DevOps for SAP (with CI / CD)
SAP provides a set of standards for ALM. Its ALM portfolio consists of processes, tools, services, and best practices, to manage SAP, throughout the entire application lifecycle. SAP follows the IT infrastructure library (ITIL) guidelines.
IKAN ALM – as an integrated tool on the SAP ABAP and Java Application Servers – concentrates on what happens after the actual software development stage: the Versioning, the Build process, Testing and the Deployment into Production. More specifically, IKAN ALM offers the following functions: commit to versioning for ABAP), the activation and build process, creation and management of the lifecycle (Development, Test & Acceptance and Production) and an approval process.
IKAN ALM respects the ALM process as designed by SAP whilst adding value to the Build, Test and Deploy steps by adding specific features and functions. IKAN ALM fully uses the SAP Solution Manager and the SAP Transport Manager and CTS+.
Orchestrate your SAP toolchain
Having the best tool for every step in your life cycle is one thing, but how to Orchestrate all of them? SAP Solution Manager is one answer, IKAN ALM another.
With the latest version, SAP has become more open in allowing partner tools to be integrated. So you can perform ABAP versioning, ABAP activation, JAVA build and deployment through SAP transport manager using the predefined IKAN ALM solution for SAP.
In other words use the SAP Solution Manager and related SAP tools for life cycle functions they support and complement the SAP solution with the developer and operations oriented IKAN ALM solution for SAP.
For create you use the standard SAP development tools like the ABAP Workbench or Netweaver. Versioning of ABAP can be done through our SAP certified add-on and for JAVA you can use the standard versioning facilities.
As you can have projects using ABAP and/or JAVA or other languages you can use the IKAN ALM project dependencies feature to make sure both travel together and in sync.
During the Build process we will create an archive that contains the needed JAVA archives at one hand and the activated ABAP code at the other hand.
SAP uses the Transport Package concept and the SAP transport Manager to populate the different SAP landscapes. IKAN ALM does nothing else then use the IKAN ALM Phase concept to create the SAP Transport packages and uses the SAP Transport Manager to populate the SAP Landscapes.
Releases (deploys) can be made approval based.
In case something would go wrong you always have the IKAN ALM rollback facilities to put the prior version back.
Leading you from idea to implementation in 3 simple steps
Discovery
Together we analyze your current development and release process and define the optimal SAP DevOps solution for your company. We clearly draw the roadmap on how to get there.
Pilot (POC)
Next we proof that the proposed solution works, by example. It takes only one week to deliver our proof-of-concept!
Go!
After the POC is finished we have your business case ready, give you a commercial proposal and begin implementing the solution.
SAP development at the pace of your business needs
IKAN ALM offers source control integration for ABAP with Subversion, just like NetWeaver offers versioning facilities for JAVA.
As IKAN ALM supports both ABAP and JAVA (and other languages as well) it facilitates the ALM process and adds value to SAP Solution Manager which lacks elaborated source control facilities. This feature is very useful to developers.
Get free insight!
Let us give you personal insight on how DevOps can make your SAP development -and release process much faster and reliable.
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DevOps for SAP in 5 minutes
Watch this short video on how to Version, Build and Deploy two interdependent SAP projects with IKAN ALM.
We'll be using a simple ABAP back end package with a dependency on a SAPUI5 front end project.
What our customers are saying
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Antonio Motta - ICT infrastructure manager, RMA (Italy)
"Our goal was to have one product, that managed the whole build and deploy process for all the platforms we used to deliver our IT services. We saved more than 2/3 on the software maintenance cost."
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Jim McGrath - Data Warehouse Manager, Constellation Brands (USA)
"My internal team was excited about the possibilities your software offers and is anxious to hear next steps. Additionally, you should know that I have ensured my team knows the level of effort and support your team has provided.
It is hands down the best support I have seen from any vendor I’ve worked with."
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Willy Mutsaerts - Technology Architect and Software asset management, P&V (Belgium)
"IKAN ALM allowed us to modernize our mainframe development as we wanted to use an eclipse based development environment and needed to have a compatible life cycle management solution to replace our current mainframe only version control software.
And IKAN ALM allowed us to interface with the mainframe and has extensive customization possibilities."
Watch Mr. Mutsaerts talk about IKAN ALM:
Benefits of IKAN ALM Business Case What makes IKAN ALM unique -
Jerome Rouil - IT Team Manager, GMF COVEA group (France)
"We did a POC to verify if IKAN ALM could support our different ways of deploying (on different types of platforms), our current way of doing development and the build and deploy scripts we were currently using.
IKAN ALM allows us to work from everywhere, and to reuse existing scripts. We could use our existing security system (LDAP), SMTP for messaging and notifications.
We use IKAN ALM for all our JAVA applications and SAS reporting that are deployed to 30 different locations"
Already using Jenkins or Cloudbees as your automation server?
All of our solutions (for z/OS, SAP and ODI) are also available as commercial Jenkins Plugins.
(More information coming soon)
- Out-of-the-box experience and well documented
- Includes support and maintenance plans
People are choosing DevOps because they want
High quality releases
As developers will version their code and as parallel development is supported you will have a more sound code base. Once the code is versioned, the build and deploy processes are fully automated. You can build and deploy as many times and as fast as you want.
More frequent deploys
A complete and automated process (build, deploy, approval and notification) is triggered once a developer commits his code to the version control repository. This process is reliable, repeatable and auditable so you can you can deploy more frequently.
Lower development costs
More frequent and qualitative deploys means happy business people since they'll have their desired functionality available faster. The automated process eliminates human mistakes and allows people to do more interesting work. A true win/win.
These companies already use IKAN ALM
