SAP Cloud Platform - Review 2022

SAP Deject Platform (which begins at $483 per month) is SAP's Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) with an in-retentiveness database and a variety of application services. If you have even a passing knowledge of Large Data, so you know about SAP HANA, a stellar relational database management system (RDBMS) with an in-memory database and existent-time analytics. It processes information stored in random admission memory (RAM) instead of on a deejay. So, information technology was with keen interest that I took SAP Cloud Platform for a test drive. For this review, I used the Free Programmer Edition, which can also exist used to access other SAP platforms, too, including SAP.com, SAP Community Network, and SAP Cloud apps. Although SAP Deject Platform is a strong offering that earns points for its integration with HANA, overall it trailed behind Editors' Choice winners Microsoft Azure SQL Database and MongoDB Atlas in our DBaaS solutions review roundup.

As of this writing, SAP was cautioning users that European union (EU) access is not possible in the Cloud Foundry surround. The alarm did not use to the Neo environment. I suspect this was due to the adjustments all DBaaS vendors were making to aid users be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but I have not nevertheless verified that assumption.

Those exception notices aside, I institute SAP Cloud Platform to be a powerful service, which is no surprise given it is HANA-driven. But it is besides better suited to large enterprises working with massive data sets—too not a surprise given the company's Big Data roots. Only none of that is to say that SAP is all the same bound to the HANA utility. It has added a spread of functionalities and features to its cloud platform beyond that originally defining factor.

While it is simpler to utilise than Hadoop (everything is simpler than Hadoop) and has a simpler user interface (UI) than many of its DBaaS peers, the platform is still maturing, and its dual environments for developers is a bit disruptive and potentially restrictive. For those reasons, nosotros requite information technology a 3.5 Editors' Rating.

Pricing Model

Paid packages for HANA DBaaS come in subscription and usage models. In either scenario, you'll be required to pay upwardly forepart. The plus side of the SAP pricing models: no contortions are needed to make it at the price. Starter subscription packages begin at $483 per month, and Enterprise packages get-go at $1,749 per month. Use case pricing scenarios simplify price estimates for the usage model. SAP as well offers a free trial offering.

SAP Base Edition on the Cloud Platform is similar to SAP HANA Standard Edition on-premises, while SAP HANA Platform Edition on the Cloud is comparable to SAP HANA Enterprise Edition on-premises. SAP was in the procedure of making some improvements when I did this review, and so you may notice some differences later on in the processes I describe and charge per unit here. One case is SAP'due south announcement that users will soon be able to access all of their global accounts from the dwelling house page without first navigating through regions and environments. SAP also announced that users will soon exist able to create subaccounts in any region or environment. Neither of those features existed at the time of the review.

SAP Cloud Platform - Cloud Foundry Trial

Step by Step

Outset, become to the SAP Cloud Platform website and click either the Complimentary Programmer Edition at the top right of the page or scroll downwardly to the Pricing & Packaging link, which will lead y'all to signing on for 1 of those options. Once signed in to the Free Developer Edition, the timer volition elapse also fast. I found it inconvenient to take to sign in once again after whatsoever interruption that took longer than a sneeze. I must have signed on once again eleventy-seven times. Alas, mine is a decorated office and the re-sign-in is simply a small bedevilment.

Information migration options are to install a new organisation on SAP HANA, migrate a traditional database to SAP HANA, or apply the DMO tool to upgrade and migrate the data in one step. In curt, you lot're probably better off soliciting the help of your DBA from the get-go.

In one case on the Cloud Platform, click "Data and Storage" and cull the database direction systems service yous want to utilise. Follow the prompts to provision the database. The Costless Programmer Edition will guide y'all through the database spinup, tools, and services. I wouldn't call information technology simple merely it isn't overly difficult for the average programmer to use.

In the paid editions, yous'll cull from two versions of HANA: Standard and Avant-garde Enterprise. The Standard version has most of the cadre database features, only the Advanced Enterprise version has a lot of cool extras, such every bit the ability to layer a graph over a table without having to move annihilation. Since the computing is done in-memory, everything'south very fast.

Integration in any cloud is however a challenging exercise, but SAP has a chip of a leg up on that past virtue of how securely entwined HANA is with large enterprises. Many companies that would exist interested in this DBaaS are probably already using SAP products or services.

The Toolbox

SAP Development tools include ABAP for SAP NetWeaver, BW modeling tools, a variety of Java-based cloud platform tools, cloud integration tools, HANA tools, identity direction (IdM), and mobile tools, plus a UI development toolkit for HTML5.

If you don't desire to slog through the list, so choose the Starter Edition where everything you need is already arranged for yous. SAP has ii development environments and both are bachelor in several regions. SAP lonely provides 12 regions in the Neo environment. Several providers offer the six regions in the Cloud Foundry surround, and some are third party, namely, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

The SAP Ops team provides backup and restore for HANA, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL (aka Postgres)services. The list of available backups for each service case is found nether "Backups" under the corresponding service, such as MongoDB. Backups are done once daily for managed plans of MongoDB and PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL on SAP Cloud likewise backs up in two-hour increments, but incremental backups for MongoDB are not yet bachelor. Backups are stored for 14 days and there are no other options.

SAP Cloud Platform volition by and large appeal to developers and analysts working for companies that already employ HANA and SAP products and services. This production needs improvements equally having two evolution environments is confusing merely manageable. Still, SAP says several modifications to the DBaaS are coming shortly, and that some may be in place past the time this review is published.