Understanding SAP & Its Versions

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SAP continues to update its offerings to further improve the user experience. While this is great to ensure our ERP systems have the greatest capabilities possible, it can be hard to keep track that our own systems are up to date. That’s why we put together a list of SAP product versions and how you can learn more about your business’s technology stack. 

ECC vs. S/4HANA

At the highest level, we can differentiate SAP systems as either ECC or S/4HANA. The main difference between the two is the type of database they use.

• ECC stands for ERP Central Component. It is SAP’s legacy system, with roots stretching back to their very first ERP solution in the 1970s. It can operate on any database, including third-party and, more recently, HANA. New versions of ECC are not being released and it is expected that customers will transfer their systems over to S/4HANA.

• S/4HANA is short for SAP Business Suite 4 HANA. As the fourth version of the SAP Business Suite, it is the latest offering from SAP.  It runs only on the HANA database, which is an in-memory database developed and tuned by SAP for faster performance and real-time reporting.

Let’s dive into more details.

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S/4HANA Versions 

S/4 HANA is offered on two different platforms: On-Premise or Cloud. Both products are very similar in terms of lines of business, coverage and functionality. 

• On-Premise is located on your organization’s own servers and managed in-house. It has an annual innovation cycle with several smaller updates each year.

• Cloud is hosted externally on SAP’s servers and maintained by SAP. It has a quarterly innovation cycle.

Until 2020, all S/4HANA versions were named after the year and month that they were released (YYMM). For example, S/4HANA 1909 was released September 2019. 

SAP revised the naming convention in 2020. Going forward, On-Premise releases will be named for the year only (YYYY), starting with S/4HANA 2020 in October 2020. Cloud releases will continue with the YYMM naming convention.

SAP S/4HANA product versions and release schedule for On-Premise and Cloud.

 

To look up the version of your system, go to: More > System > Status > SAP System Data > Installed Product Versions. This will tell you the product name.

 

How to find your S/4HANA product version in the system stack information.

Technical folks may be more interested in the S4CORE Component version, which can be found nearby:
More > System > Status > SAP System Data > Installed Software Component Versions.

How to find your S4Core component version.

S/4HANA On-Premise Versions 

S/4HANA On-Premise has several updates for each version per year. These updates will either be Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) for new features or Support Pack Stacks (SPS) for bug fixes. 

The versions are outlined as follows:

SAP S/4HANA On-Premise product versions and update release schedule.

SAP HANA Database Versions 

S/4HANA operates on the HANA (High performance ANalytic Appliance) database.

• For reference the two versions referred to are HANA DB 1.00.122 (HANA 1.0 SP12 Rev 122) and HANA DB 2.00.052.0 (HANA 2.0 SPS05 Rev 52).

• The HANA 1.0 database will reach end-of-maintenance in June 2021.

• SAP will provide Maintenance Revisions for SAP HANA 2.0 SPS05 for a period of five years after RTC. These Revisions after SPS05 are not scheduled but delivered on demand. Bug fixes and security patches are released for every Support Package Stack (SPS) for two years after RTC.

• SAP will introduce new capabilities once a year, every time a new SAP HANA Support Package Stack (SPS) is released. An overview can be found in SAP HANA 2.0 Revision Strategy.

SAP HANA 1.0

SAP HANA 1.0 maintenance and release schedule.

SAP HANA 2.0

SAP HANA 2.0 maintenance and release schedule.

SAP ECC releases and SAP_APPL component versions (highlighted blue).

How to find your ECC product version in the system stack information.

Technical folks may be more interested in the SAP_APPL component version, which can be found nearby:
More > System > Status > SAP System Data > Installed Software Component Versions.

How to find your SAP_APPL component version.

NetWeaver Versions

SAP NetWeaver (NW) is the underlying technology layer or software stack that ECC is built on. SAP NW can be used for custom development and integration with other applications and systems and is most commonly build using the ABAP programming language. As of 2019, the most up to date version of NetWeaver is AS ABAP 7.54.

• EHP Stands for Enhancement Package.

• AS stands for Application Server.

To identify the version that your business is operating, check the SAP_BASIS component version in the system stack info (More > System > Status > SAP System Data > Installed Software Component Versions).

The version releases are as follows:

SAP NetWeaver versions and SAP_BASIS component versions (highlighted green).