The bleak reality of SAP customers: Considering the most recent roadmaps, there will be no Business Suite on Hana (SoH) after 2025!
What happened? The SAP service note 1648480 (only accessible with SAP Marketplace account) dates the end of support for the NetWeaver 7.5 Abap stack to 2025. For NetWeaver’s Java stack, the end is coming one year earlier, courtesy of Hasso Plattner and his competitiveness with Oracle and Larry Ellison.
The bad news: SAP Business Suite 7 needs NetWeaver as run-time system. The good news: The SAP service note only predicts the end of the system we know now. Maybe SAP continues to operate the NetWeaver Abap stack with higher maintenance fees or it extends maintenance. There might even be alternatives to Oracle’s Java and therefore the NetWeaver Oracle Java stack.
What does that mean for NetWeaver?
However, what absolutely won’t work is what Chairman of the DSAG Board Marco Lenck said in response to the question of what will happen to SoH after 2025. “Business Suite with NetWeaver 7.5 will also continue to operate after 2025.”
SAP itself echos this statement, saying, “Customers using Business Suite 7 or Business Suite on Hana and corresponding solutions do not lose their licenses in 2025. SAP will make an official statement in due time on what will happen after 2025.”
Technologically speaking, Marco Lenck and SAP are right – NetWeaver 7.5 won’t just magically disappear after 2025. What they haven’t mentioned, however, is that for SAP customers, an operational system is only part of their requirements. SoH users also need legal certainty regarding licenses, maintenance, support, legal changes, and much more.
This is what I mean when I say there will be no Business Suite on Hana after 2025. Of course the SoH system and the NetWeaver stack will technically still be operable, just like Lenck and SAP said, but the SAP service note made it clear that every other aspect, be it licensing or maintenance, is still up in the air.
Add Comment