Explaining the Architecture of SAP Build Work Zone

SAP Business Technology Platform provides many powerful services used within the Intelligent Enterprise. Many of the services have a simple onboarding procedure and overall architecture. SAP Build Work Zone however is different in this regard: it consists of multiple architectural components. While some of them are optional (for example SAP Business Application Studio), others are either included by default and/or are vital for even onboarding to the solution.

SAP Build Work Zone and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone are SAP BTP offerings available on multi-cloud environments (powered by Cloud Foundry). The figure below shows the solution architecture and components relevant for both offerings:

Watch the following video to learn about the solution architecture of SAP Build Work Zone and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone is detail.

It is important to highlight that both SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone have the same architecture and baseline functionality. This became especially relevant when the pre-requisite procedure to decouple SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone from SAP SuccessFactors HXM Core (BizX) was introduced. Now SAP Cloud Identity Services is used for user authentication & provisioning across all product editions.

From a functional and technical point of view, there is no difference between SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone. Both editions include rich pre-delivered (and regularly updated by SAP) content for HXM and other SAP LoB scenarios. The content includes UI Integration Cards, Guided Experiences and Workspace Templates. Information about the pre-delivered content is well documented in the SAP Help Portal. Since both editions include the same functionality, the primary difference between the editions is that SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone comes as a solution bundle with additional SAP BTP services included. On the other hand, SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition is solely covering the Work Zone platform itself.

In the context of this unit / training SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone are used interchangeably unless stated otherwise.

The next lessons review the solution architecture of SAP Build Work Zone by describing the default, mandatory, and optional in components.

Default components of SAP Build Work Zone include:

• Digital Workplace Service (DWS)
• Launchpad
• UI Theme Designer
• Mobile Services
• SAP Connectivity service
• SAP Destination service

Mandatory components of SAP Build Work Zone include: SAP Cloud Identity Services.

Optional components of SAP Build Work Zone include:

• SAP Business Application Studio
• SAP Build Process Automation
• SAP Task Center
• SAP Notification Service

Depending on the SAP BTP offering, there can be a subscription as well as a service. SAP Build Work Zone comes with both:

Subscription

Used as software-as-a-service (or simply application) for SAP Build Work Zone. This is what all types of the users access on a day-to-day basis.

Service

Used for API based operations, for example to deploy UI Integration Cards and Content Packages directly from SAP Business Application Studio or to transport business applications, groups, roles, and catalogs using SAP Cloud Transport Management service.

In contrast to other SAP BTP offerings, it’s not enough just to create a subscription in the SAP BTP subaccount. Both SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone have a dedicated onboarding procedure requiring the implementation of certain prerequisites and configuration steps before, and after creating the subscription. The onboarding procedure for SAP Build Work Zone and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone are documented on the SAP Help Portal.

The onboarding procedure for both SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone consists of 4 steps:

• The starting point is to check and implement prerequisites for SAP Build Work Zone. Besides the availability of the SAP BTP subaccount, it is necessary to:
  • Setup the security infrastructure. Note that the information at SAP Help Portal covers the standard scenario for security infrastructure by utilizing SAP Cloud Identity Services, Identity Authentication, as the primary engine for user authentication in SAP Build Work Zone. It’s possible to have a more complicated security infrastructure with third-party Corporate Identity Provider (IdP) but it should be designed and configured by security architects and consultants as part of the implementation project.
  • Migrate SAP Jam to *.ondemand.com domain if the scope of project is migration from SAP Jam to SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition, or SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone.
• The next step in the onboarding procedure is to run the Booster for SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition or SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone. Note that they have different Boosters. The Booster is executed from the SAP BTP global account and it is necessary to have the respective authorizations. The Booster helps scope and enable necessary subscriptions and services in the SAP BTP subaccount, generates destinations, creates role collections, etc.
• When the execution of the Booster is completed, it might still be required to perform some manual configuration activities that are not covered by the Booster. These steps fall under Post-Booster.
• The last step is the execution of Work Zone Configurator. This wizard belongs to SAP Build Work Zone subscription. It helps to complete application-specific configuration steps, for example setup user provisioning to SAP Build Work Zone with SAP Cloud Identity Services, Identity Provisioning.

Coming back to the difference between service and subscription, it’s important to understand the APIs offered by SAP Build Work Zone. Technically SAP Build Work Zone has multiple API layers:

The First API Layer

Provided by the already mentioned SAP Build Work Zone service. When the respective service instance of SAP Build Work Zone is created in the SAP BTP subaccount, it is possible to setup the deployment process of UI Integration Cards and Content Packages from SAP Business Application Studio, as well as connect to the SAP Cloud Transport Management service to organize software logistics and change management process between tenants.

The Second API Layer

Provided by Digital Workplace Service (DWS), one of the default components of an SAP Build Work Zone subscription. It provides end points for user provisioning and working with content (for example, workspaces, feeds, blogs, etc.) stored within DWS.

The API layers involve different configuration steps and even have different target hostnames.