SAP Product Naming Confusion _ SCN

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Hello SCN community

Context

I received feedback from a reader of one my previous blogs which Im grateful for. He mentioned the topic of the

product naming and the fact that many community members seem to have difficulties understanding the frequent

product name changes.

Being part of a community means helping out fellow community members and getting help from other community

members. The benefit of being part of the community is that everyone can get added value out of it.

Introduction

I was convinced I would find a previous blog or sources with this topic as I also know a lot of persons are having

trouble to understand the naming of the SAP products. While I found some information on specific products and

their naming history I didnot find any general overview.

There has already beentumult in the past because of the frequent name changes that occurred. Gartner recently

criticizedSAP for the frequent name changes of SAP products.

Just last summer I performed an upgrade from 46D to ECC 6.0 ata customer. They were confused which SAP

product was going to be the target of the upgrade, was it ERP 6.0 or ECC 6.0 or ERP2005? What about SAP

Netweaver, do we need that?

I will be using ERP throughout this blog as an example. I cannot cover everysingleproduct as it would be too

much, this information can be used for lots of other SAP products in terms ofunderstanding the naming and

versioning. I added some sources in the blog for other specific products I could find information on.

Idea place

I hope by now you have heard about idea place, a new initiative by SAP which fits into the new way of giving

customers and partners a bigger input into the SAP world. Why isnt there a central spot in the SAP service

marketplace or on SCN where you get an overview of all the different product versions with the date/time the

product was released and information to get rid of the confusion?

I have no clue, but since the Idea place exists, I created an idea to have such an overview, you can vote the idea

up or down depending on whether you like the idea or not and if there are enough votes up it will be implemented

by SAP, sounds nice right.

Please read to idea text for a better view on what I would like to see and please add comments to the idea so they

can also pick up your feedback on the matter.

You can vote on the idea right here:

Product name overview page (historical, future).

Not all products have to be on one page (nearly impossible) but a dropdown so you can select one and see a

historical view (past and future)of what product offered the same kind of functionality in the past and which

product will take over the task in the future would be a good start point.

Along with information about the technology platform (Netweaver?), the release levels (SR1, SR2 and theirrespective SP levels), available EHPs (enhancement packages and their respective SP levels).

The history of SAP product names

The beginning, keep it simple

SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) was founded in 1972 and the first product served the purpose to do

financial accounting and was called R/1. The R stands for real-time data processing. The 1 stands for the fact

that the product was residing on a mainframe (no separate layer for database, application or presentation) so only

one layer.

At the end of the 1970s R/2 was released. 1 was changed into 2 because now it used two layers, (a

database+application and a presentation layer). Mainframe (database+application) and a terminal (presentation

layer) to connect to the mainframe.

In 1992 R/3 was released. 2 was changed into 3 because now it used three layers (a database, an application

and a presentation layer). With this version multiple operation systems and multiple platforms were supported.

SAP product naming confusion

Posted by Tom Cenensin SAP NetWeaver Technology Platformon Jan 10, 2011 4:24:32 AM

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Now you could have an Oracle database on a Windows server and SAPgui on a desktop to connect to your SAP

system.

After the release of R/3 SAP began to put release information behind the product names to continue the product

line. It still made sense, R/3 3.1I and R/3 4.0B and so on up till R/3 46C and R/3 46D (here and there you can still

find R/3 SAP systems at customer side).

The technology platform, lets add more

Now we come to a point where SAP introduced something new, a technology platform in addition to the product

name. The first technology platform to be used in the naming was WebAS (Web Application Server). Perhaps this

was already the start point for frequent name changes, adding technology platform naming to the product line and

getting everyone confused.

Some of you who read my blog on Java garbage collection basics know I fancy cars so lets take a look at whatthis means by an example involving cars (yes here we go again).

Picture 1.1

You can see the Porsche Cayenne on the left and the Audi Q7 on the right in above picture 1.1. Now what both

cars have in common is their platform. Both are build on the same base (the chassis, the wheelbase and even lots

of parts are the same).

The cars dont look exactly the same; they dont both have the same option list nor the same price. Each car on its

own (Porsche Cayenne or Audi Q7) is a different product but they are both build on the same platform.

