In this blog, I am going to share the list of common questions and answers on SAP BTP. To make it easy, I have categorized it in multiple volumes.
Part 1 — SAP BTP — General Topics [Current Blog]
Part 2— SAP BTP — Application Development, Programming Models and Multitenancy
Part 4 — SAP BTP — DevOps [To be published 21st May ]
Part 5 — SAP BTP — Side by side Extensibility [To be published 28st May ]
This is part 1, where we will explore questions and answers on general topics in SAP BTP.
Note: If you are planning to build expertise in SAP BTP, below resources can be super useful:
Q: Can you explain what is SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)?
Answer:
In January 2021, SAP rebranded what we used to call “SAP Cloud Platform” with the name “SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)”.
SAP BTP is the technical foundation of entire SAP ecosystem and plays a crucial role for all SAP customers and partners.
Let me explain it with a simple example:
Assume you are a developer at an SAP partner or customer (or even inside SAP) and have been given responsibility to build a new cloud solution and extend an existing SAP solution.
To start the project immediately, you need a Platform-as-a-Service which helps you to build and deploy cloud solutions without any local installation. The platform should allow you choose any programming language of your choice.
- Technically, SAP Business Technology Platform can be considered as a Platform-as-as-a-Service.
- SAP BTP provides 3 environments — Cloud Foundry, ABAP and Kyma.
- All these environments give you options to choose any programming language in the world, gives you ready-made platform to build and deploy any cloud solution.
In other words, we can say - If an organizations want to
- build a new cloud solution
- or extend any SAP solution
- with minimal effort, low cost and have faster time to market
- and don’t prefer to spend money and time on things like landscape setup, system installation, configuration, and maintenance.
For any such organization, SAP BTP is an offering from SAP which fulfil all these requirements.
Q: What is an Environment in SAP BTP?
Answer:
In SAP BTP, "environments" refer to the actual platform-as-a-service offering of SAP BTP that enables us to develop, run, and manage our applications and services.
Think of BTP environment as different playgrounds, each designed for specific types of tasks and technologies. They provide a suitable space for different kinds of software development and operations.
Each environment comes equipped with specific tools, technologies, and runtimes that you need to build applications.
Environments are anchored in SAP BTP on subaccount level. Hence from one BTP global account, you can have the flexibility of choosing environment of your choice.
There are 3 environments in SAP BTP – Cloud Foundry, ABAP and Kyma.
There is one more environment in SAP BTP, called Neo, which will be sunset in 2028, subject to terms of customer or partner contracts.
Q: In which scenario or use-case, you will choose Cloud Foundry environment?
OR Explain SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry Environment?
Answer:
Cloud Foundry environment in SAP BTP provides all the tools and services to build modern, cloud-based applications. It's like a place where you can create web and mobile apps using popular programming languages and tools. This environment is great for developers who want to build flexible and scalable software that can run on the internet.
This environment is based on the open-source application platform managed by the Cloud Foundry Foundation. it enables us to develop new business applications and business services, supporting multiple runtimes, programming languages, libraries, and services.
Example use-case: We can use the Cloud Foundry environment to build a web application using Node.js or SAP Cloud Application programming Model, which connects to an SAP HANA database to retrieve and display real-time sales data.
Q: In which scenario, you will choose ABAP environment?
OR Explain SAP BTP, ABAP Environment?
Answer:
In 2018, SAP added ABAP Environment to the SAP BTP, called SAP BTP ABAP Environment or Steampunk. The ABAP Environment provides ABAP Platform as a service on SAP BTP.
ABAP-minded customers and partners can reuse their ABAP skillset to
- Create extensions for ABAP-based products, such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud
- Develop new ABAP-based, cloud applications
- Transform existing ABAP-based custom code or extensions to the cloud.
The ABAP environment:
- is based on the latest ABAP platform cloud release that is also used for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
- supports the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model including SAP Fiori and Core Data Services (CDS).
- can be integrated with other SAP BTP services, such as SAP Destination service, SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition, SAP Workflow Management, and SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe.
Example use-case: You can use the ABAP environment to create custom reports and extensions for SAP S/4HANA, such as a specialized sales order processing application.
Q: In which scenario, you will choose Kyma environment?
