A complete list of SAP Cloud Integration Transport Tools

For the SAP Integration Suite, there are several tools to manage your SAP CPI/Cloud Integration transports. In this post, I’ll try to give a comprehensive list of the different options available and share my opinions on them and explain how they work. Of course, I’m biased and I do think we are creating the best tool to manage the transport process but here is the list as best to my knowledge of public available demos. 

Challenge

You want to transport Cloud Integration from development to testing and later to production. This is a common approach that is used all over the IT landscape process. 

SAP Standard options

SAP Cloud Integration Transport

This is the standard delivered by SAP for Cloud Foundry. It gives you a standard way to transport all your Cloud Foundry applications.

Since summer 2021 you have the option to transport individual artifacts.  

A challenge with it is that it is difficult to see what is different between two versions of an iflow and you would need to handle external properties configuration after deployment. 

CTS+ / CHarM

You can use CTS+ (Enhanced Change and Transport System) with the tools that build on top of the CTS+ platform. In Cloud Integration, you select which artifacts you want to transport and then it is transported. 

You can combine this with CHarM to improve the coordination and workflows involved with the transport. Then it can also be coordinated with your other SAP Transports. 

This tool has the same challenges as Cloud Integration Transport with viewing the differences and understanding which objects are transported. 

The best option – Figaf Tool

As said I do believe we have created the best tool to manage the full transport process with all the features used to accelerate your delivery process. It has all the features you would need for a transport tool including:

  • Version tracking
  • Ability to check versions with ease
  • Configuration of iflows in the landscape
  • Integrated Test case management
  • A fully synchronized Git repository of all your iflows
  • Designed for SAP Integration

And it is simple to set up and manage, you don’t need developers with git skills. 

You can find more information and demos at https://figaf.com/devops

Ok, we are probably biased…..

Git tools / CICD

You will get the most flexibility by using your custom build pipelines. It will require some effort getting started and figuring out how you want to handle your processes. 

There are many tools and processes that will allow you to integrate with a DevOps kind of workflow. I think it would be challenging to create a good flow for the development and deployment of CPI. 

There are some hurdles like you do not have your own copy of the CPI UI but instead rely on the local copy. Moreover, the upcoming integration cell may be able to run local tests on developers’ laptops but it will require it also contains IDE. 

Flashpipe

Flashpipe is an open-source solution developed Eng Swee. It is handling some of the deployment and processes. I think this is probably the best solution to transport your integration using git. 

SAP’s Jenkins pipeline

SAP has created some Jenkins pipelines for CPI and API management that will allow you to set up DevOps pipelines using the tool. We did get it to work for one iflow and could transport it. As we saw it you needed to create pipelines for all your iflows or recreate the solution. 

Project Piper

One of the tools SAP also is trying to leverage is Project Piper to handle transport across BTP.  It is able to leverage Integration Artifacts from Cloud Integration in the pipeline. 

Other Tools

Consulting partners tools

There are different consulting partners who have created different solutions to manage SAP CPI transports. The solutions can be only for their consulting clients. 

There is cpi-transporter.com which is also a plugin for CPI helper. This allows you to transport iflows one at a time. There is a free and paid options.

I do hear that Abusiness Tech has a solution, but I don’t know about the scope. 

Lastly, I also know from other companies that some solutions but don’t know their scope. 

Custom development

As always it is possible to develop your own solution and include the use of Git pipelines or by combining multiple tools from above. I have heard about several companies using these approaches to the management of their CPI landscape. 

Do remember that it is something that you will need to maintain.

Conclusion

Clearly, there are a plethora of various solutions out there for SAP Cloud Integrations (CPI) and each one has its positives and negatives. As I said earlier, I am biased, but I am sure that the best product for your cloud integration needs is ours at Figaf. However, I wanted to take the opportunity to present all the available tools. 

Is there anything we missed let us know in the comments?

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