You can very much compare this with how the technology platform for SAP works.

As explained above, SAP build a platform, the first being WebAS to be included in product naming or referenced

when talking/writing about the product. They also gave the WebAS a version (first one to be released was 6.10 if

Im not mistaken). So you have your R/3 (real-time 3 layer SAP system) 4.x (version of your R/3) on WebAS

(base platform) 6.10 (version of your platform).

Translated into SAP components this means you have specific components which represent your platform and

other components which represent your functionality build on that platform.

The confusion startedOnce R/3 Enterprise 4.x came out things became even more confusing (we are still miles away from what we have

today).

Now the above wasnt enough really, the Enterprise part was added to the product name because now they had

split up some components.

You can read the following information on the facts of the split up, to what purpose and so on:

R3 Enterprise.

So now you have your R/3 (real-time 3 layer SAP system) Enterprise (components split and possibility to use

extensions) 4.x (version of your R/3) on WebAS (base platform) 6.20 (version of your platform).

Lets recap

Lets take a look at where we are so far to try and not get confused:

1. 1972 SAP R/1 (R for real-time, 1 for one layer)

2. Late 1970s SAP R/2 (R for real-time, 2 for two layers)

3. 1992 SAP R/3 (R for real-time, 3 for three layers)4. 1992 2001 SAP R/3 . (for example 4.6C)

5. 2001 introduction WebAS (technology platform)

6. 2002 SAP R/3 Enterprise 4.70 (on WebAs 6.20)

7.

Now lets confuse everyone that can still follow

All the above name changing, additions to the product names wasnt really enough. SAP started to use years in

the product name, for example mySAP ERP2004 in 2004. This is where it really plummeted down to the ground

and people got more confused than ever.

People started asking questions on internet and writing articles on the products and the confusion that existed, if

you are interested you can read the following white-paperabout the confusion whether to go for SAP R/3

Enterprise or mySAP ERP because they also released a mySAP ERP (2003?) version in 2003.

Lets bring in Netweaver
http://www.infosys.com/offerings/IT-services/packaged-application-services/white-papers/Documents/SAP-R3-Enterprise-mySAP-ERP.pdfhttp://sapinsider.wispubs.com/Article/A-Preview-of-Component-Technology-in-R-3-Enterprise/3884http://scn.sap.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-56424-70010/q7.jpghttp://scn.sap.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-56424-70009/cayenne.jpg


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A new technology platform was created, SAP Netweaver in 2004. The previous platform WebAS became part of

SAP Netweaver but continued to be referenced. The SAP Netweaver 2004 platform contains the WebAS 6.40 (also

referred to as BASIS 6.40). One of the big changes SAP Netweaver brought is the possibility to have a Java

Application Server (no longer only ABAP was available).

ERP or ECC?

The story continues when the naming was again disrupted by the most important component of ERP. The term

ECC 5.0 was used instead of mySAP ERP2004 which caused a lot of confusion in the customer base. The ECC

(Enterprise Central Component) component is the most important SAP component of an ERP SAP system.

At that moment you could have a mySAP ERP2004 (successor of R/3 Enterprise) which is in fact an ECC 5.0

(synonym) which is build on the SAP Netweaver 2004 (Web AS 6.40) platform.

If that wasnt yet enough it also mySAP ERP2004, ECC 5.0 was also referenced as being ERP 5.0. I didnt look up

every single name change of the product because seriously I need to write a book to keep up with every single

change and Im just writing about one single product here.

It got worse in 2005

Things got even worse in 2005 when mySAP ERP2005 came out, which was referenced as ECC 6.0, resided on SAP

Netweaver 2004s (Web AS 7.00) platform and was also called ERP 6.0. Explaining this mixture of terms, numbers

and years to a customer makes the customer look like a UFO just flew by the window.

