You've finally decided to look beyond Solution Manager - here's what you have been missing

The end is near! That’s right, mainstream support for SAP ECC will be ending in 2027. While this is fairly well known what is less obvious is that this also includes support for SAP Solution Manager. Let’s be honest though, the functional end of life for Solution Manager happened quite a while ago.

Why Solution Manager falls short in today’s hybrid SAP environments

Solution Manager is far behind the market in terms of capabilities when compared feature for feature with 3rd party solutions. It just isn’t good enough anymore, given it doesn’t support the next generation of hybrid deployments well, and certainly doesn’t support customers looking for a single solution across ECC, S/4HANA, RISE and BTP.  Even its successor; Cloud ALM, falls short here as well.  Even worse, without service and support, Solution Manager might face an unplanned demise due to an incompatibility or security issue for reasons yet unknown.

The case for moving beyond Solution Manager to enhance SAP operations

Many have settled on Solution Manager as a default choice for SAP operations.  Maybe initially it was sufficient, and taking advantage of better solutions for managing SAP wasn’t pressing. But with the end of Solution Manager imminent, there’s an opportunity to improve SAP operations, reducing the cost, downtime and complexity of doing so, even as one embarks on complex migration projects and runs SAP in multiple locations for a while. 

Solution Manager covers a broad range of management functionality well beyond the scope of this article.  So it’s helpful to pick a specific area then compare what a best of breed solution provides vs. SAP standard in Solution Manager and what that means for SAP operations. One of the most used capabilities in Solution Manager is the monitoring capability. When comparing Solution Manager to Avantra; a highly regarded SAP observability and automation solution, we can really see the difference. 

How automation and AI elevate SAP operations beyond Solution Manager

Solution Manager works, but it’s clunky, takes many man hours to maintain, and is a long way from state of the art. An SAP operations team using a best of breed solution would expect to support a complex, hybrid environment with just one solution on a single pane of glass, integrating with existing ITSM platforms managing more than just SAP. Additionally, it would automate system responses to conditions, identify operational risk, and leverage AI to automatically adapt and configure the solution to a specific environment. That’s a big difference, and in labor and operational downtime prevention alone the cost is easily justified.

And we’ve only just scratched the surface. Across the range of Solution Manager capabilities, 3^rd party solutions consistently outperform Solution Manager, offering more robust capabilities. Many SAP customers have already discovered this fact, but with the end of support for Solution Manager drawing near, many more will be compelled to look around for alternatives. They are in for pleasant discoveries. 

If something better than Solution Manager for SAP operations is what you have in mind for your environment, Avantra 25 and Avantra AIR provide solutions for AIOps specifically for SAP. 

Talk with one of our SAP experts today to find out more.

FAQs

When does SAP Solution Manager support end?

Mainstream support for SAP Solution Manager ends in 2027, coinciding with the end of support for SAP ECC.

Why is Solution Manager insufficient for modern SAP environments?

Solution Manager lacks adequate support for next-generation hybrid deployments and doesn't provide a single solution across ECC, S/4HANA, RISE, and BTP environments.

What are the main limitations of Solution Manager's monitoring capabilities?

Solution Manager offers only basic monitoring with manually set simple range thresholds, no predictive analytics, no automated response capabilities, and no AI-driven anomaly detection.

Does Solution Manager integrate with ITSM platforms like ServiceNow?

No, Solution Manager has limited ITSM integration, while best-of-breed alternatives like Avantra offer integrated support for ServiceNow and other ITSM solutions.

How does Avantra differ from Solution Manager for SAP operations?

Avantra provides integrated support across on-premise, cloud, and RISE environments, AI-driven automation, predictive analytics with AIOps, HotNews analysis with direct SAP API connection, and audit compliance capabilities that Solution Manager lacks.

Is SAP Cloud ALM a complete replacement for Solution Manager?

No, Cloud ALM also falls short in supporting hybrid deployments and doesn't provide a comprehensive single solution across all SAP environments.

What automation advantages do third-party solutions offer over Solution Manager?

Best-of-breed solutions provide fully automated responses, AI-driven actions to prevent downtime, automated analysis and forecasting, and AIOps engines that automatically learn and adapt to specific environments.

How does setup and maintenance compare between Solution Manager and alternatives?

Solution Manager requires complex implementation and upgrades with high maintenance costs, while solutions like Avantra offer automated implementations, near-zero downtime upgrades, and maintenance included in the cost.