SAP Cloud Identity Services
SAP Cloud Identity Services consists of two separate systems hosted in SAP Business Technology Platform: Identity Authentication Service (IAS) and Identity Provisioning Service (IPS). The identity tenants are the first to be provisioned for an SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition customer because the other systems are connected to them.
Identity Authentication is a cloud service for authentication, single sign-on, and user management in SAP cloud and on-premise applications. It can act as an identity provider itself or be used as a proxy to integrate with an existing single sign-on infrastructure. Identity Provisioning offers a comprehensive, low-cost approach to identity lifecycle management in the cloud. It helps you provision identities and their authorizations to various cloud and on-premise business applications. Collectively, IAS and IPS enable customers to manage access to applications across their landscape.
SAP Central Business Configuration
SAP Central Business Configuration is hosted on SAP Business Technology Platform and is used to provision, activate business content, and configure the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition systems. First, SAP Central Business Configuration is used to activate the predefined content and configuration in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition starter system. The starter system is used to gather customer configuration requirements and finalize the scope during Fit-to-Standard Workshops. After all configuration values have been gathered, SAP Central Business Configuration is used to provision the customer's SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition systems, activate business scope, define the organizational structure and primary finance settings, configure business processes, and maintain transports between the systems. After go-live, customers continue to use SAP Central Business Configuration to maintain their SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition systems through future release upgrades and business changes. For example, new country or business scope activation, defining additional organizational entities, or making configuration changes.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition Systems
The SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition Experience Trial System is a free 14-day trial with guided tours in a shared landscape. The guided tours are based on predefined role-based scenarios to give you the experience of a "day in the life" of each business role. In the SAP Activate Implementation Methodology, this system is referenced in the Discover (sales) phase as a first-touch user experience for customers and prospects to understand the look and feel of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition and support making a purchase decision.
Start your 14-day free trial here.
The SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition Starter System is a preconfigured system with the enterprise scope (all lines of business enabled) and business data that aligns with the SAP Best Practices test scripts. Consultants use the starter system to deliver Fit-to-Standard workshops to customer business experts in each LoB during the Explore phase. The purpose is to teach customers how to use the new system and business processes, and to gather configuration data and extension requirements that will be implemented in the customer's actual SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition system in the Realize phase. The starter system is eventually decommissioned after the customer's own SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition systems are configured, as it is no longer needed.
2-System Landscape
The 2-system landscape consists of a quality system and a production system. SAP is responsible for both the software and content updates and upgrades. In this setup, the quality system combines development, configuration, and testing activities. You can test you custom developments and configurations separately in the quality system before transporting them to the production system. The production system is the system in which you work productively with the content provided by SAP and your custom developments from the quality system.
3-System Landscape
In release 2208, the 3-system landscape became available. The 3-system landscape consists of a development system, test system, and production system. Development and testing activities are separated into two dedicated systems, which makes it possible for developers to build advanced extensions using ABAP code. This is called developer extensibility, and is only possible in the 3-system landscape. Configuration content in the 3-system landscape is provided via SAP Central Business Configuration, however only the development system is connected directly to SAP Central Business Configuration. While SAP handles the software updates and upgrades, you decide within a dedicated time frame when you want to apply the content updates and upgrades available in SAP Central Business Configuration.
The development system provides a safe environment for development projects that include advanced coding, such as ABAP. The development system is divided into two tenants with specific purposes: development tenant and customizing tenant. The development tenant provides access to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition ABAP Environment. In this environment, you can build your own custom developments based on lifecycle-stable SAP objects. In the customizing tenant, you activate business process content and configure it, then transport your configurations to the test (quality) and production systems. In the test system, you can test both your custom developments and configurations before forwarding them to the production system. The production system is the system in which you work productively with the developments you have created and the content you configured in the development system and tested in the test system.
Test Data Refresh Service
Ideally, the test/quality and production systems are mirror images of one another so business process testing or extension testing in the quality system accurately reflects what would occur in the production system (e.g. if a new extension is transported to production). However, the transport path only moves in a single direction from test/quality to production. The Test Data Refresh service was developed to solve this problem and provide an ideal testing environment by syncing data in the production system with the quality system. Test Data Refresh is a subscription service that refreshes master and transaction data in the quality system from the production system. A built-in depersonalization feature ensures data privacy compliance.