A good time to recap again

1. 1972 SAP R/1 (R for real-time, 1 for one layer)

2. Late 1970s SAP R/2 (R for real-time, 2 for two layers)

3. 1992 SAP R/3 (R for real-time, 3 for three layers)

4. 1992 2001 SAP R/3 . (for example 4.6C)

5. 2001 introduction WebAS (technology platform)

6. 2002 SAP R/3 Enterprise 4.70 (on WebAs 6.20)

7. 2003 MySAP ERP (2003?) (on WebAs 6.30)

8. 2004 MySAP ERP 2004 ECC 5.0 ERP 5.0 (on WebAs 6.40 - Netweaver 2004)

9. 2005 MySAP ERP 2005 ECC 6.0 ERP 6.0 (on WebAs 7.00 - Netweaver 2004s)

Enhancement packages

By 2005 SAP had already received lots of comments and feedback on the product names and the confusion.

Because they wanted to avoid that customers had to perform major upgrades frequently, the enhancement

packages were invented.

Enhancement packages serve the purpose not to touch the core components but to provide the customer with

additional functionality. Those additional functionalities become active after activation.

The version of the enhancement package is referenced in the product name, for example ERP 6.0 EHP1

(enhancement package level 1). The latest enhancement package version has all the enhancements (additional

functionality) of the previous ones.

An overview of enhancement packages released for ERP 6.0 so far:

1. EHP1 for SAP ERP 6.0 in 2006




5. EHP5 for SAP ERP 6.0 in 2010 (ramp up)

6.

Reflection in component versioning

The platform on which your product resides and the product itself influences the versioning of your SAP system

components. Once you are logged into a SAP system click on system status in the upper navigation bar.

Picture 1.2

This opens the system status screen; there click on the magnifying glass icon as shown in picture 1.2.

Picture 1.3

You can see in picture 1.3 that components SAP_ABA and SAP_BASIS are part of the Netweaver 7.0 platform (701

first two digits 7.0). The last digit represents the enhancement package level (701 so Netweaver EHP1).
http://scn.sap.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-56424-70012/701component.jpghttp://scn.sap.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-56424-70011/systemstatus.jpg


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Picture 1.4

In the same SAP system when you scroll down you can see the component in picture 1.4.

There you see SAP_HRCCH and SAP_HRCCL are part of ECC 6.0 (604 first two digits 6.0). The last digit represent

the enhancement package level (604 so ERP 6.0 EHP4).

So this SAP system is an ERP 6.0 EHP4 on a SAP Netweaver 7.0 EHP1 platform.

Reflection in kernel versioning

The SAP kernel versioning is based on the platform your product resides on. For the above example, ERP 6.0 EHP4

on a SAP Netweaver 7.0 EHP1 platform the kernel level is 701 (platform version + enhancement package version

of the platform).

Reflection in platform versioning

The newer platforms that come out receive a higher second digit; SAP Netweaver 7.1 without enhancement

packages installed on it would have Netweaver components with version 710 and a kernel with version 710. The

changes made can be checked in the release notes of the platform on help.sap.com.

Available sources on product names / versions

Business Objects

Business Warehouse / Business Intelligence:

SAP Business One - SAP Developer Network

Overview on SAP history and versions

SAP R/3 overview

ConclusionI hope SAP does some effort to keep the product naming simple and understandable as it changed so many times

in the past it started to get confusing for almost anyone.

A community can be as powerful as its members and their actions. Im convinced a lot of people would like to see

an overview page to have a better understanding of the confusing product names and I hope the idea gets

launched and implemented. Its always a serious task explaining customers where the product name came from

and clearing out their doubts.

5255 Views Products: sap_netweaverTags: technology, product, history, naming, erp, platform, ecc, @tomcenens, confusion

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Suresh DattiJan 10, 2011 5:15 AM

to add to the confusion..

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Tom CenensJan 10, 2011 5:21 AM (in response to Suresh Datti)

Hello,

Thanks for taking the time to provide valuable feedback.

SAP Business Suite is a bundle of applications (bundle of SAP products) which means it has

SAP ERP, SAP CRM, SAP SRM etc to provide a full set of tools to support any kind of

business.

From a technical consultant perspective it's just a DVD with those products on it and you can

install one or more products from the installation DVD.

