Serverless computing is a truly cloud-native paradigm. Servers and other computing resources are completely hidden away from the developer and the end user. There are servers in serverless, but these are operated by the cloud provider, which means you can almost forget about most tedious maintenance and operations activities. Nicer still is the fact that your cloud provider automatically scales the load for you. You don’t need to worry about peak loads on your side as this is taken care of.
Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) refers to an event-driven atomic piece of code that runs in stateless ephemeral containers created and maintained by a third party – typically a cloud provider. From a technology standpoint, FaaS is a combination of code, configuration, and dependencies executed on a compute service in an isolated container. Resource allocation is done in a serverless environment. The resources required to run code are dynamically allocated by the cloud provider.
As a result, developers are responsible for neither capacity planning nor the optimal allocation of resources. In practical terms, Function-as-a-Service allows adding event-driven, serverless functionalities that are completely decoupled from existing application landscapes.
SAP’s Business Technology Platform until now has offered two Function-as-a-Service options with slightly different scope and feature sets.
SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime has been one of SAP’s Function-as-a-Service offerings to enable rapid development in serverless, event-driven environments specifically targeted at extensions in SAP landscapes. SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime is a fully managed cloud service for building, running, and managing stateless application functions.
SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime has been SAP’s second FaaS offering, allowing customers to build extensions by using both microservices and serverless functions. SAP BTP, Kyma runtime is a fully managed Kubernetes runtime based on the open-source project "Kyma". This cloud-native solution allows developers to extend SAP solutions with serverless functions and combine them with containerized microservices. The offered functionality ensures smooth consumption of SAP and non-SAP applications , running workloads in a highly scalable environment, and building event- and API-base extensions.
In short, SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime offers several technical capabilities and benefits:
These technical capabilities optimize development and give you tangible business benefits:
Customers so far have had the choice between these two great environments to develop their functions-as-a-service. Over time though, it has shown that SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime has proven the more beneficial and more well-rounded runtime for customers, offering more options and benefitting from the traction of its open-source community.
OData Provisioning exposes business data and business logic as OData services on SAP Business Technology Platform, thereby enabling customers to run user-centric applications on SAP Cloud. In the Multi-Cloud/Cloud Foundry environment context, OData Provisioning has been available as a part of the SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime.
SAP’s Business Technology Platform until now has offered OData provisioning with slightly different scope and feature sets:
In particular, SAP Integration Suite supports:
Customers so far have had the choice between the different services for provisioning of OData services. With SAP Integration Suite enabling and end-to-end API based integrations, customers will have the added value of not just provisioning of OData services but to also manage the lifecycle of the service.
It is due to this that SAP has decided to discontinue SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime and to instead increase the focus on and efforts for SAP BTP, Kyma runtime and SAP Integration suite for the respective capabilities.
Please note this however does not have any impact on the OData Provisioning service on the NEO environment.
For all existing customers who already use the SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime, we are looking forward to engaging with you to help make the transition as smooth and non-disruptive as possible.
Function-as-a-Service
Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) refers to an event-driven atomic piece of code that runs in stateless ephemeral containers created and maintained by a third party – typically a cloud provider. From a technology standpoint, FaaS is a combination of code, configuration, and dependencies executed on a compute service in an isolated container. Resource allocation is done in a serverless environment. The resources required to run code are dynamically allocated by the cloud provider.
As a result, developers are responsible for neither capacity planning nor the optimal allocation of resources. In practical terms, Function-as-a-Service allows adding event-driven, serverless functionalities that are completely decoupled from existing application landscapes.
SAP BTP's Function-as-a-Service Offerings until now
SAP’s Business Technology Platform until now has offered two Function-as-a-Service options with slightly different scope and feature sets.
SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime has been one of SAP’s Function-as-a-Service offerings to enable rapid development in serverless, event-driven environments specifically targeted at extensions in SAP landscapes. SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime is a fully managed cloud service for building, running, and managing stateless application functions.
SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime has been SAP’s second FaaS offering, allowing customers to build extensions by using both microservices and serverless functions. SAP BTP, Kyma runtime is a fully managed Kubernetes runtime based on the open-source project "Kyma". This cloud-native solution allows developers to extend SAP solutions with serverless functions and combine them with containerized microservices. The offered functionality ensures smooth consumption of SAP and non-SAP applications , running workloads in a highly scalable environment, and building event- and API-base extensions.
In short, SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime offers several technical capabilities and benefits:
- Mesh Serverless Functions, Microservices or custom docker images in one runtime
- Upskill your developers quickly due to open standards
- Get a fully managed Kubernetes Runtime
- Leverage the built-in capabilities of Kyma:
- API Microgateway
- Event bus
- Service mesh
These technical capabilities optimize development and give you tangible business benefits:
- Reduction of both the TCO and time-to-market
- Managed runtime that fits the needs and skillset of your work force for cloud-native solutions
- Aligned with SAP operational and release processes and standards
- Best services/tooling from hyper-scalers, combined with open standards + SAP specific value add on top
Customers so far have had the choice between these two great environments to develop their functions-as-a-service. Over time though, it has shown that SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime has proven the more beneficial and more well-rounded runtime for customers, offering more options and benefitting from the traction of its open-source community.
OData Provisioning
OData Provisioning exposes business data and business logic as OData services on SAP Business Technology Platform, thereby enabling customers to run user-centric applications on SAP Cloud. In the Multi-Cloud/Cloud Foundry environment context, OData Provisioning has been available as a part of the SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime.
SAP’s Business Technology Platform until now has offered OData provisioning with slightly different scope and feature sets:
- SAP BTP, OData Provisioning (On the NEO environment only) to expose business data and business logic developed on the SAP Business Suite as OData services on the SAP BTP without any additional development effort.
- SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime (On the multi-cloud /CF environment only) included OData Provisioning to expose business data and business logic developed on the SAP Business Suite as OData services on the SAP BTP without any additional development effort.
- SAP Integration Suite is the enterprise-grade integration platform as a service offered by SAP. The Integration Suite is an open IPaaS and consists of a modular set of integration services that work together to support a comprehensive variety of end-to-end integration scenarios.
In particular, SAP Integration Suite supports:
- The integration of SAP and non-SAP applications in the cloud and on premise (A2A)
- Integration with business partners (B2B) and government agencies (B2G).
- The design and runtime governance of APIs, including API-based integration.
- Exposing business data and business logic as OData services on SAP Business Technology Platform
- Extensions of business processes with workflows, including human interaction steps and business rules; as well as the integration of IoT devices and equipment.
Customers so far have had the choice between the different services for provisioning of OData services. With SAP Integration Suite enabling and end-to-end API based integrations, customers will have the added value of not just provisioning of OData services but to also manage the lifecycle of the service.
SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime to be replaced by SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime and SAP Integration Suite
It is due to this that SAP has decided to discontinue SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime and to instead increase the focus on and efforts for SAP BTP, Kyma runtime and SAP Integration suite for the respective capabilities.
Please note this however does not have any impact on the OData Provisioning service on the NEO environment.
The way forward
For all existing customers who already use the SAP BTP, Serverless Runtime, we are looking forward to engaging with you to help make the transition as smooth and non-disruptive as possible.
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