SAP Cloud ALM positioning 2024 – Saptechnicalguru.com

SAP Cloud ALM on the SAP Focused Run blog? Why?

SAP Cloud ALM and SAP Focused Run have a lot of overlapping capabilities.

The goal is not to push a tool, but to monitor, safeguard and secure SAP system running by customers. The tool is a means and not the goal.

What we will discuss:

High level positioning of Cloud ALM, Focused Run and Solution manager
Current status in 2024 for the tools
Possible considerations

This positioning blog is for the year 2024. Next year when new functions and insights are available the positioning and considerations can change.

High level positioning of Cloud ALM, Focused Run and Solution manager

The below picture is the best one and is taken from the Focused Run overview presentation:

Positioning:

Solution manager: it works, but no new developments, supported until 31.12.2027
Focused Run: suitable for large customer and advanced needs
Cloud ALM: standardized setup

Cloud ALM vs Focused Run

Cloud ALM is a standardized SAP service. It has certain capabilities, but no extensions. Due to its standardized setup is can be made working very fast with a few clicks. The functions will work fast, but configuration options are limited to the use cases provided by SAP. Data volumes on Cloud ALM are not to be too high, since the UI’s are still designed for small and medium customers with lower amount of systems, alerts, etc.

Focused Run admins will be quick to adopt SAP Cloud ALM since there is a large similarity in concepts and UI.

Comparison table:

Dimension	Cloud ALM	Focused Run
Technical setup complexity	Low	Medium for ABAP, High for non-ABAP
Technical setup time	Low	Low to medium
Maintenance effort	Low	Medium
Upgrading to unlock new functions	No effort, SAP takes care	High effort to upgrade
Volume of data that can be handled	Low to medium	High to very high
Complexity of scenario’s that can be handled	Low	Low, medium, high
Extension possibilities	Very limited	Possible with API and custom code
Feature extensions	Fast, bi-weekly	Every half year major and minor features will be added
Current features	Limited, but growing fast	Extensive, don’t expect major extensions

Considerations

Currently running SAP solution manager

If you have functions running on SAP solution manager, first consideration is the move to SAP Cloud ALM. SAP solution manager hosts normally EWA, CHARM, documentation/implementation and/or monitoring functions. An SAP readiness check is available to check your move from SAP solution manager to Cloud ALM. Read this blog on the how.

Currently running SAP Focused Run

If you are currently running SAP Focused Run, you most likely will keep it the next few years. But still do keep track of the SAP Cloud ALM functions, and try them out.

SAP Cloud ALM might be a good solution to monitor less important systems with lower demand like sandboxes, development and test systems. These system typically don’t need intense monitoring, but mostly availability monitoring.

SAP Cloud ALM might be a good solution to monitor your SAP Cloud hosted and SAP BTP scenarios. Setup in Cloud ALM for these scenarios is far simpler than setting these up in SAP Focused Run.

SAP Focused Run will never be enabled for business process monitoring. That functionality is now available in SAP Solution manager and will only be available in the future in SAP Cloud ALM.

Monitoring solutions for running installations

If you have a running SAP installation and are looking for a good monitoring solution, then it is wise to check both SAP Cloud ALM and SAP Focused Run. Depending on your needs you can choose between both.

Check the road map of SAP Cloud ALM as well to see if missing gaps will be addressed in the upcoming year.

The business case for a monitoring solution is different per line of business. The main business case is roughly: “We will avoid or solve much faster Y major incidents per year. Each major incident costs is about xxx.xxx USD/EUR”.

New solutions

For new SAP solutions: first consider using SAP Cloud ALM. Only when expecting high volume and high monitoring requirements, set up SAP Focused Run.

Cloud ALM usage rights

Cloud ALM is in principle for free within the usage rights. The usage rights can be found on this link.

Important restrictions: 8 GB in size (in 2024) and only 1 Cloud ALM per customer (see OSS note 3343265 – When provisioning SAP Cloud ALM in SAP for Me your company is “Not Entitled/No Data” and SAP Cloud ALM cannot be provisioned).

Extensions can be procured: SAP blog.

Test driving Cloud ALM

You can use the SAP Cloud ALM demo system to test drive Cloud ALM and see if it would potentially meet your needs. Read more in this blog.

Cloud ALM background material

More background material on Cloud ALM can be found on:

Summary

SAP Cloud ALM functions are growing fast and are definitely worth using. SAP Cloud ALM is a highly standardized function. This makes it for SAP possible to deliver new functions fast and easy to integrate and easy to use. The highly standardized functions comes with a setback that the solution cannot be extended to any particular need you might have.

It is out-of-the-box what you get, and nothing more.

<< This blog was originally posted on SAP Focused Run Guru by Frank Umans. Repost done with permission. >>