Kind regards

Tom
http://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/suresh.datti2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_R/3http://www.sapsword.com/home/sap-overviewhttp://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-18479http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/BI/Overview+of+SAP+History+and+BW-BI+Evolutionhttp://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/4.0+product+nameshttp://scn.sap.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-56424-70013/604component.jpghttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=confusionhttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=%40tomcenenshttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=ecchttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=platformhttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=erphttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=naminghttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=historyhttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=producthttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=technologyhttp://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver/blog/tags#/?tags=sap_netweaverhttp://twitter.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fscn.sap.com%2Fcommunity%2Fnetweaver%2Fblog%2F2011%2F01%2F10%2Fsap-product-naming-confusionhttps://twitter.com/intent/tweet?hashtags=scn&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscn.sap.com%2Fcommunity%2Fnetweaver%2Fblog%2F2011%2F01%2F10%2Fsap-product-naming-confusion&related=tomcenens&text=SAP%20product%20naming%20confusion%20by%20%40tomcenens&tw_p=tweetbutton&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscn.sap.com%2Fcommunity%2Fnetweaver%2Fblog%2F2011%2F01%2F10%2Fsap-product-naming-confusion&via=SAPCommNet


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Like (0)

Tammy PowlasJan 10, 2011 5:16 AM

I still wonder what the "Innovations" release was all about too - I think Enhancement Packages, but I

am not sure.

Like (0)

Tom CenensJan 10, 2011 5:25 AM (in response to Tammy Powlas)

Hello Tammy

As far as I can understand it myself, I think it's business suite + additional products? +

enhancement packages for those products.

Looks like they are still adding to the confusion.

Kind regards

Tom

Like (0)

Guido BruneJan 10, 2011 5:54 AM

Hello,

same counts for BW (if this is the actually name of for datawarhousing component at SAP - not sure

about - ;-) ), but a name is still name.

BW as product is one out of few(?) end-to-end data warhouses on the market.

All the best,

Guido

Like (0)

Tom CenensJan 10, 2011 6:01 AM (in response to Guido Brune)

Hello Guido

Thanks for comment. Yes indeed, at the moment it's BI again as far as I know but who knows

what it will be tomorrow. The link provided in the blog gives a decent overview on BI

versioning.

Kind regards

Tom

Like (0)

Paul RichardsonJan 10, 2011 7:39 AM (in response to Tom Cenens)

Actually it changed back to BW in June 2006

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_NetWeaver_Business_Intelligence).

I think it went:

BIW -> BW -> BI -> BW

It doesn't help that a lot of official SAP documentation still uses old names. For

example, a lot of SAP PI documentation is still referred to as SAP XI, even though

PI replaced XI around 5 years ago.

Like (0)

James LinkJan 10, 2011 5:57 AM

Great blog helping those of us relatively new to the SAP world understand (and try to make sense of)

the history. We implemented at the height of the name changes--started in 2005--and a lot of folks at

our company have been confused ever since.

Tom CenensJan 10, 2011 6:06 AM (in response to James Link)

Hello Jim,

Thank you for the comment. I started 4 years ago without any knowledge of SAP what so

ever and I too was puzzled when I attented the first internal knowledge sessions and heard all

the terms and versions flying around.

Kind regards

Tom
http://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/james.linkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_NetWeaver_Business_Intelligencehttp://scn.sap.com/people/paul.richardson5http://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/guido.brune2http://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/tammy.powlas3


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Sergio FerrariJan 10, 2011 11:24 PM

Thanks for sharing.

I agree with you and some time ago I created a timeline to help people understanding the evolution of

the SAP products.

Since it's not perfect nor complete your proposal is for sure very important.

Let me know if you have any suggestions about the timeline that is published here

http://timerime.com/en/timeline/242039/unofficial+History+of+SAP/and explained in the following blog

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/17678. [original link is broken][original link

is broken]

Sergio

Like (0)

Tom CenensJan 11, 2011 1:39 AM (in response to Sergio Ferrari)

Hello Sergio

Thanks your for the feedback. In my opinion a sort of timeline is a good solution to provide the

neccesary information.

I'm trying to put together a sort of demo page to get an idea out there how it could look like.

It has to offer enough information. Not only the product and it's launch year but also the

platform it residing on and sufficient information to understand it all.

In my opinion it should also offer a search option and give you an idea where the product you

are working on it situated and which product is next in line to provide that functionality.

