Navigating Release Upgrades

The SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition follows the SAP S/4HANA (on premise) release cycle, because they are fundamentally the same software. After the annual release in 2023, SAP S/4HANA moved to a 2-year release cycle with mainstream maintenance being extended from 5 years to 7 years. This means there is one base release every other year, with each base release falling out of mainstream maintenance after 7 years. After a new base release becomes available, Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) are released every 6 months with new non-disruptive features until the next base release is launched. After a new base release is launched, the previous release will receive Support Pack Stacks (SPS) every 6 months with only corrections (no new functionality) until the end of mainstream maintenance. The customer is completely responsible for implementing all aspects of the upgrade with the on premise deployment of SAP S/4HANA.

For SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, there is a requirement to install at least one upgrade every 7 years to stay within mainstream maintenance. As part of the RISE with SAP services, customers are entitled to request one upgrade per year from SAP. SAP executes the technical upgrade, while any planning, preparation, testing, or other non-technical activities are the responsibility of the customer or an implementation partner.

All users logging into their SAP S/4HANA Cloud system will see a notification banner along the top of the screen after a release upgrade occurs and new features have been rolled out in their system.

Selecting "click here to find out more" opens a sidebar on the right side of the screen with information about the new or updated features. To access the sidebar directly, select the question mark icon in the top right corner, then choose the megaphone icon to the same what's new information about general changes that affect the user experience and work of all users in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

To access detailed documentation about features and changes within line of business, navigate to the SAP Help Portal for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. Toward the bottom of the page, you will see the What's New Viewer. The What's New Viewer is a comprehensive list of all new and changed features for a release. You can use the different filters to focus on the content relevant to you and export the information or share with colleagues. Because the What's New Viewer is the master list of all changes which may or may not be relevant for the business process content active in a customer's system, it requires the user to know what is already turned on in their SAP S/4HANA Cloud system.

The SAP Road Map Explorer is where you'll find the future planned enhancements.

While SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition only has major releases once per year, you'll see the planned enhancements divided into quarters, because that's how product management and our developers plan their workload, and new features can be published ad-hoc between releases. Many of the features you see in the Road Map Explorer have originated as requests from customers or partners in the Customer Influence & Adoption website. This website enables customers and partners to request enhancements to SAP software - campaigns with the most votes let our product managers that particular feature is highly desired from our customers. Customers can also get involved in early adopter and beta testing programs through this website.