Countdown to the End: SAP Solution Manager Maintenance will be discontinued by 2027!

Welcome back to another Cloud ALM Blog! Today we're going to dive into the details of the upcoming end of maintenance for SAP Solution Manager, and what this means for your transition to Cloud ALM.

In the ever-evolving landscape of enterprise solutions, SAP Cloud ALM emerges as a comprehensive platform designed to empower SAP customers, and with this the countdown for SAP Solution Manager ticks toward the transition deadline. Therefore, strategic planning is a key component to set start your transition well before this deadline. While SAP Cloud ALM is available for operational and implementation areas, transitioning requires a deep understanding and consideration of available functionalities.

Each organisation's journey is unique, requiring a thorough comprehension of what is suitable for your specific circumstances. Also, it is essential to define the relevance within your SAP Solution Manager and align it with SAP Cloud ALM. Crafting a strategy involves identifying current practices, facilitating seamless transition planning.

One of our recommendation is to exploring the SAP Cloud ALM functionalities, which is already offering plenty of benefits:

• Streamlining update efforts as SAP will keep the platform updated by you every 2 weeks, in comparison with an on-premise approach, where customers run updates every year in average.

• Enhancing usability and setup simplicity as the functionalities offered by SAP Cloud ALM are cloud-native designed, meaning they are way easier to use.

• Simplifying monitoring processes (agentless) so you don't need to worry about installing agent on the technical managed systems.

• Integrating seamlessly with SAP Service Delivery, as there is direct support and interaction with a single point of contact with SAP.

• Ideal for various cloud-based and hybrid solutions (e.g., S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, and more).

From an implementation standpoint, the approach slightly varies, so bear in mind some considerations, such as:

• Completing the migration to SAP S/4HANA (if not already initiated via SAP Solution Manager).

• Immediate availability of functionalities like Test Management, change and Deployment Management, and Solution Documentation.

• Integration capabilities with Focused Run, serving as a valuable resource for advanced operational use cases.

It is important to note that the SAP Cloud ALM roadmap won't mirror SAP Solution Manager's feature set entirely. Some functionalities may be available through third-party tools like ITSM,  Business Process Orchestration (using SAP Signavio as the main driver), Test Automation (Tricentis), and many more. While key areas like Integration, Monitoring, Test Management, or Process Management are currently accessible within SAP Cloud ALM, there are certain platforms like JAVA Stacks, BO, or Non-HANA Databases that won't receive support.

If your decision falls on staying with SAP Solution Manager because of the level of maturity of this product, especially when adding add-on software like SAP Focused Build to run your S4 transformation, we would recommend continuing this journey with this product as soon as the whole deployment can be ready in the next 2 years (before the maintenance for SAP Solution Manager comes to an end).

Similarly, you need to prepare for running a transition to SAP Cloud ALM beforehand, we're happy to assist and are offering a FREE Readiness Check, this report will give you a full breakdown of the functionalities you rely on, and where they're up to in the Cloud ALM Roadmap.

Notice that patience might be necessary in certain cases, similarly, if you think that the whole transition is becoming overwhelming do not hesitate to contact us as we are always happy to guide you through this process.

Stay tuned for part 2 as we will give you some recommendations for a smooth transition to SAP Cloud ALM.