The SAP HANA Cloud Platform is a enterprise ready, standards based PaaS. It is the platform of choice for developing extensions for SuccessFactors Employee Central. This presentation explains what the SAP HCP is and how it can be used to enhance _your_ SuccessFactors solution to work for _your_ company.
Streamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project Setup
SAP HANA Cloud Platform - SuccessFactors Extensions
1. SAP HANA Cloud Platform, with
Extension Packs for
SuccessFactors Employee Central
Chris Paine, SAP Mentor, Chief HR Geek @ Discovery Consulting
@wombling
2. “If we don't change, we don't grow. If
we don't grow, we aren't really
living. ”
Gail Sheehy
“If you do not change direction, you
may end up where you are heading.”
老子 Laozi
3. Legal Disclaimer
Some information in this communication is confidential and proprietary to SAP, and is for general informational purposes only; this
information shall not be binding on SAP, nor shall this communication be construed or argued as a commitment or promise to do
anything. SAP has no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this document or any related presentation, or to develop
or release any functionality mentioned therein. It would be unreasonable for you to rely on the statements made in this presentation as
it is understood that SAP may, at any time, unilaterally, without any liability whatsoever, change, alter, revise, or abandon any part of its
plans with respect to the software discussed herein. You agree that plans related to SAP HANA Cloud are not guaranteed in any way,
shape, or form and SAP HEREBY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED (INCLUDING ALL WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, AND ALL WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE) in any way arising from, related to, or in any
way connected to the information contained in the message. The information contained in this communication, and any related
presentation on SAP's strategy and possible future developments, products and or platforms directions and functionality are all subject
to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. This information is not a commitment, promise or
legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. As noted above, this information is provided without a warranty of any
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or non-infringement. This information serves for informational purposes only. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions.
You agree that it shall not share the contents of this communication (in whole or in part) with any person or organization without the
prior express written consent of SAP, and it is agreed that you shall indemnify and hold SAP entirely harmless from and against any loss,
harm, claim, demand, or consequence arising from, related to, or in any way connected to this communication, or any un-permitted
disclosure of the contents of this message.
4. Who am I?
Chris Paine
SAP Mentor
15+ years of SAP HCM consulting experience
Chief HR Geek @ Discovery Consulting
@wombling
Blog: www.wombling.com
8. Features
Standards-based development
and run-time environment
Persistency service leveraging
the speed of HANA
Scalable Document Service for
managing unstructured data
Connectivity service enabling
seamless integration with on
premise SAP and other systems
9. Features
Federated identity
management via the SAP
Identity Management service
Remotely monitored and
managed apps via a web-
based account page
Mash-up SAP apps and 3rd party
content with the SAP HANA
Cloud Portal
Integration with the SAP Store
10. The SAP Cloud Computing Stack
SaaS
SAP HANA App Services
Native SAP HANA | Java | Portal | Mobile | Collaboration | Integration | HTML5 | MDF
PaaS
SAP HANA DB Services
In-Memory | Transactions | Analytics | Text | Predictive | Planning
SAP HANA Cloud Platform
IaaS
SAP HANA Cloud Infrastructure Layer
SAP Cloud | Public Cloud – SAP HANA One on AWS | Telco / Hosting Partners Cloud
11. SAP Jam
A REST based API exists for
SAP Jam. Extending the
solution and integrating it
into new solutions is
completely possible from
SAP HANA Cloud Platform.
Adding a cross platform
social collaboration option
13. SAP Cloud Connector
A secure VPN from your on premise
solutions to SAP’s Cloud.
Connect once from inside your secure
company network. Easy to setup and
configure
Secure, only way to access is through
SAP HANA Cloud Platform applications
configured to use the cloud connector
14. Security
ISO/IEC 27001 requires management:
Systematically examine the organization's
information security risks, taking account of the
threats, vulnerabilities, and impacts;
Design and implement a coherent and
comprehensive suite of information security
controls and/or other forms of risk treatment (such
as risk avoidance or risk transfer) to address those
risks that are deemed unacceptable;
Adopt an overarching management process to
ensure that the information security controls
continue to meet the organization's information
security needs on an ongoing basis.
Source - Wikipedia
18. Heard it before?
We need to have this new
functionality
Social!
Can we get this, like, yesterday?
I want this on my iPad
I want this on my tablet, not an iPad
Is it secure?