Kind regards

Tom

Like (0)

Uwe FetzerJan 11, 2011 3:04 AM

Hi Tom,

very entertaining blog :-)

BTW: R/2 had release numbers, too (4.1, 4.3, 5.0), which reminds me of the classical joke:

A: "We are on 3.1i" B: "Ha, we are already on 5.0"

The characters after the R/3 releases (ie."i" in 3.1i) are so called "Put level" or short "put".

Regards, Uwe

Like (0)

Tom CenensJan 11, 2011 3:16 AM (in response to Uwe Fetzer)

Hello Uwe

Thank you for your feedback and thanks for the additional information on the versioning.

Kind regards

Tom

Like (0)

Markus DoehrJan 11, 2011 4:02 PM

...there will be a

Business Suite 7 2010i (BS72010i)

which will be (for ERP) "Enhancement Pack 5 for ERP 6.0"

so the confusion continues...

--

Markus

Tom CenensJan 12, 2011 7:04 AM (in response to Markus Doehr)

Hello Markus

Thanks for your feedback.

I agree and I do think we have not yet seen the end of confusing product names and

packages, that's why I see added value in having a product overview page (or pages) which
http://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/markus.doehr2http://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/se38http://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/17678http://timerime.com/en/timeline/242039/unofficial+History+of+SAP/http://scn.sap.com/people/sergio.ferrari2


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makes it easier for customers to understand which product they are using, where it came

from and where it's headed.

Kind regards

Tom

Like (0)

Vinoth KumarJan 12, 2011 9:46 PM

Really Good and thanks Tom.

One question here, i thought ECC is the only product in ERP which has FI,MM,HCM,PS... Can you

please tell me any other product in ERP other than ECC

Regards

Vinoth

Like (0)

Tom CenensJan 12, 2011 10:02 PM (in response to Vinoth Kumar)

Hello Vinot

Thanks for your feedback.

Perhaps you can find some product versions which have for example FI or Finance included

by checking https://service.sap.com/scl, choosing start application, then SAP Software

Product Versions and Possible Scenarios and entering *FI* as input in field "By Product

Version Instance"

I'm finding new sources each day but many are confusing, not easy to work with and require acertain knowledge level (beyond keeping it simple).

Even then it would require research work to see what the product offers and if it's usable or

feasible.

Kind regards

Tom

Like (0)

Gregory MisiorekFeb 15, 2011 4:04 PM (in response to Vinoth Kumar)

not only that...the current ECC 6.0 (60405) installation has SEM-BW as well and some cubes,

just not the one I was looking for.

Like (1)

Michael NichollsJan 16, 2011 4:15 PM

I was under the impression that 46D was a Basis only release for R/3 4.6C. It was used by our old

friend SAP Workplace (the first SAP portal?) and had no business functionality as such.

Like (0)

Tom CenensJan 16, 2011 10:00 PM (in response to Michael Nicholls)

Hello Michael

It was indeed product 46C which I upgraded to ECC 6.0.

The point is that the product naming/versioning/packaging is confusing (the above again

proves it) and that there are ways to stop the confusion (reach out to the community and

provide sufficient information to get rid of the confusion).

I think it would be a good improvement by SAP (which would be well received with the

partners,customers, consultants and so on).

Pieces of the puzzle are available (like the year a product was released in the SAP service

marketplace product availability matrix). But the complete puzzle to give a simple and good

overview with enough information isn't.

Kind regards

Tom

Sean MFeb 4, 2011 10:21 AM (in response to Michael Nicholls)

That's right, Workplace 2.0 was first. Why 2.0? Because no one wants to buy a version 1.0 :-)

Do you recall why the first EP version was 5.0? After WP 2.0, SAP was briefly a reseller of
http://scn.sap.com/people/sean.mhttp://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/michael.nichollshttp://scn.sap.com/people/gregory.misiorekhttps://service.sap.com/sclhttp://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/vinoth.kumar25


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Yahoo! Portal 4.x (a now-abandoned attempt by Yahoo! to enter enterprise markets). That

was quickly followed by the acquistion of Top Tier and it's portal at version 3.0. EP replaced

an install base of three different portal products, with most recent version numbers 2, 3 and 4.

So the new product obviously had to be 5.0!

