Easy path to productive use with the free tier model for SAP Business Technology Platform

SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 has just come to an end and as an attentive attendee, which I naturally assume you are, you have probably heard about the launch of the free tier model for SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) on July 1 – a topic close to my heart.

I have been with the project from the very beginning and know that so many of our community members have been asking for it. We have listened! At the end of last year, Juergen Mueller announced that a free tier model is coming. Now I am happy to finally announce the launch of the free tier model for SAP Business Technology Platform. As the first step of a phased approach, it will be available to all existing and future customers starting today, July 1. For individual business users, the free tier model for SAP BTP is currently scheduled to be available this fall. At this point, thanks again to everyone who has driven this project and to our customers, partners, and the SAP community who have shared their feedback with us. Let’s dive into the most important information you need to know.

What is SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)

SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) is the platform for the intelligent enterprise and the foundation for all SAP applications. SAP BTP powers customers to become an intelligent enterprise through integration, extension, and data-to-value from all SAP and third-party application and data assets while ensuring our customers’ long-term success through agility, value creation, and continual innovation. This is where the free tier model comes in. It is an integral part of our customers’ journey with SAP BTP and enables you to easily explore, learn, try out, and get started with SAP BTP services while retaining existing work.

Let’s kick-off phase 1 of the free tier model for SAP BTP

The free tier model for SAP BTP automatically provides free services to all existing Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) and Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement (CPEA) customers. It is available globally (except mainland China) and the free services can be accessed through a customer’s SAP BTP Cockpit. All other new and existing customers can simply sign up for PAYG through the SAP Store to get started.

How to get started

• Existing PAYG and CPEA customers will automatically receive the predefined amounts of free services added to their global accounts via the SAP BTP Cockpit.
• All new customers can access the free services via the SAP Store. All individual business users can register for the newsletter to receive all information about phase 2 and the availability of the free tier model.
• For more information, please visit the SAP BTP trial and free tier webpage and check out the free tier benefits in this video.
• Take it a step further and have a look at how the free tier model for SAP BTP can help you implement proven use cases such as setting up SAP S/4 HANA side-by-side UI Extensions.

Why you should leverage the free tier model for SAP BTP

The free tier model enables customers to the full capabilities of SAP BTP services to quickly develop and deploy productive applications for a specific use case. Developers can learn, understand, and try SAP BTP services while preserving a seamless path to productive use. But let’s take a closer look at the three main pillars of the free tier model:

Gain hands-on experience

• Explore the full capabilities of the free tier services with your own instance of SAP BTP. The good thing is that the free tier services do not expire; this gives you the freedom to continuously develop and accelerate business value from your data until you reach the predefined capacity limits.

Start to innovate

• Take advantage of step-by-step guided missions and SAP Community content to build innovations. Get inspired by what other customers and partners are achieving with SAP BTP and define your own path to the future. For example, start building a chatbot with the free tier of SAP Conversational AI, or enhance your applications with SAP Mobile Services.

Easy path to productive use

• The free tier model for SAP BTP allows you to explore a variety of services with an easy path to productive use. To ensure developer efficiency, all work within the free tier can be maintained when updating to a standard plan.

This is only a starting point. Stay tuned for phase 2 and everything that is yet to come.

“Long awaited, it’s finally here, the first rounds of free tier service plans for SAP BTP. I hope that many SAP customers and partners use the free tier model for SAP BTP to jumpstart their projects and bring them to production. I am looking forward to additional releases, like persistence free tier service plans, that will be added later in the year.”

Gregor Wolf, Computerserve Wolf

SAP Mentor