There has been some recent changes in the Fiori Deployment options and in this blog I am going to summarize them and also show you how SAP Cloud Platform can help simplify your landscape. The complete SAP document is available here.
If you have multiple SAP Business Suite systems, the recommendation still remains the same. You have a dedicated SAP Fiori Fronted-end server(FES) for a hub deployment. The central FES has the Fiori Launchpad contents, Fiori Apps and can be used to launch the classical UIs from the respective backend system. You have one single entry point to access all the business applications.
With S/4HANA coming into an existing business system landscape, you can continue to have a Gateway hub deployment. The central FES can server Fiori apps for both Business Suite systems as well as S/4HANA systems. However, its important to note that based on the release of S/4HANA, your FES needs to be upgraded. S/4HANA 1610 needs FES 3.0 & S/4HANA 1709 needs FES 4.0. I have seen few people get confused with this and actually referred to this as Fiori 3.0 and 4.0 concepts. As of today, we only have Fiori 2.0 concepts. FES 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 are Front-end server components as explained in this SAP Note https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2217489. The FES database also needs to be a SAP database.
This is where it gets interesting. I didn’t think there would be many organizations who would have multiple S/4HANA systems. In reality, there are many who end up having multiple S/4HANA systems for various reasons - like mergers and acquisitions. In this scenario, for the newly added S/4HANA system, an embedded Gateway scenario is recommended. This means we will have a system-local S/4HANA Fiori Launchpad to serve Fiori apps for that particular system (as shown in the below image for 1709 release). There will also be a central Fiori Launchpad which will serve the UI contents for the existing landscape and using URL tiles will be able to launch the system-local launchpad or specific apps.
This may not be the best User Experience(UX) but this is the only option which is available. The reason for having multiple Fiori Launchpad comes down to the dependencies of UI components with the backend systems.
When you have multiple S/4HANA systems within your landscape, its again recommended to have an embedded FES deployment in each of them. Each of the S/4HANA systems will have its own UI contents and Fiori Launchpad. You could have a central FES which connects to all the S/4HANA systems in the landscape. Release independent UI’s like My Inbox or custom app can be deployed on this central Fiori Launchpad. When you want to launch standard Fiori apps located in the respective S/4HANA backend system, you would need to create tiles based on URL Apps from the central launchpad.
Fiori Cloud provides a simple approach for Business Suite and S/4HANA customers to adopt Fiori User Experience in the Cloud. Fiori Apps, SAPUI5 library and Fiori Launchpad are all provided through SAP Cloud Platform and can be used to connect to an on-premise backend system. In this scenario, you only maintain your backend system and don’t need to patching/upgrading the UI components in your FES.
Lets looks at each of the option below.
SAP Fiori Cloud for Business Suite system
This is the most common Fiori Cloud Implementation which I am seeing. You have a choice here to either have your Gateway hub deployment, Gateway embedded deployment or even leverage SAP CP OData Provisioning in the cloud. When you have your Gateway system either as embedded or Hub, its important to note that you use it to only register your OData services. You do not install UI components within this Gateway system as all these contents would be served from Fiori Cloud. In the above image, you can see SAP CP OData Provisioning being leveraged. It requires Gateway enablement components in your Business Suite system. This is required to support OData services in your backend system.
SAP Fiori Cloud for S/4HANA system
For an S4/HANA system to work with Fiori Cloud and embedded Gateway is recommended. You shouldn’t use SAP CP OData Provisioning for this type of scenario.
SAP Fiori Cloud for S/4HANA system & Business Suite system in the same landscape
When you have multiple systems in your landscape, the recommendation is to use Gateway Hub deployment. As mentioned above, the Gateway Hub only serves the role to register your OData services as all the UI components are being delivered via Fiori Cloud.
Fiori Cloud provides business contents (Standard Fiori Apps) for both Business Suite as well as respective S/4HANA releases. As of today, you can connect to S/4HANA system & Business Suite system in the your landscape and serve Fiori Apps from a central launchpad. What makes it very interesting with Fiori Cloud is that soon we would be able to consume Fiori Apps for multiple releases all in the same Fiori Launchpad.
In the Fiori Configuration cockpit, under content packages you can register from the available content packages and assign them to your respective backend systems.
In the content management, it would be possible to switch to either S4HANA release or Business suite system and add them the site configuration.
This would make it possible to have a central Fiori Launchpad to sever Fiori contents for S/4HANA & Business Suite systems. In the future roadmap, there are plans to make it possible to have a central Fiori Launchpad which would support UI contents from different S/4HANA releases, thereby simplifying your on-premise landscape.