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Raymond JenningsJan 18, 2011 11:42 PM

I have been doing Basis for 14+ years and know most of what you write about. However great way to

put facts/dates and very specific details and history. Great job!

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Tom CenensFeb 2, 2011 1:55 AM (in response to Raymond Jennings)

Hello Raymond

Thanks for your feedback. I don't know if all is 100% correct as all those product names are

so confusing but it should give a somewhat better understanding how they got to the current

state.

I'm awaiting a reaction on the idea on idea place (it has some votes).

Kind regards

Tom

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Sean MFeb 4, 2011 10:30 AM

You wrote: 1972 SAP R/1 (R for real-time, 1 for one layer)

It was before my time, but legend has it that R/1 wasn't what you might think of as a mainframe

product. It was run as a service bureau: companies had to connect to the SAP office to access the

system, it wasn't a product they could buy and run on their own mainframe.

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Tom CenensFeb 4, 2011 10:07 PM (in response to Sean M)

Hello Sean

Thanks for your valuable feedback :) I was born in 1984 so it's before my time as well. I based

the content on information sources I could find online (which doesn't neccesary make it 100%

correct, even if it comes from multiple sources).

http://www.sap.com/about/company/history/index.epx

SAP did convert from DOS to OS according to that source:

converting its RF system from the DOS operating system to OS

Kind regards

Tom

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Gregory MisiorekFeb 15, 2011 4:00 PM (in response to Sean M)

...must have been the early days of cloud computing.

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Manfred KaufmannFeb 15, 2011 1:02 PM

Justo to add.. SAP netweaver 2004 and sap netweaver 2004s....

In the other hand.

Now with ERP 6.0 EHP5 or SAP Business Suite 7 2010i (BS72010i) where 2010i stands for 2010

innovations.

I guess ECC is going to dissapear in the names.

Now the principal component is just named as "Central Applications"

Can someone confirm me this?

Tom CenensFeb 15, 2011 9:08 PM (in response to Manfred Kaufmann)

Hello Manfred
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9/13

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Central Applications is apparently a usage type used for EHP5 which consists out of EA-

APPL and SAP-APPL.

The name ECC isn't gone though, it's an ECC Server with usage type "Central Applications" :)

Information is extract from following presentation:

http://www.saptour.ch/landingPagesFr/manager/uploads/7/7E2.pdf

It's a real challenge to keep up with the product names, usage types and so on.

I'm doing a Portal upgrade from 6.40 to 7.02 and the maintenance optimizer in Solution

Manager showed me the current usage types and asked me to check the target usage types.

One usage type was already checked although it doesn't exist anymore in 7.02, adding to the

confusion.

Kind regards

Tom

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Manfred KaufmannFeb 16, 2011 7:10 AM (in response to Tom Cenens)

Thanks a lot tom for clarification..

I see in installation of EHP5 to ERP an usage type named SAP ECC Server Value

Pack successor, i cannot find any information about this usage type. You know what

do this usage type?

In other hand, can you share with me , which usage type of portal do you refer.

Like (0)

Tom CenensFeb 19, 2011 1:25 AM (in response to Manfred Kaufmann)

Hello Manfred

The SAP ECC Server Value Pack (ECC-VPACK) is part of Central

Applications now I believe. I don't think you can still choose it an additional

usage type when perform a sp-stack application through maintenance

optimizer.

You can find more information by searching on ECC-VPACK.

The Portal usage types also changed over time which can bring confusing

situations. The best way to check the usage types is too use the SAP

Solution Manager maintenance optimizer but it isn't bullet proof either, it

can give some confusing situations when you upgrade from SAP

Netweaver 6.40 to SAP Netweaver 7.0x or higher.

You have many possibilities for Portal nowadays so it would depends

strongly on what you want to do what the portal.

Kind regards

Tom

Like (1)

C KJul 1, 2012 3:24 AM

Nice post Tom. Now there's more confussion with the kernel versioning.

Juan Alonso

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Tom CenensJul 2, 2012 4:40 PM (in response to C K)

Hi Juan

Thanks for your comment

Yes, in my opinion SAP should bring out one kernel (one source of truth) instead of creating a

non EXT and a EXT, what's next right?

