SAP have updated their Support Backbone – Customer action required!
What is the Support Backbone?
You may not be aware, but the Support Backbone is critical to the continued smooth operation of your SAP estate. Working silently in the background, it facilitates the exchange of data between your systems and SAP, supporting the following key scenarios:
Have you ever wondered how SAP knows which SAP Patches are applicable for your systems? SAP Solution Manager sends landscape data to SAP, via the support backbone, to be used by the Maintenance Planner.
Every now and again, SAP problems require specialist support from SAP to resolve. SAP connect to your systems using a remote service connection with the details provided via SAP Solution Manager
A great application in SAP Solution Manager that provides details of SAP Notes and Patches that have not yet been implemented in your SAP systems. This application automatically calculates the SAP Notes and patches that are relevant through communications with SAP.
Licenses and Maintenance certificates are generally automatically renewed in your SAP systems via the SAP Solution Manager system (as long as you have a valid maintenance contract of course!). The required license keys are obtained on your behalf via the support backbone.
Are you using the Scope and Effort analyser to automatically determine the custom code impacted before applying an Enhancement / Support Pack (if not, you should certainly give this a go)? Then you need to exchange data with SAP to understand the details of the software components impacted.
The comprehensive ITSM solution of SAP Solution Manager not only allows you to manage your incidents and problems amongst your own support teams, but you can involve SAP as well by exchanging the messages directly with SAP.
Whether you want to engage SAP for a service delivery (e.g. preparing for a Go-live) or request their help with critical alerts generated by Early Watch alerts; SAP will need access to the corresponding support data.
SAP have now updated their Support Backbone and as a result all customers will need to update to the new infrastructure by January 2020 to ensure continuous connectivity and full operation of the above scenarios. The current legacy infrastructure will remain in place until the end of this year to ensure a safe transition for customers, but our advice is to take action sooner rather than later!
For more details on how we can support your transition to the new infrastructure, including SAP Solution Manager upgrades, patching and testing please contact us or start a live chat with us now
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