OR Explain SAP BTP, Kyma Environment?
The Kyma environment is a fully managed Kubernetes runtime based on the open-source project "Kyma". Kubernetes is the underlying technology that Kyma is built on. Kyma is basically a set of extensions to Kubernetes.
In a nutshell, Kyma combines the power of Kubernetes with a set of best-in-class tools and open-source projects, that empowers developers to develop, run, and operate secure and scalable cloud-native applications.
Major Benefits of SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime
- A fully managed Kubernetes cluster on a hyperscaler of your choice.
- The latest features of Kubernetes and its ecosystem.
- Additional features through Kyma (Serverless, Eventing, Observability, Security, Service Mesh, Application Connectivity, and more).
- Integration with other SAP services and products (for example: SAP BTP (Services), SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, and so on).
Q: Can you provide a brief comparison of all the environments in SAP BTP?
Cloud Foundry Environment
The Cloud Foundry environment allows you to create polyglot cloud applications. Cloud Foundry (CF) is an open-source cloud native platform as a service (PaaS), which comprises a set of specifications and tools around the whole application development lifecycle. This includes application deployment, application lifecycle management, service dependency management, security, and more. For interaction, Cloud Foundry offers a command line interface (CF CLI), which allows for high automation through scripting. You can build your application on open standards with Java, Node.js, and Python build packs provided by SAP. Alternatively, bring other languages with community build packs for PHP, Ruby, or Go.
KYMA Environment
The Kyma environment provides a fully managed Kubernetes runtime based on the open-source project "Kyma". Kubernetes, similar to Cloud Foundry, is an open-source cloud native platform for managing the application lifecycle. In contrast to CF, it has a larger focus on containers, container orchestration, and scalability.
Kyma allows developers to extend SAP solutions with serverless functions and combine them with containerized microservices. You can also use the Kyma environment to deploy microservices or even build full-stack applications.
ABAP Environment
The ABAP environment is mainly targeted at creating extension applications for ABAP-based products, such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, but also lets you develop independent cloud applications. Technically, the ABAP environment is a cloud enabled environment which lives within the Cloud Foundry or the Kyma environment. The ABAP environment is based on the latest ABAP platform cloud release that is also used for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. The software stack contains standard technology components that are familiar from the standalone Application Server ABAP. The ABAP environment supports the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP) including SAP Fiori and Core Data Services (CDS).
Q: What is the underlying cloud infrastructure for SAP BTP?
SAP BTP is built on a multi-cloud foundation that allows users to choose from different infrastructures and runtimes. The services and solutions of SAP BTP are available on multiple cloud infrastructure providers, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud.
Q: Can you explain the concepts of global accounts and subaccounts in SAP BTP?
Answer:
In SAP BTP, global account is the realization of a contract customers make with SAP. A global account is used to manage subaccounts, members, entitlements and quotas. Customers receive entitlements and quotas to use platform resources per global account and then distribute the entitlements and quotas to the subaccount for actual consumption.
Subaccounts let us structure a global account according to the organizations and project’s requirements with regard to members, authorizations, and entitlements.
A global account can contain one or more subaccounts in which we deploy applications, use services, and manage our subscriptions. Subaccounts in a global account are independent from each other.
In the Cloud Foundry environment, the subaccount is further divided into one or more spaces, which is where application development, deployment, and maintenance take place.
Global accounts are region- and environment-independent. Within a global account, you manage all of your subaccounts, which in turn are specific to one region.
Q: What is the relationship among BTP Subaccounts and Cloud foundry org and space?
Answer:
In SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment, an Org represents an organizational account. An Org is further subdivided into spaces , which represent siloed application environments.
When we enable Cloud Foundry environment in a subaccount, the system automatically creates a Cloud Foundry org .
- The subaccount and the org have a 1:1 relationship.
- We can create multiple spaces within that Cloud Foundry org.
Q: What role does Regions play when creating or using a subaccount?
Answer:
In SAP BTP, we can create subaccounts associated to different regions. Each region represents a geographical location (for example, Europe, US East) where applications, data, or services are hosted.
The region assigned to the subaccount doesn't have to be directly related to the user’s location. Users could be located in the United States, for example, but operate their subaccount in Europe.
