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SAP released SAP Cloud Platform Integration in March 2020; published Cloud Platform Core Services this week (released on December 15. 2020). This article aims to introduce SAP Cloud Platform Integration to readers. It has four parts: Q&A, Set up Cloud Integration Portal, Activate Integration Tenant, Design and Deploy a Workflow.
Part One: Q&A
To get more info on SAP Cloud Platform Integration please refer to SAP help portal:
https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/CLOUD_INTEGRATION/Cloud/en-US
And SAP Cloud Platform Integration community:
https://community.sap.com/topics/cloud-platform-integration-suite
And here for a free account:
https://cockpit.hanatrial.ondemand.com/trial/#/home/trial
SAP is making its products more accessible. Several years ago, it used to be not easy to access SAP environments. But today, if you prefer to visit SAP Cloud Platform, S/4HANA, HANA Studio, it is easy to access them at a reasonable price or even have a free trial.
Q&A 1
Question: What is SAP “Cloud Platform Integration”? SAP Cloud Platform Integration help portal answered this question as “Support end-to-end process integration through the exchange of messages. SAP Cloud Platform Integration service helps you to connect cloud and on-premise applications with other SAP and non-SAP cloud and on-premise applications. This service has the capabilities to process messages in real-time scenarios spanning different companies, organizations, or departments within one organization. SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite combines the integration capabilities Process Integration, API Management, Integration Advisor, and Open Connectors into a cohesive and simplified toolkit for enterprise integrations. To provide a comprehensive integration experience, these services are not available separately, but only as part of the Integration Suite service plan.”
Answer: have you ever heard about SAP XI/PI/PO? “That” is now named as Cloud Platform Integration (also known as CPI, nothing to do with price index). It’s a middleware, handles Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), Business Rule Management (BRM), and Business Process Management (BPM).
XI (SAP Exchange Infrastructure) about 2002/2003-2005 V3.0 is a mature version;
PI (SAP NetWeaver Process Integration) about 2005-2010 Version started at 7.0;
PO (SAP Process Orchestration) about 2011, V7.5 in 2015 is a mature version;
CPI (SAP Cloud Platform Integration) released in March-December 2020.
The following screenshot shows CPI and its predecessors/PO. This screen shot is taken on December 15. 2020; you can see that SAP have not given Cloud Platform Integration a version number:
Question: Who are the competitors of SAP Cloud Platform Integration?
Answer: IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, Tibco, SAS, Microsoft, etc. They have different focuses or features. SAP is a leading player.
Q&A 2
Question: why we need SAP Cloud Platform Integration?
Answer: same as SAP XI/PI/PO. Let me give you a scenario.
Project: we implement SAP Deposits Management (DM) for the customer/a bank;
Requirement: when business partner (BP) account has been approved by SAP Deposits Management, the system would notice one of its regional central locations to send a new “Token” and a activation post of the token to the BP.
Solution: this requirement cannot be accomplished by SAP solution itself, or by any other single module. SAP Cloud Platform Integration is powerful to handle such scenarios.
Q&A 3
Question: Is it important for function consultants to know something about SAP Cloud Platform Integration?
Answer: if SAP Bank is implemented on Cloud, settings of product type, flow type, condition type, could be different. In my opinion, the boundary between technical consultants and function consultants is becoming blurred: you can do many configurations without coding/limited coding. If a function consultant understands CPI, it is good for business analysis. In projects, tech colleagues will build them.
Question: can you show something with SAP Cloud Platform Integration?
Answer: sure, I will show how to config a basic workflow in Cloud Platform Integration. This is not a detailed step-by-step demo, but it will cover the important steps and screenshots, and try to present a clear picture, and help readers to have a basic understanding of Cloud Platform Integration. This example has three parts: Set up Cloud Integration Portal, Activate Integration Tenant, Design and Deploy a Workflow.