I have been attending DSAG Technology Days for over a decade. Every year the challenges fellow SAP operations professionals face grows like wildfire. Now, in 2022, IT functions work with distributed, containerized, hybrid, immutable and microservice landscapes - to name a few. Whilst keeping up with new and emerging interfaces, SAP operations teams have to monitor every one of these new entities. And that’s no mean feat. But, I believe there’s new growth coming…
What's next for SAP operations?
After the embers of wildfire die down, like the recent Log4j and ICMAD incidents, nature has an incredible knack for rebirth. And that’s my wish for the SAP operations industry. To see this new era as an opportunity for regeneration. There’s extreme demand for automation in 2022.
Post pandemic rebuilding and economic challenges are further fueling this desire. And, with limited people to answer the demand, and new skills needing to be learnt, automation is now mission critical in and of itself.
SAP is mission critical
We often talk about SAP as mission critical - and it is - but so is the need for automation. Traditionally, SAP has been difficult to automate due to complexity and legacy nuances, and therefore hasn’t accelerated at the same pace as its broader DevOps counterparts or the hyperscalers that have rapidly risen to application platforms in their own right.
Transparency in SAP operations
Transparency is the first step on the SAP operations automation journey. Imagine the power you get from total transparency into your full SAP stack. Being able to evaluate SAP HotNews in situ is just one example. Avantra delivers that line of sight in clear executive level dashboards that give you the metrics you need to define your legacy and digital transformation strategy.
Automation innovations
The next wave of innovations my engineering team is building right now include integrations to other platforms like Red Hat Ansible and Kubernetes. For ServiceNow our existing integrations are already very mature, and there is more to come. We are fully focused on building automations that bring SAP data into these technologies. And I believe this is the future power of SAP enabled automations.
The leading automation platform
Today, Avantra is the leading automation platform for SAP systems. With the Avantra Enterprise edition, it’s as easy as a one click install to immediately accelerate your automation journey. Think of automations like a pre delivered template where you simply feed in your data. Each automation takes care of a specific workflow. And, like building blocks, the templates are designed to be adapted to your specific use case - what’s more, the Avantra automation engine enables you to build your own customized automations. The possibilities are endless and my wish is for automation to be given the attention it deserves within the realm of SAP.
See you at DSAG Technology Days
Please come by the Avantra booth at DSAG Technology Days and speak to me or my colleagues about your plans and challenges. Or catch one of my product demonstrations where I’ll be showcasing real life examples of system copy refreshes, automated patching of SAP HotNews and much more!