Are you considering migrating to SAP Integration Suite but find it a bit expensive to pay 3 times 4000 EUR for a complete 3 tier landscape. What if you could save one of the systems then it became a much better use case. I know there are different prices and editions but the default Integration Suite is 4000 EUR a month.
Normal SAP landscapes consist of 3 or 4 systems like Development, Test, QA and Production. In most cases you will need to replicate this to all of your landscape. Each system will add a cost to your landscape.
One of the features of Figaf Tool is the ability to reuse a SAP Cloud Integration and API management system for multiple use cases. Like Dev and QA or QA an Test. So you can save a Tenant.
Sure, if you have 100s of integrations it may not be a big thing but for customers starting the journey with SAP Integration Suite then it could make a better business case of using the integration and then at some point you can migrate to a normal 3 tier landscape.
Figaf DevOps Tool starts at 590 EUR pr month+ 300 EUR pr month for hosting in BTP, so just this feature saves 3000 EUR pr month.
And the Figaf Tool can improve the way you are delivering, documenting and testing SAP Integration.
How does it work
The process is nothing new. It is what integration developers have been doing since the first deployment of Hana Cloud Integration (HCI) now Cloud Integration. It was to copy one iFlow and add a QA pre or post fix. Then it was possible to run this. It is a solution that works if you have few iFlows and you need to be quite careful about the process to make sure you have updated flows.
In Figaf it is a part of the transport landscape. You simply just create a transport with the iFlow you can to transport. Then the transport system will add pre or post fixes to the iFlows.
In our 2204 April release we have added better customization of the names so you can get it to follow your expectations. The idea is to make it easier to make all the required modifications.
All URL including Process Direct will get a prefix in it like /QA this means it will be possible to run the full flow in the virtual agent.
It is used in at clients all ready
There is a great post about how this feature makes it possible to run long-term projects vs being able to support current flows. See blog post on how this feature enables support and projects in the same environment.
Get Started
The Virtual Landscape is a part of the Figaf DevOps Suite. So do start that process. You can get started in just 30 minutes. It is just easy to install and run the application in SAP BTP Cloud Foundry.
Is there limits
There can be cases we will not be able to support in the testing process. But 95% of use cases should be covered with the tool. Do let us know then we will try to see what we can improve for the process.
You may need to add external properties to ensure the same resources is not used for both systems if it is important.
Value mappings will be transported but it is not possible to deploy them on the same tenant because the keys are the same. It would require a huge rewrite to be able to support virtual value mappings like changing key pairs.
We already have a feature developed to support transport of Script Collection and Mapping artifacts but we expect to be able change links in iFlows to point to the virtual objects. This will be in one of the next patches.
One feature I would like to add also is to use the Cloud Integration authorization so users cannot make modifications in the QA flows but need to perform transports for it.