How SAP Cloud ALM supports the adoption of clean core

A clean core describes a system that is as close to standard as possible while running cloud-compliant extensions and integrations.  It allows you to adapt your system to changing business requirements to adopt new capabilities.

Strong governance is required for each technical dimension of clean core.

Download Overview Presentation

Want to learn more?

Understand how SAP Cloud ALM supports the five Clean Core principles!

Watch the video

Business Processes

What is a "clean" process?

Keep competitiveness while reducing complexity

  • Enhance SAP standard solutions only if competitive advantages can be achieved
  • Use recommended SAP Reference Solution Architecture
  • Implement SAP Best Practices

SAP Cloud ALM capabilities:

  • SAP methodology for clean core with corresponding Quality Gates
  • Modeling, requirement and documentation management to design customer-specific processes 
  • Analytics and traceability dashboards to track the compliance with clean core criteria
  • Business process monitoring and job and automation monitoring

Extensibility

What are "good" extensions?

Decouple extensions from SAP standard

  • Follow the upgrade-stable extensibility model
  • Extend on stack or side-by-side with SAP BTP
  • Set up strong extension governance
  • Avoid extensions when possible

SAP Cloud ALM capabilities:

  • SAP Readiness Check to identify simplification items, custom code and add-ons
  • Agile build process for extensions
  • Central documentation and testing of extensions
  • Management and deployment of ABAP and BTP extensions
  • Instrumentation for monitoring of extensions

Data

What is "clean" data?

Control data following latest standards

  • Improve accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, validity, and uniqueness of your data
  • Control data volume to avoid outdated, unused, or redundant information
  • Store personal master data only with justifiable purposes

SAP Cloud ALM capabilities:

  • SAP Readiness Check to track the resolution of data quality issues (e.g. financial data quality)
  • Integration monitoring of end-to-end message processing, events and business objects
  • Data volume management to identify savings potential

Integration

What is "clean" integration?

Keep the landscape reliable and flexible

  • Use standard APIs (OData and SOAP) and avoid traditional APIs (RFC and IDoc)
  • Aim for side-by-side extensibility with API integration or SAP Integration Suite
  • Build loosely coupled integrations in an event-driven design based on standard events
  • Ensure monitoring and error resolution using SAP Application Interface Framework

SAP Cloud ALM capabilities:

  • Central documentation of integrations
  • Integrated management of CPI transports
  • Integration monitoring of end-to-end message processing, events and business objects
  • Exception monitoring to identify errors

Operations

What are "clean" operations?

Keep operations effective and efficient

  • Integrate monitoring use cases into operations
  • Always target the latest SAP release within your release management
  • Pursue best practice housekeeping activities according to defined roles and responsibilities
  • Agree that SAP performs maintenance within contractual maintenance periods (CMPs)

SAP Cloud ALM capabilities:

  • Full-stack monitoring based on the following use cases:
    • Processes: Business process monitoring and job and automation monitoring
    • Integration: Integration monitoring and exception monitoring
    • Monitoring of extensions: Health monitoring, real & synthetic user monitoring
    • Data: Integration monitoring
  • Business Service Management to align SAP maintenance events with your business downtimes
  • SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades to identify custom code and add-ons
  • Automated regression testing to manage change or upgrade events
  • Release management to bundle and track all change and testing activities

Key takeaways: ​SAP Cloud ALM and clean core

  • A clean core helps customers to stay current with innovation from SAP
  • SAP Cloud ALM helps customers to adopt clean core principles
  • Customers build differentiating processes and functionality using side-by-side or built in extensions
  • Data quality and clean core compliant integrations are a must
  • End to end monitoring drives business continuity and quality of process execution