The 2027 end of support for ECC may consume the oxygen in the room lately, but a less covered topic might be more critical: the end of support for Solution Manager has the potential for a larger-near term impact on large enterprises and SAP migration projects. This event is potentially more disruptive than the end of support for ECC by directly impacting the ability to continue IT operations for SAP.

SAP’s end-of-support decisions, aimed at incentivizing the move to Cloud ERP, have consequences for customers using Solution Manager functionality. The end of support for Solution Manager – included with SAP ECC as part of current maintenance, and continued availability depending on existing on-prem SAP maintenance agreements – creates exposure for any customer using Solution Manager today.

Those impacts are very real, as Solution Manager covers a lot of ground with SAP operations. Making it worse, even customers on extended maintenance through 2030 will lose some portions of Solution Manager in 2027 per SAP Note 3255311.

 Ancillary functionality around Solution Manager, including Focused Build, Focused Insights, Focused Run and Landscape Manager (LaMa) all have a similar fate and varying dates for end of support. For basis teams, the end of Solution Manager might be the bigger story of 2027 – and the end of support announcement and lack of recent roadmap commitments make it clear that Solution Manager is effectively end-of-life already.

What’s the exposure?

Solution Manager includes a broad range of functionality around SAP IT operations, creating a potential for disruption in many SAP deployments. Test case management, risk-based testing, test data management, technical monitoring, change/transport management, security, process management, infrastructure management, landscape management and more.

Frustratingly, the successor to Solution Manager, Cloud ALM, isn’t intended as a solution with feature parity to Solution Manager: the design is specifically Cloud ERP centric, and not intended for large on-premise estates or complex hybrid environments mixing SAP deployment topologies. This leaves many enterprises with a daunting challenge for the gap left by the end of support for ECC and Solution Manager, but before a full decommissioning of all ECC environments becomes possible.

So… what to do? 

No one solution replaces all Solution Manager functionality in an ECC environment. Many solutions available, however, cover a specialized segment of capability and often more comprehensively with better functionality. With an understanding of the most important aspects of Solution Manager coverage to a given enterprise, a choice can be made for a replacement solution, and one likely to have additional technical and operational cost benefits.

Observe. Optimize. Innovate. 

Avantra covers many key aspects of SAP IT operations, including improvements on Solution Manager components for monitoring, landscape management, ITSM integration, and Security Notes / Hot News implementation. One could replace Solution Manager, Focused Run, and LaMa with Avantra and expect to improve in the following areas:

• Monitoring across on-prem, hyperscaler, and RISE, with AIOps for automatic, real- time observability far beyond simple thresholds.

• ITSM Integration with enterprise solutions including Service Now.

• Landscape Management tasks and automation.

• Automation for many SAP operations tasks with a robust workflow engine built in.

• System Refresh – including automatic execution of pre and post copy activities often accelerating refresh by 10x or more.

• Automating Hot News and Security Notes, essentially eliminating evaluation/applicability research and verification and automating deployment in many situations.

This isn’t a complete list – there’s much more Avantra does for SAP IT operations! And, for other portions of Solution Manager – including Testing, Data & Change Management – we have great partners and we’re happy to speak with you about them.

SAP SAFARI! 

So, ride your Lama into the sunset, but don’t sweat Solution Manager’s end-of-life. While the end of support can present a challenge for ECC users planning to operate past 2027, Avantra provides a range of solutions generally more capable, more flexible and often with a lower total cost of operation than legacy SAP IT operations tooling. Now there’s an extra nudge to go ahead, dive in and improve.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does mainstream maintenance end for SAP Solution Manager?

Mainstream maintenance for SAP Solution Manager ends in 2027, with some portions of functionality ending per SAP Note 3255311 even for customers on extended maintenance through 2030.

What is SAP Cloud ALM and does it replace Solution Manager?

SAP Cloud ALM is the successor to Solution Manager, but it is still years from parity in many functional categories and may never have all the features of Solution Manager.

What functionality does Solution Manager provide that will be impacted?

Solution Manager covers test case management, risk-based testing, test data management, technical monitoring, change/transport management, security, process management, infrastructure management, landscape management, and more.

What are the alternatives to SAP Solution Manager?

Alternatives include specialized third-party solutions that cover specific segments of Solution Manager functionality, often more comprehensively with better features and lower total cost of operation.

How does Avantra replace Solution Manager capabilities?

Avantra covers monitoring, landscape management, ITSM integration, security notes implementation, automation for SAP operations tasks, system refresh, and other functionalities that Solution Manager does not cover.

What are the risks of continuing to use Solution Manager after 2027?

Customers using Solution Manager past 2027 face potential disruption to SAP IT operations, lack of updates in key functional areas, and limited support even with extended maintenance agreements.

Can Avantra help with the transition away from Solution Manager?

Yes, Avantra can replace Solution Manager, Focused Run, and Lama functionality while providing improvements in monitoring, automation, landscape management, and SAP-specific AI capabilities.