The selection of a region is dependent on many factors: for example, application performance (response time, latency) can be optimized by selecting a region close to the user.
Q: SAP BTP provides a set of services. Can you explain what exactly “a service” is?
Or What do you mean by “service” in SAP BTP?
Answer:
“Service” is a widely used term in Cloud Computing. In general, a service refers to any kind of technology or capability that is provided over the internet. It's like ordering something online and having it delivered to your doorstep, but instead of physical products, you're getting access to software, computing power, or storage space.
There are generally three main types of services:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - In this case, the cloud provides the hardware, and the operating system, the customers bring and maintain their own runtime and everything else.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) – In this case, the customers get a platform that includes everything you need to develop, run, and manage applications. This can include databases, development tools, and other resources that make it easier to build and deploy software.
SAP BTP can be considered as PaaS. In this case, SAP handles the technological complexities so that you can focus on building extensions and connected solutions.
Software as a Service (SaaS) - In this case, customers pay the subscription fee and get the applications which can be used over the internet. Customers don’t need to install or maintain anything. Examples include email services like Gmail, productivity tools like Google Docs, and business software like SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
Services in SAP BTP
Under SAP BTP umbrella, SAP provides several functionality or capability, which are referred as “SAP BTP services”
For example, “SAP Business Application Studio” is an SAP BTP service, which provides a development environment for building applications and extending SAP solutions.
In SAP Discovery Center, we can find the list of all SAP BTP services.
Q: What do we mean by Hyperscaler?
The word itself is a pretty good indicator. The prefix “hyper” means over or excessive. The word scale refers to size or extent. The companies now being called “hyperscalers” are those massive companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon that are making efforts to not only dominate the public cloud and cloud services industries, but to expand their business into numerous related verticals, as well.
In other words, A hyperscaler is the operator of a data center that offers scalable cloud computing services. The first company to enter this market was Amazon in 2006, with Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon. It holds a market share of around 40%.
The other two big players in this market are Microsoft, with its Azure service (2010), and the Google Cloud Platform (2010). IBM is also a major provider of hyperscale computing solutions.
Q: In the context of SAP BTP, explain what is multi-cloud?
Answer:
SAP’s goal is to open the way for customers and partners to get the benefits of SAP BTP on their cloud infrastructure of choice. SAP BTP is available with well-known hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba Cloud. This ability of BTP, to be deployed with any infrastructure provider is referred as multi-cloud. Multi-cloud gives more flexibility (cloud vendor of choice and larger network of available regions), reliability (use of hyperscaler infrastructures and their capabilities), and agility (broader range of development services and supported development paradigms).
Q: Can you explain the differences among Public Clouds, Private Clouds and Hybrid Clouds?
Answer:
Public Cloud
The public cloud is an offer of a freely accessible provider, which makes its services openly accessible to everyone via the Internet. Webmailer services, or Google Docs, are examples of public cloud offerings, as well as the paid services of Microsoft Office 365 or SAP Business ByDesign.
Private Cloud
For privacy and IT security reasons, organizations often prefer to continue to run their IT services themselves and make them accessible only to their own employees. If these are offered in such a way that the end user in the enterprise can take advantage of cloud-typical added value, such as a scalable IT infrastructure or installation, and maintenance-free IT applications that can be used via the web browser, then it is called a private cloud. Often, however, these additional values are not achieved, or only partially achieved, in so-called IT infrastructures.
Hybrid Clouds
Hybrid clouds are called hybrid forms of these two approaches. For example, certain services at public providers run over the Internet, while data-critical applications and data are operated and processed in the enterprise. The challenge here lies in the separation of business processes into data protection critical and non-critical workflows. The prerequisite is a clean and consistent classification of the data available and processed in the company.
Q: What is the difference between Pay-As-You-Go commercial model and Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement (CPEA) commercial model?
Answer:
Pay-As-You-Go
This commercial model lets you sign up to start using cloud services in your production environment with no upfront cost, no minimum usage requirements, and no financial commitments. Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) for SAP BTP helps you start small and grow without constraints. You can easily start with this commercial model through the SAP Store.
