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Author's profile photo Raja Prasad Gupta

SAP Cloud Platform Environments – Cloud Foundry Vs Neo

I published this blog first in Feb 2019 when there were two environments in SAP BTP – Neo and Cloud Foundry. At that time, it used to be called SAP Cloud Platform. Since then, the platform has evolved a lot. BTP now has three major environments – Cloud Foundry, ABAP and Kyma. Neo is going to sunset.

I have published a new blog on this topic – SAP BTP Environments – Cloud Foundry Vs ABAP Vs Kyma

 
In this article, I will explain the difference between Neo environment and Cloud Foundry environment in SAP Cloud Platform.

Note: SAP provides FREE trial account for both Neo and Cloud Foundry. Refer to below articles to know more about it.

 

SAP Cloud Platform provides two different development environments: Cloud Foundry and Neo. The availability of different environments provides choices for technologies, runtimes, and services when using SAP Cloud Platform, thereby allowing for great flexibility in your development process.

Cloud Foundry Environment

SAP Cloud Platform Cloud Foundry environment contains the Cloud Foundry Application Runtime, which is based on the open-source application platform managed by the Cloud Foundry Foundation.

Application developers can use the Cloud Foundry environment to enhance SAP products and to integrate business applications, as well as to develop entirely new enterprise applications based on business APIs that are hosted on SAP Cloud Platform.

The Cloud Foundry environment allows you to use multiple programming languages such as Java, Node.js, and community/bring-your-own language options.

For more information on regional availability of the Cloud Foundry environment, see Regions and API Endpoints Available for the Cloud Foundry Environment

Neo Environment

SAP Cloud Platform Neo environment contains SAP propriety runtime. Neo is a feature-rich and easy-to-use development environment, allowing you to develop Java, SAP HANA XS, and HTML5 applications. You can also use SAPUI5 to develop rich user interfaces for modern web-based business applications.

The Neo environment also lets you use virtual machines, allowing you to install and maintain your own applications in scenarios that aren’t covered by the platform. A virtual machine is the virtualized hardware resource (CPU, RAM, disk space, installed OS) that blends the line between Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service.

For more information about regional availability of the Neo environment, see Regions and API Endpoints Available for the Neo Environment

Difference between Cloud Foundry and Neo

Which SAP Cloud Platform environment shall I use?

Based on the use case and business need, you can choose which environment is most suitable for you.

 

Use Cases for the Cloud Foundry Environment

Application developers can use the Cloud Foundry environment to enhance SAP products and to integrate business applications, as well as to develop entirely new enterprise applications based on business APIs that are hosted on SAP Cloud Platform.

The Cloud Foundry environment allows you to use multiple programming languages such as Java, Node.js, and community/bring-your-own language options.

We can use Cloud Foundry environment for micro-services-based applications, for Internet of Things and machine learning scenarios, and for developing applications using SAP HANA extended application services, advanced model (SAP HANA XSA).

 

Use Cases for the Neo Environment

Neo is a feature-rich and easy-to-use development environment, allowing you to develop Java, SAP HANA XS, and HTML5 applications. We can use the Neo environment to develop HTML5 and complex Java applications and for complex integration and extension scenarios.

 

Central Cockpit

To be able to administrate the two environments in a unified way, SAP provides one central cockpit.

The central cockpit is a Web-based user interface for administrators, providing access to a number of functions for configuring and managing applications and connecting them to services on the cloud platform. It can be used to manage resources, services, security, monitor application metrics, and perform actions on cloud applications.

A typical Cloud Platform cockpit looks like below.

 

You can access and use trial account cockpit for free. To know more refer to Get Started with SAP Cloud Platform

 

SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment

Recently, there has been one more environment got added to the SAP Cloud Platform – ABAP Environment.

ABAP in SAP Cloud Platform is SAP’s new Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering for ABAP. Since many years, ABAP has been the foundation for SAP’s on-premise solutions. With ABAP in SAP Cloud Platform, ABAP developers can make use of their existing ABAP know-how to develop and run ABAP applications in the Cloud.

Customers and partners can build extensions for ABAP-based products like SAP S/4HANA Cloud as well as develop new cloud applications. ABAP in SAP Cloud Platform is also an option to transform existing ABAP-based custom code or extensions to the Cloud.

 

To know more on ABAP Environment, please refer to following blog posts:

 

Migrate Applications from Neo Environment to Cloud Foundry

When you migrate an application from the Neo to the Cloud Foundry environment following documents could be helpful.

Migrate SAP Cloud SDK Based Applications from SAP Cloud Platform Neo Environment to Cloud Foundry

Help document on CF Migration

Best Practices for Adapting SAP Cloud Platform Applications to the Cloud Foundry Environment

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      27 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Marcelo Rodrigues
      Marcelo Rodrigues
      Thank you for the explanation.
      Author's profile photo Raja Prasad Gupta
      Raja Prasad Gupta
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Marcelo Rodrigues

      Author's profile photo wei sean
      wei sean

      Thank you !

      Author's profile photo Gerard Gerrits
      Gerard Gerrits

      Very clear, thank you.

       

      Do you think HANA 2.0 will be available on NEO (in the short future)?

       

      Thanx

      Author's profile photo Raja Prasad Gupta
      Raja Prasad Gupta
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Gerard Gerrits ,

      Thanks for the feedback.

      Regarding the availability of HANA 2.0 in Neo, I am not sure. However, even if Neo supports HANA 2.0, Cloud Foundry should be preferred.

      Any specific reason, why you are looking for HANA 2.0 in Neo?

       

      Regards,

      Raja

      Author's profile photo Philippe Addor
      Philippe Addor

      Hi Raja

      Thanks for the blog post. I am wondering why Cloud Foundry is preferred? For all use cases?

