First of all, I would like to thank SAP Labs India, for organizing this amazing event – SAP ALM Partner Conference APJ 2022 which happened on November 17,2022

Special thanks to Marc Thier, Michael Kloeffer, Janko Budzisch for providing us so many insights about SAP Cloud ALM and its capabilities.

So, based on my understanding from attending this summit, I am writing this blog with key take aways for all Technology specialists, SAP Partners and Consultants who are looking forward to use Cloud ALM as their future ALM product.

1. SAP has given a clear roadmap for SAP Solution Manager, wherein the standard support for SAP Solution Manager Operations is still 2027, and SAP Solution Manager Implementation support for ITSM and CHARM is till 2030. After this time frame, customers can get extended support for next 3 years.
2. Reason for not extending this support to SAP Solution Manager is due to fact that JAVA framework support might end for Solution Manager.
3. SAP ALM is not an alternative for SAP Solution Manager.
4. A strong shift in the mindset of SAP Partner, Consultants and Customers is required in order to accommodate to this new product – SAP Cloud ALM
5. SAP Focused Run and Cloud ALM will be the products for managing SAP systems in the future.

Cloud ALM as a product as in November 2022.

1. Cloud ALM has proven its efficiency in Operations phase of SAP ABAP and Cloud Products especially SuccessFactors, Ariba.
2. It has strong monitoring capabilities such as Business Process Monitoring, Real User Monitoring, Synthetic Monitoring, Interface Monitoring, Job Monitoring & Health Monitoring.
3. However, Cloud ALM is still on its improvisation path on the Implementation phase of ABAP and Cloud products.
4. Every new feature that’s been added by SAP is released to Cloud ALM tenants every fortnight.
5. SAP Signavio and Tricentis Test Automation will be products used for Process Modeling and Testing along with Cloud ALM.
6. The license of Signavio and Tricentis is included along with Cloud ALM subscription, customers does not need to purchase separately

Limitations of Cloud ALM as in November 2022.

1. Upload functionality is not yet been included, which means we shall not be able to upload anything into Cloud ALM. Be it Test cases, Test results, Project documents etc. The upload functionality would also be implemented by SAP in future releases.
2. ITSM functionality is not in Cloud ALM. This means customers need to opt for 3rd party ITSM tools when they move out of SAP Solution Manager.
3. Email notifications whenever there is any status flow change across Cloud ALM functionalities isn’t there, but SAP has promised that this functionality will be included in the upcoming releases in 2023.
4. AS JAVA systems aren’t included in the landscape of Cloud ALM. The concept of CTS+ is a white space.
5. Exporting of BPMN diagram as .BPMN file isn’t available, you can export either as PDF or SVG file from Cloud ALM

Advantages of using SAP Cloud ALM as in November 2022.

1. Cloud ALM infrastructure is taken care by SAP. The tenant is managed by SAP.
2. Within 15 minutes of requisition, a dedicated tenant is assigned to the customers by SAP.
3. Cloud ALM subscription is given along with any SAP Cloud product, so we can actually start using Cloud ALM if we already have SAP S/4 HANA cloud or SuccessFactors etc.

So dear friends and SAP family, let us start using the product SAP Cloud ALM and be with SAP during this growing phase of Cloud ALM. Remember, it took 20 years for SAP Solution Manager to be a robust ALM tool for On-premises solutions.

For more information, please check below links

Application Lifecycle Management (sap.com)

Application Lifecycle Management | SAP Community