It has to integrate with the solutions we already have
No, you won’t get any additional budget for it
23. Again, but with bars
On Premise
Flexibility
Agility
Control
SaaS
Cost
to your business
+Customizedtime-consuming to
- Expensive,update
+maintain / under IT control
Completely
Flexibility
Agility
Control
Cost
size fits
- “Onenot work all” existing
with
- May
+ applications/data
- Scalable, cost effective
- Limited application configuration
No control over individual
application capabilities or hosting
environment
24. SaaS enhanced with PaaS
Flexibility
Agility
Control
Cost
+Configured to your business
+Easy to maintain/update
+Integrated with existing
applications/data
+Control over deployed
+applications
Limited control over application
hosting environment
configurations
25. Platform Extensions – an example
Harmonized
navigation and
Out-of-the-box
Portal runtime for
services for
Extension Apps
developing
Extension Apps
such as
SSO, Theming, Dat
a Access
(MDF), Storage, To
oling,
Mobile support, etc.
27. Market Place in Admin tooling
Minimal clicks to
“try before you buy”
– test out solution in
Sandpit first.
Build/configure
solution in space
with restricted
viewing and then
publish when ready.
40. Home
Web Page
Theming API
SF
Application
BizX
Software
as a Service
BizX
Entities
Extension
Entities (MDF)
Shared
Services
SSO
Lifecycle mgmt
Integration
UI Theming
& Navigation
SAP HANA
Cloud Platform
Platform
as a Service
Extension Application
Web Pages
Portal Services
Extension
Application
Extension Entities
and Files
Platform Services
SAP and 3rd
Party apps
OAuth
Etc.
Integration API
UI Theming
& Navigation
OData API
High level architecture
42. Value proposition
For SuccessFactors Customers, a growing library of easy to install and
manage solutions to enhance your solution. The option to build your
unique solution to give you a competitive edge.
For Partners, the opportunity to participate in a global market, get
access to SuccessFactors customers and build and enhance solutions
in a standards based environment
43. Value proposition
SPEED
CONTROL
• In-memory technology for real-time
data access
• Shared services for faster application
roll-out
• Ready to go with your next biz need
• Web based built-in monitoring
• Connect capability to securely access data from
both cloud and on-premise
• Dedicated sandbox for each customer
FLEXIBILITY
AGILITY
• Open standards-based technology
• Dynamically scales
• Aligned with mobile and social
• Access to SAP partner ecosystem
• Tight integration with SuccessFactors
applications
• Variety of apps in SAP Store
FUTURE-PROOF
COST
• No timed obsolescence
• Incremental improvements –
no service disruption
• Used by SAP
• SAP maintains infrastructure
• No upgrade impact
• No vendor lock-in
45. SAP HANA Cloud Platform
We need to have this new
functionality
Social!
Can we get this, like, yesterday?
I want this on my iPad
I want this on my tablet, not an iPad
Is it secure?
It has to integrate with the solutions we already have
No, you won’t get any additional budget for it
Change is an inescapable part of life and doing business. Avoiding it is futile, embracing it and attempting to understand it, much more useful.
Blah blah, safe harbour, blah blah – the real reason for putting this in here is that I’ve been lucky enough to secure permission for a few of my SAP contacts to reuse some of the content from their slide decks – but to make everyone happier, have included this standard, it may all change tomorrow disclaimer
Please do take picture, tweet, even post to facebook if you like, being social starts at the beginning of a presentation, not in the contact details at the end!
Example first
Example AWS … Should be noted that HEC is a hell of a lot more than an IaaS as we’re talking about managing and running SAP software on top of it too in a managed software or MSaaSkinda way – but underneath, if you want a HANA db in the cloud, you can get one here.
Finally PaaS
What is it – well…J2EEver 6 certified web runtime environment (funny seeing the SAP logo on an Oracle web page)A choice of databases – including HANA – MaxDb is the other.Ability to store unstructureed data – docs, videos, that sort of thing (although you do have a total size limit, so setting up a competitor to YouTube, probably not a good idea) Embedded connectivity to SAP on premise systems through SAP Cloud Connector
Built in user management, web based monitoring tools, an incredibly powerful and easy to use display option with SAP HANA Cloud Portal, and eventually, for partner’s the option to sell solutions through the SAP Store, and for customers to purchase and provision solutions via the SAP Store.
All together, it looks like this
Social is where things are going and the platform has direct links into the SAP Jam solution, and is the preferred solution for enhancing it.
There are multiple ways to connect to an on premise solution to a cloud solution, the options reduce when you factor security into the equation. Typically, you are looking at the ole DMZ approach with reverse proxies and “holes” in firewalls. As someone who has in the past tried to get cloud solutions to talk securely to SAP systems, there is a lot of work in getting this done – typically weeks of lobbying and going through committees etc. It’s harder than trying to get a Tech Spec approved by Matt Harding. The simpler approach – enabled by SAP HANA Cloud Platform is to use the Cloud Connector. (I believe it uses TLS not SSL, but unless the latest Snowdon leaks get clarified a bit more, it’s likely that this is pretty secure.)
Use diagram to explain how these things connect together
Its about being a secure solution – a cloud company that gets hacked has no credibility. Everything that is done has security built into it.
