP" offering to provide a transition path into the cloud
with S/4HANA at the center.
S/4HANA is *the* ERP solution with SAP going forward, extensions and integrations will
happen with the SAP Business Technology Platform in order to keep the core clean.
Embedded Steampunk
Currently we can expand SAP S/4HANA Cloud with either low code/no code key user
extensions as well as with rich side-by-side extensions in SAP BTP. But there was
something missing in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud from a developer perspective: you could
not create tightly coupled S/4HANA extensions in a managed system. Sometimes you
want to create/develop your own extensions directly in the S/4HANA system, but you also
want to keep the core clean.
This last gap in functionality between an on-premise system and SAP
S/4HANA Cloud is now closed by means of the release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP
Environment (Embedded Steampunk). This provides a cloud-ready ABAP
environment directly in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system based on the SAP BTP ABAP
Environment.
This is now available in the public cloud for selected customers using Rise with SAP with the S/4HANA Cloud 2108 Edition.
How do you keep the core clean?
You can only use the local S/4HANA CDS views
You can only use the released public RAP (ABAP Restful Application Programming Model) API's.
No modifications of SAP code are allowed
In Embedded Steampunk, it will no longer be possible to build new Dynpro and Web-Dynpro applications, rather only creating Fiori and services.
SAP Free Tier Model for SAP Business Technology Platform
There was already a Free Tier model for existing customers and partners, but since
SAP TechEd 2021 there is now a Free Tier Model for individual developers and makers.
In this free tier model, all developers/makers can now start developing their applications
and proof-of-concepts with services from the SAP Business Technology Platform without
having to pay a license in advance.
In the Free Tier model you can already use the free tier services, while following this TechEd SAP made some additional services available too:
SAP Integration Suite
SAP HANA Cloud
From a development standpoint this is a game-changer. You as a customer or a
developer can now create a proof-of-concept on SAP BTP without any commitment.
When you want to move the application towards a productive usage, you can now
simply change the service plan. This really simplifies the process from having an idea,
trying it out with a proof-of-concept and putting the final solution into production. So in
short: a faster and easier innovation cycle.
How can you get started with the Free Tier?
Read the following blog post to get started with the free tier model for SAP BTP: https://blogs.sap.com/2021/11/16/realize-value-with-sap-business -technologyplatform-using-the-sap-discovery-center-and-leverage-the-free-tier-model/
Visit the SAP Discovery Center at https://discovery-center.cloud.sap/ to have a clear overview of the services that are available on the free tier model as well as missions and examples/use cases for SAP BTP.
Low-Code/No-Code solutions
Another big topic in the Keynote was that SAP wants everybody to be able to create
applications, doing so by providing low code and no code solutions. Therefore, you don't
have to be a pro developer to create applications. Also citizen developer (persons
without development knowledge) can easily create applications. SAP now offers a
unified low-code/no-code experience on SAP BTP.
What is in it for you?
SAP AppGyver for No-Code development
SAP Business Application Studio now has perspectives for Low-code development
A preview of the no-code automation solution SAP Process Automation, which is based on the capabilities of Robotic Process Automation and Workflow tools, is released
With this Low-code/No-code offering, SAP hopes to bridge the gap between the
professional developers and the citizen developers. From our perspective, this is really a
great step forward, as it enables more opportunities for customers to innovate seeing as
more people will havenow the toolset to create applications. Every person will now
have the right tools in their toolchain to make their idea a reality.
Learning solutions
To close the gap in inequality SAP now offers free learning solutions on
https://learning.sap.com/ which you can use to prepare yourself for your SAP
certifications. No more spending big bucks on trainings, but all this is for free (as it should
be).
The following learning journeys are already available:
Low-Code / No-Code Applications and Automations for Citizen Developers
SAP TechEd 2021 - Keynote 5
Developing with SAP Extension Suite
Modeling in SAP HANA Cloud
Developing Applications Running on SAP BTP using SAP HANA Cloud
Introducing SAP Analytics Cloud
Provisioning and Administration with SAP HANA Cloud
Developing with SAP Integration Suite
We at Canguru are big fans of this new switch by SAP as it enables so many people
to dip their toes into the SAP ecosystem. We are strong believers that education
should be available for everyone.
Moving forward
We are happy with the direction SAP is going and are looking forward to grow with them in this direction. If you have more questions, don't hesitate to contact us. Our experts are eager to help you.