Multi-system SAP Business Suite scenarios
If you have multiple SAP Business Suite systems, the recommendation still remains the same. You have a dedicated SAP Fiori Fronted-end server(FES) for a hub deployment. The central FES has the Fiori Launchpad contents, Fiori Apps and can be used to launch the classical UIs from the respective backend system. You have one single entry point to access all the business applications.
One single S/4HANA system with an existing Business Suite system
With S/4HANA coming into an existing business system landscape, you can continue to have a Gateway hub deployment. The central FES can server Fiori apps for both Business Suite systems as well as S/4HANA systems. However, its important to note that based on the release of S/4HANA, your FES needs to be upgraded. S/4HANA 1610 needs FES 3.0 & S/4HANA 1709 needs FES 4.0. I have seen few people get confused with this and actually referred to this as Fiori 3.0 and 4.0 concepts. As of today, we only have Fiori 2.0 concepts. FES 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 are Front-end server components as explained in this SAP Note https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2217489. The FES database also needs to be a SAP database.
Additional S/4HANA systems within an existing system landscape
This is where it gets interesting. I didn’t think there would be many organizations who would have multiple S/4HANA systems. In reality, there are many who end up having multiple S/4HANA systems for various reasons - like mergers and acquisitions. In this scenario, for the newly added S/4HANA system, an embedded Gateway scenario is recommended. This means we will have a system-local S/4HANA Fiori Launchpad to serve Fiori apps for that particular system (as shown in the below image for 1709 release). There will also be a central Fiori Launchpad which will serve the UI contents for the existing landscape and using URL tiles will be able to launch the system-local launchpad or specific apps.
This may not be the best User Experience(UX) but this is the only option which is available. The reason for having multiple Fiori Launchpad comes down to the dependencies of UI components with the backend systems.
Multiple S/4HANA systems
When you have multiple S/4HANA systems within your landscape, its again recommended to have an embedded FES deployment in each of them. Each of the S/4HANA systems will have its own UI contents and Fiori Launchpad. You could have a central FES which connects to all the S/4HANA systems in the landscape. Release independent UI’s like My Inbox or custom app can be deployed on this central Fiori Launchpad. When you want to launch standard Fiori apps located in the respective S/4HANA backend system, you would need to create tiles based on URL Apps from the central launchpad.
Fiori Cloud
Fiori Cloud provides a simple approach for Business Suite and S/4HANA customers to adopt Fiori User Experience in the Cloud. Fiori Apps, SAPUI5 library and Fiori Launchpad are all provided through SAP Cloud Platform and can be used to connect to an on-premise backend system. In this scenario, you only maintain your backend system and don’t need to patching/upgrading the UI components in your FES.
Lets looks at each of the option below.
SAP Fiori Cloud for Business Suite system
This is the most common Fiori Cloud Implementation which I am seeing. You have a choice here to either have your Gateway hub deployment, Gateway embedded deployment or even leverage SAP CP OData Provisioning in the cloud. When you have your Gateway system either as embedded or Hub, its important to note that you use it to only register your OData services. You do not install UI components within this Gateway system as all these contents would be served from Fiori Cloud. In the above image, you can see SAP CP OData Provisioning being leveraged. It requires Gateway enablement components in your Business Suite system. This is required to support OData services in your backend system.
SAP Fiori Cloud for S/4HANA system
For an S4/HANA system to work with Fiori Cloud and embedded Gateway is recommended. You shouldn’t use SAP CP OData Provisioning for this type of scenario.
SAP Fiori Cloud for S/4HANA system & Business Suite system in the same landscape
When you have multiple systems in your landscape, the recommendation is to use Gateway Hub deployment. As mentioned above, the Gateway Hub only serves the role to register your OData services as all the UI components are being delivered via Fiori Cloud.
Fiori Cloud provides business contents (Standard Fiori Apps) for both Business Suite as well as respective S/4HANA releases. As of today, you can connect to S/4HANA system & Business Suite system in the your landscape and serve Fiori Apps from a central launchpad. What makes it very interesting with Fiori Cloud is that soon we would be able to consume Fiori Apps for multiple releases all in the same Fiori Launchpad.
In the Fiori Configuration cockpit, under content packages you can register from the available content packages and assign them to your respective backend systems.
In the content management, it would be possible to switch to either S4HANA release or Business suite system and add them the site configuration.
This would make it possible to have a central Fiori Launchpad to sever Fiori contents for S/4HANA & Business Suite systems. In the future roadmap, there are plans to make it possible to have a central Fiori Launchpad which would support UI contents from different S/4HANA releases, thereby simplifying your on-premise landscape.
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