Merging SAP NetWeaver cloud into SAP HANA Cloud - What you need to know

Probably you have seen it already in various announcements or the release notes: SAP NetWeaver Cloud has become a part of SAP HANA Cloud. In short:

SAP HANA Cloud += SAP NetWeaver Cloud

With this, the SAP NetWeaver Cloud Java-based development environment, runtimes and shared platform services are now officially merged into SAP HANA Cloud together with SAP HANA Cloud Integration and SAP HANA Cloud Portal. And more will come to continue to evolve SAP HANA Cloud into SAP's single platform-as-a-service offering for building cloud applications.

Now, while we are all very excited about this you probably will be very interested to learn what will be the consequences for you, your applications and your customers. This document will give some overview on this including some recommendations what you could do. Before doing that I however want to point out that we will not introduce any changes that will break your existing installation and apps.

1. Accessing SAP HANA Cloud Sites

The various sites about SAP HANA Cloud will be accessible under new links. However, we will continue to offer the existing links:

My recommendation: Check and update your bookmarks.

2. Your Applications on SAP HANA Cloud

Applications on SAP HANA Cloud will be accessible via new links. Again, we will continue to offer your applications with the current link. So your applications will continue to work with the current links.

My strong recommendation: Make sure that you and your customers update their browser bookmarks to the new links to access the application. Check if your application has hard dependencies on the old links and test if your application is running and accessible via the new links. If you face difficulties with this, please let us know so that we can help you out.

3. SAP HANA Cloud Tools and Services

With SAP NetWeaver Cloud merging with SAP HANA Cloud all services and tools will be rebranded. Fortunately it is not rocket science to guess the new names in most cases, but still it worth to clarify on the changed names:

About Getting the Tools: When getting the tools, please consider that we have a new entry point to get the SDK and Tools for Java. Again, the old entry points will continue to work:

About Working with the Tools: No changes here: Apart from some changed output strings now showing "SAP HANA Cloud" the Tools for Java and console client have not changed. Your current working or build environment will continue to work without need for immediate changes.

About Working with the Samples: The new samples in the SAP HANA Cloud SDK assume that there will be a runtime called "SAP HANA Cloud". The old tools, however, per default will create a runtime with the name "SAP NetWeaver Cloud". For this reason, the old samples coming with the old SDK will run best with the old Tools for Java. The new samples coming with the new SDK will run best with the new Tools for Java. Anyway, samples already running in your working environment will continue to work without need for changes.

My recommendation: It is not required to upgrade to newer versions of the tools just because of the rebranding - your current working and build environment will continue to work. However, in case you upgrade I recommend to upgrade both, The SAP HANA Cloud SDK and the SAP Cloud Tools for Java to the latest version. In this case you will see the effects of the rebranding in your workplace. When upgrading, take care that you use the right entry points.

4. Deploying on SAP HANA Cloud

We will offer a new landscape host for deployment. Again, we will maintain the old endpoint so that you will not need to make changes to your working or build environment immediately. Still it is good to know that:

My recommendation: Start using the new landscape host by updating the settings in Eclipse and your scripts.

5. Community and Social Media

The merge with SAP HANA Cloud will also be reflected in the social media and community. While the community entry point will not change, we will update the tags and twitter handles:

My Recommendation: If you want to follow us, make sure to follow @saphanacloud on Twitter. If you tweet about us, tweet for #saphanacloud. Also, it is of course recommended refer to the product as "SAP HANA Cloud" in your future blogs and discussions.

6. Licenses, Contracts and Prices

The licensing model and prices will not change. State of today it is assumed that holds also true for contracts.

Conclusion

As you can see, no harm is done to your applications as well as your working and build environment so that you can now sit back and enjoy running on SAP HANA Cloud. Still the clear recommendation is to move to the new sites and tools early to check if all is still working as expected. If you feel that this transition is creating problems for you, do not hesitate to contact us so that we can find a solution.