What is the Business Technology Platform?
In 2021, SAP’s Cloud Platform was renamed Business Technology Platform and its scope expanded. Since then, the SAP BTP – Business Technology Platform – has been a central PaaS technology platform for cloud applications. As such, the BTP offers numerous services that focus on the development and expansion, integration, analysis and management of data and applications, among other things. This enables the creation of personalized end-to-end business processes and connected system landscapes in the cloud and hybrid with real-time data.
Evaluating the BTP model
The services can be selected for corporate accounts in specific business models and some of them are only available in the specific business models. There is a subscription-based model and consumption-based business models that determine the billing and availability of the services. Specifically, these are the models: SAP BTPEA (SAP BTP Enterprise Agreement), CPEA (Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement) and Pay-As-You-Go for SAP BTP.
The SAP Discovery Center contains overviews to check the individual SAP services for their availability in the respective model, prices, help and documentation for the setup.
With free tier plans, which are only available in consumption-based models, SAP offers an opportunity to try out SAP BTP services and use cases, such as the HANA Cloud or the SAP BAS (Business Application Studio) development environment, before purchasing and using them productively.
Structure of the BTP
The central access point to BTP is the BTP Cockpit and the global accounts of the company or requester available there. Functionalities for monitoring the use and costs of the applications are also available at this level, and authorizations can be maintained.
The cockpit therefore forms the top level. Below this are the sub-accounts with the specific runtime environments. Four different runtime environments can currently be selected for the BTP sub-accounts, which can be configured with different services for the use cases.
The Neo environment
Our range of services includes everything from needs analysis and feasibility studies to implementation and support. Our goal is to seamlessly integrate new tools into your IT infrastructure and thus reduce the conversion effort to a minimum. Where it seems necessary and sensible, we supplement the SAP standard with individual solutions developed by us.
The Cloud Foundry environment
The Cloud Foundry Runtime, which is based on the open source application platform managed by the Cloud Foundry Foundation, can be used via a multi-environment sub-account. In return, the platform’s extensive programming language independence enables development in a range of programming languages and, unlike the Neo environment, is provided by different cloud providers. In addition, newer technologies are offered than those of the Neo environment, such as the SAP Business Application Studio development environments, as the successor to the Web IDE for the development of Fiori apps and much more.
The BTP ABAP Enviroment is linked to a multi-enviroment for the development and operation of ABAP-based extensions and is therefore also used in the Cloud Foundry environment. As a modern approach, the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model is the first choice for a cloud-optimized ABAP language version.
The Kyma environment
The Kyma environment supports extensions as well as the development of microservices and full-stack applications and is particularly suitable for container-based applications that are based on Kubernetes. As an open source project supported by SAP, it is therefore very well integrated into the BTP.
The components of the BTP
Five main divisions for the use of the services can be derived from the sub-accounts with the runtime environments.
Application development is one of the main components and includes tools for development, extension, deployment, management of applications in different programming languages in a more efficient and faster way. Furthermore, not only tools for experienced developers are available, but also low-code/no-code, key-user extension options and side-by-side extension with development support.
Another component is the automation of workflows, document and process handling for frequently recurring activities. The activities can be monitored and tracked via numerous interfaces in order to be able to react to any irregularities and concentrate on important value-adding activities.
Integration only became an integral part of BTP some time ago with the Integration Suite, but now enables seamless communication and data exchange between all process components, both in the cloud environment and with on-premise (S/4 Hana) systems, etc.
Database, data modeling, data analysis and data warehousing are just some of the functions that go hand in hand with the data and data analysis division and provide an overview of your own data and system landscape. New opportunities and patterns can thus be identified and used for innovation and competitive advantages through targeted control.
Artificial intelligence is a component that is becoming increasingly important and can find its way into all areas of the system landscape. It is equally important for automation and facilitating development and expansion, but also for analyzing data, providing additional services for customers and providing support both internally and externally.
Benefits and purpose
The SAP Business Technology Platform is SAP’s central tool for the cloud initiative and is therefore at the heart of the possibilities for combining data from different sources, connecting systems, centrally providing, expanding and optimizing applications. Numerous services are offered that support the given functionalities and thus increase flexibility and efficiency.
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