At least the maintenance optimizer inside Solution Manager could use better brains to only

show options that are relevant to the managed SAP system

Best regards

Tom

Cesar MartinJul 3, 2012 1:07 AM (in response to Tom Cenens)
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10/13

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Hi Tom,

Great and funny post!, Yes, SAP could be notoriously confusing in the naming of its

product versions, I only wish that improves one day.

Regarding the kernels, if I recall well, the current kernel (ABAP) is 720 (or 7.20), and

this kernel can be used to run 700, 701, 702, 703, 730 and 731 (but not 711 or 710,

which were only for BW and other solutions, like Banking). So, you have the same

kernel for different releases (check SAP_BASIS and SAP_ABAP packages and the

kernel). At least this puts something in a stable status.

The next kernel version will be 800, but I'm not aware that any product has already

been *released* with it yet.

If I recall correctly, the first time we saw this deviation between kernel and business

system was in the 4.6C release: you had a 4.6C R/3 system running on a 4.6Dkernel, as correctly Michael Nicholls points above. From that, the business part

numbering somehow stalled and the kernel progressed separately, with the

evolution you so clearly describe.

For your info, the first WebAS version was 5.0 (kernel 500) from November 2000. It

was never publicly released (someday I will find those CDs), but it was a

revolutionary change for the ABAP world:

Those changes are still there and are the reason we call it the "Web" Application

Server.

That kernel 5.0 evolved into 6.10 which was the first WebAS kernel released, but

only as an standalone option. The first business system released with the new

kernel was 4.70 on a 6.20, as you correctly point out.

Great post and thanks for your documentation efforts on SAP History.

Csar.

Integrated threaded Web Server called ICM (Internet Communication

Manager) and the corresponding ABAP APIs (the ICF - Internet

Communication Framework)

First programming model for ABAP web applications - BSP (Business Server

Pages)

JavaScript engine (I think it was SpiderMonkey) integrated into the kernel (it is

a pity that this didn't evolve into a nice framework for integrating scripting

languages into ABAP, that would have been the killer app...)

STRING data type, which opened the ABAP world to the fantastic new world

of non length limited varchars, also the basis for many interoperability options -like the web (together with XSTRING type)

Beginning of the evolution towards ABAP objects (the previous items were

implemented with ABAP objects)

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Nicholas ChangJul 3, 2012 4:44 AM (in response to Cesar Martin)

Hi Cesar,

720 kernel is supported for 710 and 711 as well, Note 1636252 - Installing

a 7.20 kernel in SAP Web AS 7.00/7.01/7.10/7.11

Cheers,

Nicholas Chang

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Cesar MartinJul 3, 2012 1:10 PM (in response to Nicholas Chang)

Thanks Nicholas, that makes it one kernel to rule them all .

Like (0)

Tom CenensJul 3, 2012 7:35 AM (in response to Cesar Martin)

Hi Csar

Thanks for your comment and adding added value to the blog post.

Best regards

Tom

Priyan FernandoJul 1, 2012 9:11 AM

Dear Tom Cenens.

Thank you very much for giving such kind of valuable guide. I was looking for this for some times

Good luck

thanks
http://scn.sap.com/people/shann.shannhttp://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/cesar.martinhttps://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1636252http://scn.sap.com/people/nicholas.chang


11/13

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priyan

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Tom CenensJul 2, 2012 4:39 PM (in response to Priyan Fernando)

Hi Priyan

Thanks for your comment.

Best regards

Tom

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Michael DumasJul 2, 2012 5:48 PM

Tom,

Ad my thanks with the others. I found this while searching for a way to update my "mature" Basis

skills. My last training was in 2002. I didn't even know SAP had replaced the Central Instance with the

Primary Application server instance and I'm concerned about what other important changes I've

missed. Is there a good community location for updates?

Thanks again,

Mike

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Tom CenensJul 3, 2012 7:34 AM (in response to Michael Dumas)

Hello Mike

Your welcome. Well SAP tends to change it's mind over time since dual stacks are no longer

the way to go in many cases for example. Latest recommendation for BW for example is tohave separate stacks (one for Java, one for ABAP).

SAP moved away from Platform JDK's and build it's own Java Virtual Machine (SAPJVM).