      Thanks,

      Philippe

      Author's profile photo Supriya Das
      Supriya Das

      Very useful information. Thanks for sharing.

      Author's profile photo Raja Prasad Gupta
      Raja Prasad Gupta
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Supriya. Glad you liked it.

      Author's profile photo Marc Voskuil
      Marc Voskuil

      Hi,

      Thanks for de explanation. Maybe you can give us some advice:

      We want to use CPI (instead of On-Prem PO), in a standard On-Prem SAP ERP <> SuccessFactors scenario. Where whould we run this CPI, on CF or NEO?

      We don't use any other SAP Cloud Platform service currently.

       

      Thanks in advance.

      Author's profile photo Gaurav Karkara
      Gaurav Karkara

      Hi Marc,

      As per strategic directions, you should be running CPI in CF.

      Regards

      GK

      Author's profile photo Antonio Almeida Nunes
      Antonio Almeida Nunes

      Hi,

      Neo Environment's not available anymore

       

       

      Author's profile photo Jacob Vennervald
      Jacob Vennervald

      Hi Antonio

       

      Are you saying that Cloud Foundry is now the only option for SAP Cloud Platform?

       

      Regards,

      Jacob

      Author's profile photo Antonio Almeida Nunes
      Antonio Almeida Nunes

      Hi,

      Some applications are still only existing in Neo. Some services as for example IPS are not yet available in CF only in Neo.

       

      Regards

      Author's profile photo Paolo Castelli
      Paolo Castelli

      Dear Antonio and IT/SAP colleagues,

      I'm a SAP SuccessFactors PM, I'm little bit confused. My system Integrator developed a custom application for my HR (released end 2020) in NEO sys with HANA DB in Foundry.  Today, the System Integrator is telling me ... that "NEO" will be (soon) end-of-life ... and everything have to be moved everything to Foundry Environment.

      Antonio, do you confirm that  ... "Neo Environment's not available anymore"  .. but from when?

      Is there any official SAP statement about the NEO Environment disposal? somewhere in the KB/SAP LaunchPad?

      I thank you in advance, best regards

      Paolo

      Author's profile photo Yogesh Prasad
      Yogesh Prasad

      Dear Guru

       

      We are planning to migrate our ERP to AWS cloud , we have currently Ariba, Sucessfactor connected to ERP using cloud connector ,,….is there any white pape which illustrate deployment of cloud connector  in AWS  and what the SAP recommendation for such deployment 

      Author's profile photo Christian Sarres
      Christian Sarres

      Thank you for the explanation

      Author's profile photo Najmeh Asadfalsafizadeh
      Najmeh Asadfalsafizadeh

      Thank you for the clear explanation!

      but I have one more question:

      Wenn I create a new Subaccout, I have no choice to define "Cloud Foundry" as Environment. Is it normal? Or what is the reason?

       

      Author's profile photo MANUEL ROBALINHO
      MANUEL ROBALINHO

      Nice information!.

       

      Thanks

      Author's profile photo Majdi Taher
      Majdi Taher

      Hi Everyone,

      why I can’t see more "Multichain" in the Service Marketplace (Cloud Foundry).

      It’s no longer available in trial account? Or maybe it is available only in some Country?

      Thanks,

      Majdi

      Author's profile photo Alen Varghese
      Alen Varghese

      Thank you Raja Prasad Gupta

      Author's profile photo Mauricio Ramírez Cuevas
      Mauricio Ramírez Cuevas

      Thank you Raja,

      I just have a question, are both enviroments compatible to work with on-premise solutions?

      Regards

      Author's profile photo Chethan Kumar Narayanpura Puttamarigowda
      Chethan Kumar Narayanpura Puttamarigowda

      Thank you for easy explanation

      Author's profile photo Lakshmi Sankaran
      Lakshmi Sankaran

      Dear Raja

      Hope all well, can you please help me with the links?

      Help document on CF Migration

      Best Practices for Adapting SAP Cloud Platform Applications to the Cloud Foundry Environment

       

      thanks

      Lakshmi 🙂

      Author's profile photo Dinesh M
      Dinesh M

      Hi,

      How do we identify the version i'm using is Neo or Cloud Foundry.

      Is it possible to differentiate via URL or in Cockpit

      Please clarify

      Thanks,

      Dinesh

      Author's profile photo Jeremiah Manchester
      Jeremiah Manchester

      Hi Dinesh,

      Not sure if this will help you, but in the SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit/SAP BTP Cockpit (https://account.us2.hana.ondemand.com/cockpit), we are seeing the environment listed for our tenants (i.e. Subaccounts).  See the following example:

      Regards,

      Jeremiah

      Author's profile photo Arijit Das
      Arijit Das

      Hi Raja Prasad Gupta

      Good blog, clearly articulates the differences and scope of both Neo and Cloud Foundry.

      I have a question in the diagram showing the differences you have mentioned for CF - programming languages supported by SAP - Java and Node JS, what about ABAP, HTML 5 that Neo supports? And the others you have mentioned earlier - PHP, Python, etc.? Please can you check and kindly update?

      Another point - as this blog was written 2.5 years ago - the statement "SAP provides FREE trial account for both Neo and  Cloud Foundry" needs to be updated, as SAP has stopped providing free trial accounts for Neo sometime last quarter of 2020 if I am not mistaken.

      Thanks

      Arijit Das

      Author's profile photo Ranjitha Satyanarayana
      Ranjitha Satyanarayana

      Hi Raja,

      Thank you for this information on Neo and CF.

      I have one question, when we say migration from Neo to CF I believe there is two aspects to it

      1. Application Migration
      2. Customer Migration i.e customer data

      can you also give some details or references on how to migrate customer from Neo to CF?

      Correct me if my understanding is wrong, Thank You!