SAP confirms end date for mobile platform support

SAP has moved to reassure customers it will still support its on-premise Mobile Platform, despite pushing users to upgrade to its cloud version.

The ERP giant last week confirmed that the on-premise software will fall out of support on 31 December 2020, with no extended maintenance period, and told users to upgrade to its cloud version to get new features and innovations.

However, SAP has since clarified its stance, saying it will deliver "incremental quality enhancements" to customers' on-premise Mobile Platform deployments, as long as they have maintenance agreements.

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"All customers with active maintenance agreements can expect the SAP Mobile Platform to be supported per SAP guidelines," added Martin Grasshoff, senior product manager at SAP.

In short, customers running on-premise Mobile Platform with a maintenance agreement will continue to get "quality enhancements", but not the full set of features that are making their way to SAP's Cloud Platform Mobile Service, to which SAP's focus is shifting.

"While you still get improvements on SAP Mobile Platform, our product roadmap is focusing on innovations on SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services," confirmed Grasshoff. "If you want to benefit from these features, you need to get them in the cloud."

Other benefits of upgrading include lower costs and a "rich enterprise feature set" available on SAP's Cloud Platform around mobile services, he added., saying: "Starting from SAP HANA or ASE databases, to runtimes for JAVA, HANA XS, HTML5 and even ABAP you have a full toolbox available to build your digital enterprise. Moving to SAP Cloud Platform for your mobility projects opens a new world of possibilities for your enterprise."

Although SAP didn't explain how to switch from its standard Mobile Platform to SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services, Grassoff said he'd outline the process in a future blog post.

Grasshoff changed his blog post after media reports focused on the fact SAP won't offer extended maintenance. The original, which can be read here, saw him confirm that Mobile Platform users who continue to use the product under maintenance agreements from 2021 "will not receive features or innovations in this period".

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Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.