Another something you missed is that the AS Java now has a Gateway in the SCS much like

what you would expect from an AS ABAP Gateway so you can effectively register your local

SLD in your AS Java Gateway for example .

There is too much that has changed / is changing to put it all in one page. My advice is dig up

blogs / articles and so on on SCN and try to track down Basis content on Social Media as well

(Twitter and alikes).

Best regards

Tom

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Michael DumasJul 3, 2012 5:04 PM (in response to Tom Cenens)

Tom,

Those are good ideas and I'll be checking them all out. I've worked more on portal

and the split BW stack technologies lately and find the ABAP side has changed

dramatically. I expect that anyone trained before NW 7.0 will be surprised at the

amount of change of the Basis architecture.

Thanks,

Mike

Like (1)

David MolushMar 2, 2013 2:15 AM

Tom:

It's February 2013 and I thank you for the article. It was very amusing, confusing, yet clarifying.

I find many people in the business who think they know all the versions. This proves it has been

confusing andpeople were afraid to admit it. But I enjoyed your article, it was good to see the evolution

of confusion.

Like (0)

Tom CenensMar 4, 2013 6:13 AM (in response to David Molush)

Hi David

There still is confusing around versioning and it will probably stay that way. The good

thing is that SAP is providing much more information now compared to before so it becomes

easier to look things up and understand what a specific version stands for / means.

Best regards

Tom
http://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/david.molush2http://scn.sap.com/people/sapdaddyhttp://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenenshttp://scn.sap.com/people/sapdaddyhttp://scn.sap.com/people/tom.cenens


12/13

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Yves KERVADECSep 27, 2013 2:30 AM

Hello Tom,

Thank you for that great post, and it's a newer ending story ...

SAP does it's best to keep its product naming as confusing as possible... I'm sure it's a game...

But you're true, it's now more documented, and with SCN & nice people like you are there to help.

The next move is now:

SAP Business Suite 7 Innovations 2011

code name: BS7i2011

Best regards

Like (0)

Tom CenensSep 27, 2013 6:30 AM (in response to Yves KERVADEC)

Hi Yves

Thanks, it's on of my old blog posts which I reformatted recently due to migration.

SAP is still going strong at renaming products and creating confusion .

Best regards

Tom

Like (1)

Eduardo RezendeSep 27, 2013 1:30 AM

Nice blog!Agreed with Yves about the name confusion.

Like (1)

Tom CenensSep 27, 2013 6:29 AM (in response to Eduardo Rezende)

Hi Eduardo

Thanks!

Best regards

Tom

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Gareth RyanSep 27, 2013 11:31 AM

I long ago gave up worrying about the constant name changes & confusion - I'm of the opinion it

changes so often there's no point trying to keep up!

Like (1)

Tom CenensSep 27, 2013 11:44 AM (in response to Gareth Ryan)

Hi Gareth

I can understand that but it can be useful to keep up depending on your role. In my case, I

work around SAP Technology in a broad sense so I try to keep up .

A recent addition:

SAP Netweaver Neo -> SAP Netweaver Cloud -> SAP HANA Cloud Platform anyone?

No wonder people get confused on https://open.sap.com/coursesfor example:

Introduction to SAP HANA Cloud Platform= SAP HANA Cloud Platform = a PAAS solution of SAP which runs on a HANA DB

vs

Introduction to Software Development on SAP HANA= Application Server that is part of SAP HANA

Talking to a number of persons I already found out they don't know about the different, the

fact that they are talking about a different platform alltogether.

Best regards

Tom

Gareth RyanSep 27, 2013 11:52 AM (in response to Tom Cenens)
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I was being somewhat petulant with my previous reply - in all honesty as a techy I

also have to keep up!

It's interesting you highlight this confusion - I've recently spent far too much time

(and know I will be investing more soon) trying to explain the relationship between

PI, BPM & PO and how they fit together (or don't as the case may be!)

All of the cloud offerings are just confusing things even further in my book but I have

some sympathy for SAP I suppose - they have to name all of their technology and

solutions something.

Maybe the real problem is the marketing and communication of these different

platforms - for me it's the age old SAP problem that so many different, disparate

parts of the big SAP machine are working away in isolation from other parts of their

business and hence confusion arises.

Gareth.
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