2 in Sydney, one with Verizon and one with MacQuire
I love the idea of a reverse proxy farm, you can imagine a hacker being bounced backwards and forwards with no idea where they are – but I guess that’s the point
Ok, so someone clearly has been drinking the KoolAid here…. I admit it I am an unashamed fan of the solution, it’s very usable, and very developer friendly. But…
To the business and IT reality – why on earth do we need this? Cool as it is, why use it? Firstly lets think about our current IT systems.
On Premise is incredibly flexible, and we have a huge level of control, we can keep running the same unsupported outdated software for years if we really fear change that much. Unfortunately due to the issues of needing our own hardware to run things on and potentially the amount of legacy code that we need to test against, our ability to change things quickly is severely hampered. Likewise, a large CapEx is needed to get the solution working.
SaaS, the answer to all our agility prayers, now I can add a whole new business into my solution, and have the initial infrastructure up in a day, Due to cloud companies running with “best practice” for all customers, huge economies of scale are possible, and so solution is relatively cheap to implement, CapEx minimal.The problems are “you get what you get and you don’t get upset”, and you do not have as much control as compared to on Premise.
Now add PaaS into the mix. The areas where SaaS was limited, PaaS can make a difference (OK, to be far, not as flexible or as controlled as OnPremise) but the issues we had with a one size fits someone else approach can be negated, we have the option to add flexibility and to a certain extent additional control over out applications.
Now, radar graphs are great for sales people because they disproportionally represent the data – imagine you have a graph with a 0-5 axis, one option scores 2 on all points, and one scores 4. The area shown under the graph is 4 times not 2 times larger in the second case. However, I did use then in case you feel like be a little salesy, - however, if you’re more into a clearer representation, check out these graphs. You should note that there are no numbers associated and I pretty much pulled the values out of my arse, but they do represent many years of experience with these systems. I’m pretty sure, if you do some digging you can find backup for the numbers.
SAP have a similar set of graphs, but they have the cost line above the access, which I think makes it harder to read. In the end, any cost is a negative, although a low cost is more positive? Ok will stop now and talk about what this looks like in the real world.
This is an example of the SuccessFactors Employee Central main screen. There are a whole bunch of widgets that the user can use. One though (Networking Lunch) is NOT a standard SuccessFactors component. The administrator of this particular SuccessFactors company has enabled and added the Networking Lunch extension feature. We can even see this additional feature has its own spot in the user menu (at the bottom) Note also how the widget looks just like all the others, same fonts, same colours – same theme!
We can open the app up and go a little more into the custom features – the theming applied to the main SuccessFactors views are replicated here – note the fonts and colours – if I changed the main SuccessFactors site, these would change too!Imagine the company specific process that you have that makes your company run better than anyone else? Could it fit here?
So how is it all built? – Does anyone in the room – other than Alisdair Templeton know the relationship between all the logos on the right?Anyone other than Alisdair know what the logo in the middle is? (Clojure – a modern Lisp dialect, designed for concurrency)The main point (although it is not required) for developing apps is Eclipse, and SAP provide plugin environments to view the servers, manage logs and security settings. These allow you to manage both local test servers and remote SAP accounts. It is possible (and sometimes required) to use command line options to deploy to/manage the remote accounts instead.
The theming of the solution within the SuccessFactors solution is provided by embedding the development within SAP HANA Cloud Portal.
Building sites in the cloud portal is incredibly easy – you can try it out for FREE in the trial version of the Cloud portalHere we can see we have created some custom widgets to display content
Whilst Themes and roles are do-able in the HCPortal, our extensions inherit the SuccessFactors theme, and as long as the content we display uses the CSS style tags this all works auto magically
Maintaining a website using the cloud portal tooling is really simple. It is also reassuring that all the content works across web and mobile devices.
Onto account management – here I’m logging onto my own trial account and can see the applications running. On the left hand side there are a bunch of options
Note that in the database area I can see multiple schemas – even for applications that I have since deleted! SAP offers some real control here, data is only deleted once you specify that you want it deleted! Great thing here is that if you’re building a trial app you CAN delete your database as and when you want.
Some of the strengths of SAP HANA Cloud Platform are in its security, as long as you’re not concerned about the NSA listening in to your details (which if you connect to any device that connects to the Internet is pretty much what can happen) then the platform offers some enterprise strength ways to manage your security, including SAML authentication to your enterprise IDP.
For a given application it is also possible to view the logs, details of the application runtimes etc.
As previously mentioned security is a BIG concern with sapHCP and every outgoing request destination must be explicitly coded into the application properties
In summary of the enhancement solution -
Value proposition of enhancing SuccessFactors with SAP HANA Cloud Platform
Availability dates of the solution are not officially released, but expect to hear something in the next month or so – The key here is that this is about enabling YOUR business – not necessarily everyone’s you can have a business differentiation but still use a SaaS platform and benefit from that.