SAP S/4HANA Technical.

Part 4
– How to identify S/4HANA from
Suite on HANA?

Identify S/4 HANA (S4H) from System/Suite on

HANA DB (SoH).
When I started working on HANA, I was wondering if there is any way to
know which HANA system I’m working on. I had just got my hands on a
system, which I heard is a HANA system and that’s all.  I was coming across
some terms like S4 HANA, S4H, SoH, Suite on HANA, ECC system with HANA
database and so on. To be frank, I was lost in these HANA terminologies. So
I started gathering info about all these jargons and finally I am ready to
make it simple for you all. So let’s get started.

Coming back to our topic for the day. We can categorize the HANA system in
two broad categories:

1. SAP Business Suite FOR HANA (S4 HANA/S4H)

2. SAP Business Suite/System ON HANA (SoH/ECC on HANA
Database)

“For” and “On” are making all the difference in S4H and SoH.

SAP for HANA (S/4 HANA or S4H)

This is the SAP system where you’ll get the Business Suite developed and
optimized for HANA. The data model has been ‘simplified‘and it works on the
‘Principle of One‘. For high-level understanding, we can say core tables of
certain business processes (MM, FI etc) has been replaced by a single table
(MATDOC, ACDOCA etc). SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA is therefore
called S/4 HANA.

The backend Application Layer runs only on HANA Database and the
Frontend will be developed in SAPUI5 (Fiori). If we co-relate with the
traditional 3 tier Architecture of SAP, HANA is the Database layer, S/4 HANA
is the Application Layer and Fiori the Presentation layer.

HOW TO IDENTIFY IF IT YOUR SAP

SYSTEM IS AN S/4 HANA SYSTEM?
S/4 HANA will have a component named ‘S4CORE’ like the one highlighted
in the screenshot.

Tips: Please check the product version and software component versions

carefully. I have highlighted it below for your convenience. We already know,
(will know it, if we don’t) there are 3 major releases for S4 HANA as on date.
Those are S4 HANA 1511, 1610 and 1709 and it is already discussed in
the first blog of this series. Along with that, there are three major releases
for S4Core as well. Those are S4CORE 100, 101 and 102. S4CORE 100
corresponds to S4 HANA 1511, 101 corresponds to 1610 and 102
corresponds to 1709.
System/Suite on HANA (SoH or ECC Business
Suite on HANA DB)
This is the system, where only the database used is HANA.  However, ECC
Business Suite is still used on top of HANA Database. So in regular ECC
system, traditional database (like Oracle, SQL, MS etc) is replaced by HANA
database. If we co-relate with the traditional 3 tier Architecture of SAP, HANA
is the Database layer, ECC is the Application Layer and Fiori can be
Presentation layer.

WHY TO USE A SOH SYSTEM

INSTEAD OF S/4H SYSTEM?
The answer to this question is, initially there was no roadmap to move to
S/4H from SAP ECC (like we have now – SUM with DMO), and only fresh
implementation (Greenfield Implementation) was possible and Conversion
but not Upgrade to S/4 HANA is possible. However, HANA database itself
would give a significant performance improvement.  So some of the
enterprises decided to convert the Database to HANA. So they are having
SAP ECC system on HANA database without the hassle of learning new
business processes and at the same time taking advantage of the in-memory
HANA Database.
In other words, many clients just migrate the database from traditional to
HANA without changing the front end. Such system becomes SAP ECC
Business Suite on HANA Database (SoH).   Although SAP Business Suite has a
different backend (HANA), it still can have Fiori User Interface and the same
SAP applications. This lets businesses benefit from the in-memory
performance boost of SAP HANA without restructuring the application
layer. This process is relatively simple, and users don’t have to adapt to a
whole new system at all and still enjoy the new flavor.

NOW THE QUESTION IS, HOW TO

IDENTIFY A SOH?
Simple, by checking the system status and software component versions.
On a Side Note:

SAP ECC could be installed on dual-stack i.e. ABAP stack and JAVA

stack. However, as of now,  HANA supports only ABAP stack. So, if any
particular add-on (CRM or PI for example), requires the JAVA stack, we need
to take the SoH approach for those add-ons. In that case, ECC business suite
can be converted to Business Suite  for  HANA (S4H) and the add-ons can be
installed as System  on  HANA (i.e CRM on HANA or PI on HANA).

CONFUSED?
SAP would be S/4 HANA (S4H) and all Addons (CRM, PI etc) which need Java
stack can be installed on HANA Database so those Addons would become
SoH i.e System on HANA Database.

Hope you got an idea. Next time someone says Suite on HANA or

Suite for HANA, you know what they exactly mean to say. Although there
seems to be a thin line between  on HANA  and  for HANA  but it does make
a big difference.
So are you working on Suite on HANA or are you working on Suite for HANA?
🙂