- Pay-As-You-Go for SAP BTP allows you to build applications in your production environment and pay only for what you use
- With no minimum usage requirements, you can avoid over-provisioning
CPEA
Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement (CPEA) is a commercial model that allows for the consumption of cloud credits based on actual usage. These cloud credits get paid upfront like a pre-paid model.
- Get access to all services available under CPEA and configure them in your global account with just one contract. This includes new features or innovations available after the contract signing date
- Consume services based on project requirements, without having to change your contract, and only get charged for what is used
Q: Can you elaborate the services and solutions provided under SAP BTP?
Answer:
SAP BTP services and solutions can be broadly categorized in 5 pillars, which are:
- Application Development
- Automation
- Integration
- Data and Analytics
- AI
Q: Can you explain how SAP BTP is different from SAP Cloud Platform?
OR Explain how and why SAP Cloud Platform was rebranded to SAP BTP?
Answer:
SAP Cloud Platform was SAP’s earlier PaaS offering. In 2021, SAP Cloud Platform brand was officially retired to support SAP’s One Platform Strategy. SAP BTP was introduced as new brand name. SAP BTP provides extended functionality; however, the core is still equivalent to what is formerly known as SAP Cloud Platform.
SAP BTP is not a 1:1 replacement of SAP Cloud Platform. SAP Cloud Platform makes up only the application development and integration pillar of SAP BTP.
Why was “SAP Cloud Platform” rebranded to “SAP Business Technology Platform”?
SAP Cloud Platform was originally focused on providing cloud-based services for businesses. However, as time went on, SAP realized that their platform was offering more than just cloud services. It also included technologies for application development, integration, analytics, and more.
To better represent the broader range of offerings and show that it's not just about the cloud, SAP decided to rebrand their platform as SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).
This new name helps customers understand that the platform is not limited to the cloud but also includes various technologies to help businesses with their overall technology needs.
To summarize, SAP rebranded SAP Cloud Platform to SAP BTP to better reflect that it's not just about cloud services anymore. It's a comprehensive platform that provides various tools and services for businesses to build, integrate, and run all kinds of digital solutions, like mobile apps, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and more.
Q: What is SAP BTP Cockpit?
Answer:
SAP BTP Cockpit is the web-based tool provided under SAP BTP offering to perform development and administration activities. It is used for activities like:
- Managing and configuring sub-accounts
- Managing and configuring applications.
- Managing and configuring services
SAP BTP Cockpit also provides tools for monitoring BTP applications and services.
Q: Is there any other option to manage and administer SAP BTP accounts apart from BTP cockpit?
Answer:
We can also use SAP BTP CLI, a command line interface for managing the SAP BTP accounts.
The btp CLI is an alternative to the cockpit for users who prefer working on the command line. It consists of a client and a server. The client is installed on your computer and it interacts with SAP BTP through a server. You connect to this CLI server (https://cli.btp.cloud.sap/) when you log on to your global account through the btp CLI.
The base call to enter on the command line is btp. We can do the tasks like creating subaccounts and directories, managing entitlements of global accounts and subaccounts, managing users and their authorizations in global accounts and subaccounts, subscribing to applications etc.
Q: What are the advantages of using SAP BTP over other cloud platforms like AWS, Azure or GCP?
Answer:
There are several advantages of using SAP BTP over other cloud platforms. First, it is designed specifically for SAP enterprise applications, so it has all the features and tools that businesses need to run their operations smoothly. SAP BTP is highly scalable and can be easily adapted to changing business needs. It also offers a high degree of security and reliability, which are essential for businesses that handle sensitive data.
Q: Have you used SAP Discovery Center? If yes, for which purpose?
Answer:
SAP Discovery Center is one stop shop to get the list of SAP BTP services, their details, various missions on SAP BTP and many more. It also provides different architecture patterns which can be implemented using SAP Business Technology Platform services.
In Discovery Center mission, we can find all the pieces of puzzles solved together, for example list of all the services required to integrate SAP S/4HANA with SAP BTP, complete bill of materials for customer, sample architecture diagrams, step-by-step guide on how to implement the solution etc.
If I have missed any important question, please let me know in comment.
Happy Learning!
Next Blog
Part 2 — SAP BTP — Application Development, Programming Models
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