Rumors sometimes contradict with the truth! And the truth is that the central user administration (CUA) functionality that comes with the current SAP NetWeaver platform will stay alive, - also in the future. As long as there are going to be new releases of SAP NetWeaver in the future, the CUA with its current set of functionality will still be included and it will be working as in the past. SAP does not plan to limit the support of CUA in any way. Therefore the CUA will be supported just like SAP NetWeaver, according to the usual support and maintenance cycles. This also means that maintenance will be extended within the usual SAP NetWeaver maintenance.
However, there will NOT be any new functionality added or enhancements programmed for CUA. The new development of CUA has ceased in favor of the SAP Identity Management (IDM) product. This in fact means that SAP recommends to all customers that are currently not yet using CUA, to go for SAP IDM instead, when they want to centrally administer their user information and access control. SAP IDM delivers many advantages over CUA. In SAP-only environments, it allows management of users across both, SAP Portal and Business Suite applications. It also allows centralized user management across diverse heterogeneous system landscapes, in addition to the SAP landscape. Most of all it helps organisations to meet their demands for “best practice” IT Governance, by providing self services, advanced workflows, controls and extensive reporting on access rights to critical IT infrastructure and applications.
The advanced connectivity of SAP Identity Management can be another reason for existing CUA customers to switch. Since August 2010, the consulting force of SAP offers a workshop package for CUA users to evaluate the requirements that are involved when switching to SAP IDM. Contact
mailto:Consulting.Germany@SAP.COM for more information.
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