Fast-track Innovation:

Set Your SAP Data Free with
Google Cloud’s Apigee

Abacus Cambridge Partners
5 min readApr 6, 2021

Create modern apps, update legacy infrastructure, and securely tap into your SAP data with Google Cloud’s Apigee, open the door to endless opportunities and innovation.

securely tap into your SAP data with Google Cloud’s Apigee
Innovations with Google Cloud’s Apigee

For the vast majority of the enterprises, the global pandemic has resulted in a recalibration of digital transformation strategies to remain relevant in the new normal. Cloud becomes a de-facto platform for enterprises who want to explore their business data’s value to enable innovation at speed as they compete with cloud-native agile start-ups. But migrating to the cloud is a complex process that involves specialized challenges, tools and resources. The migration becomes even more gruesome for enterprises running SAP systems, as most of them have data trapped in legacy data stores. Many of the SAP customers accelerated their digital transformation, including kicking off their move to the cloud even before the pandemic hit, as they saw the 2025 deadline looming — making it compulsory for SAP users to migrate to S/4 HANA.

You’re sitting on a Gold Mine…

In today’s digital-first world, who wouldn’t want to unlock the value of their data by sharing and monetizing? But the challenges with the SAP systems, including modernization of these systems without any disruption to business, are not new. This is where APIs come into play. APIs are emerging as the core of modern digital business practices, enabling SAP customers to digitally pivot all aspects of their business by overcoming data accessibility, reliability, and governance challenges.

API management allows the right people at the right time to unlock the fortune your data hold. By seamlessly connecting your business data with internal (such as developers, multiple operating companies within the enterprise) and external (such as FinTechs, third-party applications) players, you can enable innovative business models that drive growth and profitability.

Why not set yourself free from legacy systems?

You must have already been thinking to explore the idea of unlocking the value of your digital resources by now. If you’re running legacy SAP applications and want to increase the pace of innovation by exposing and monetizing your data through seamless integrations, then there is much work that you need to do — bringing several technological and economic challenges. With that in mind, we will lay down some of the considerations while you open up your enterprise doors for accelerated innovation via APIs.

  • Accessibility and security go side by side. Opening up access to mission-critical applications to external and even internal developers poses some serious risks. Even with SAP-grade security, the process of providing reliable and systematic access to legacy SAP applications often requires enormous time and effort. Without the implementation of reliable APIs, though it makes the SAP environments secure, you can never unlock your data’s true potential.
  • There’s a basic incongruity between modern APIs and legacy SAP applications, which often becomes complicated and costly. This also causes a data payload disconnect between modern applications and legacy systems.
  • The in-depth understanding of who is using your data, when they’re using it, and how they’re using it, through methods like traffic management, lays the foundation of any data monetization strategy. Even if you expose your data without a price, you still require advanced analytics and a unified view of your data consumption via APIs. And, this requires the development and management of your APIs using a modern approach.

Not sure where to start? Here are three ways:

Modernize: Wrap your legacy SAP applications with the Apigee layer so that developers can build on legacy systems with a seamless and responsive experience. This method allows additional capabilities by simplifying designing, implementing, managing and monitoring APIs on the legacy SAP interface.

Abstract: Build APIs that do not rely on their source systems, providing developers with a stable and reliable experience. Decoupling APIs from the source also gives you the benefit of upgrading or migrating your underlying systems, for example, SAP ECC migration to SAP S/4 HANA, without interrupting API calls.

Create: Unlock the value of your data by setting it free with Google Cloud’s Apigee. Create new streams of revenue by offering your data as a service and monetizing access to your APIs. Apigee also provides you with authentication features, access control, and security for your data and APIs to eliminate any potential harm to your business-critical systems.

Want fewer distractions and more value?

We have seen our clients creating value of their data leveraging APIs and Microservices to generate new revenue streams, drive operational efficiencies and design personalized and secure customer journeys. Pairing SAP with Apigee provides additional benefits such as custom AI, Machine Learning, and BigQuery, to give you the power of intelligent insights. You can unchain your data for secure sharing with internal and external ecosystems through a powerful developer portal, which comes with advanced analytical capabilities. Finally, it gives your IT team confidence to become a key stakeholder to drive innovation without putting your business-critical SAP applications to potential risks.

Simplifying your journey to SAP modernization and migration

Abacus, 2020 Emerging Partner of the Year in EMEA for the Business Application Platform team at Google Cloud, specializes in digital transformation, helping enterprises innovate and grow at an accelerated pace. Our in-depth knowledge and expertise allow you to unlock the true potential of your data faster than ever before. We offer an award-winning team of SAP & GCP consultants, a wealth of technical resources, and an impactful experience of over 800 SAP implementations to enterprises that want to migrate and modernize their SAP workloads using the Google Cloud Platform. In addition, In addition, our innovative approach allows you to leverage the power of the cloud and migrate at record speeds and at any time of the fiscal year with minimum downtime at cut-over using the BLUEFIELD™ approach. These resources provide enterprises with a reliable method for a faster and easier migration journey.

Ready to set your SAP Data free?

To learn more about how Abacus can help you solve the challenges associated with SAP data accessibility and governance using API Management, join us for our live webinar. Also, for more information on our SAP Modernization and Migration Services, follow this.

Originally published at https://bit.ly/3s1de0h

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Abacus Cambridge Partners

Headquartered in the UK, Abacus is a technology, consulting, and outsourcing firm offering future-ready solutions to its clients across the globe.