This Guidance demonstrates how SAP customers can modernize their long-standing custom applications, reduce application lifecycle costs, and increase flexibility when they move to the cloud or S/4HANA. The AWS software development kit can be used with low-code or no-code platforms, such as Mendix and SAP Build, to accelerate their application development.

Architecture Diagram

Download the architecture diagram PDF 

Well-Architected Pillars

The AWS Well-Architected Framework helps you understand the pros and cons of the decisions you make when building systems in the cloud. The six pillars of the Framework allow you to learn architectural best practices for designing and operating reliable, secure, efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable systems. Using the AWS Well-Architected Tool, available at no charge in the AWS Management Console, you can review your workloads against these best practices by answering a set of questions for each pillar.

The architecture diagram above is an example of a Solution created with Well-Architected best practices in mind. To be fully Well-Architected, you should follow as many Well-Architected best practices as possible.

  • Low-code and no-code (LCNC) applications are designed to reduce or eliminate the need for traditional developers to write code. And LCNC applications are at the core of this Guidance, helping you create a rapid application development environment with fewer resources. You can also use LCNC applications to pull near real-time data from SAP, AWS, and other third-party applications.

    Read the Operational Excellence whitepaper 

  • This Guidance includes connectors to SAP and AWS that enable principal propagation, where you can forward the principal (identity of a user) across several connections. For most uses, you can map users without the need of a service user. For detailed information, refer to Mendix - SAP Integration documentation. 

    Managed services reduce your security maintenance tasks as part of the shared responsibility model. AWS services deployed in this solution are secured using Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles. Single sign-on authentication is configured where applicable, eliminating the need of maintaining service users and secrets. And by using AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS), data is persisted in an encrypted format to protect it from unauthorized access. 

    Read the Security whitepaper 

  • Each architectural layer and component can be independently monitored with Amazon CloudWatch key performance indicators (KPIs), with automated resolutions in each managed service.

    Serverless services, such as Amazon S3, Amazon Redshift, and QuickSight scale horizontally, automatically responding to the velocity of data being ingested and processed.

    Read the Reliability whitepaper 

  • The services selected in each component are purpose-built for the SAP ECC clean core concept. Amazon S3 and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) are used for data storage. Amazon Redshift is used as a data warehouse to consolidate SAP and non-SAP data. And QuickSight reports can display visuals of your data.

    Resources used in this Guidance are spread out across on-premises and multi-cloud environments. Amazon Direct Connect can help you create a dedicated network connection to AWS based on volume, frequency, performance requirements, appropriate cloud locations, and connectivity mechanisms. 

    Using serverless technologies, you only provision the exact resources you use. The serverless architecture reduces the amount of underlying infrastructure you need to manage, allowing you to focus on onboarding new customers and building new product feature enhancements.

    Read the Performance Efficiency whitepaper 

  • This Guidance allows you to build a cost-optimized solution that is most aligned to your business requirements by offering multiple services in individual components.

    Depending on volume, latency, or the retention period, you can select the appropriate services to match your requirements, paying for only what you need. 

    Read the Cost Optimization whitepaper 

  • By extensively using serverless services, you maximize overall resource utilization as compute is only used as needed. The efficient use of serverless resources reduces the overall energy required to operate the workload. You can also use the AWS Billing Conductor carbon footprint tool to calculate and track the environmental impact of your workloads over time at an account, region, and service level.

    Read the Sustainability whitepaper 

Implementation Resources

A detailed guide is provided to experiment and use within your AWS account. Each stage of building the Guidance, including deployment, usage, and cleanup, is examined to prepare it for deployment.

The sample code is a starting point. It is industry validated, prescriptive but not definitive, and a peek under the hood to help you begin.

Open implementation guide
Open sample code on GitHub

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Disclaimer

The sample code; software libraries; command line tools; proofs of concept; templates; or other related technology (including any of the foregoing that are provided by our personnel) is provided to you as AWS Content under the AWS Customer Agreement, or the relevant written agreement between you and AWS (whichever applies). You should not use this AWS Content in your production accounts, or on production or other critical data. You are responsible for testing, securing, and optimizing the AWS Content, such as sample code, as appropriate for production grade use based on your specific quality control practices and standards. Deploying AWS Content may incur AWS charges for creating or using AWS chargeable resources, such as running Amazon EC2 instances or using Amazon S3 storage.