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Jose Cabrita11:54 AM on January 29, 20254 min read

Elevate your SAP Operations with SAP Focused Run

Complementary Solutions for large scale environments

In our previous blog, we explored the transition options for organisations looking to move their Operations from SAP Solution Manager to SAP Cloud ALM, highlighting the considerations and benefits of modernising their Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) approach. With the end of mainstream maintenance for SAP Solution Manager approaching in 2027, organisations must make a pivotal decision to future-proof their ALM operations. We discussed why transforming your operations platform is critical, examined the unique benefits of each option, and outlined steps for ensuring a smooth migration. However, SAP's operations functionalities are diverse, and for organisations with more complex landscapes or high-volume monitoring requirements, another key tool in this ecosystem is SAP Focused Run.

In the rapidly evolving world of hybrid IT landscapes, efficient system and application monitoring are pivotal to maintaining operational excellence. Organisations need robust tools to ensure transparency, scalability, and automation while minimising disruptions. While SAP Cloud ALM is a suitable tool for most organisations, there are cases where a more specialised solution is required. For businesses with large-scale, high-volume SAP environmentsSAP Focused Run becomes the go-to platform for advanced monitoring, alerting, and diagnostics.

This blog delves into the capabilities of SAP Focused Run, its differentiators, and how it complements SAP Cloud ALM for operations and monitoring.

Designed for Scale: Who Needs SAP Focused Run?

 
SAP Focused Run is not a one-size fits for all solution — it is tailored for organisations with hundreds of connected systems, both on-premise and in the cloud as well as SaaS and/or PaaS applications. This includes large enterprises or service providers managing hybrid landscapes at a massive scale. It excels in scenarios where managing tens or hundreds of SAP systems (including production, test, and development environments) is a daily reality.
 
Powered by SAP HANA, it provides advanced capabilities for monitoring, alerting, diagnostics, and analytics with the main key features focusing on: 
 
  • High-Volume Monitoring: Supports thousands of systems with the power of SAP HANA, including replication, scale-out, predictive analytics, and compression.
  • Hybrid Landscape Management: Combines on-premise and cloud environments for seamless monitoring.
  • Scalability for Large Landscapes: Its architecture leverages SAP HANA to handle high data volumes with unparalleled speed and efficiency, offering predictive analytics, metric forecasting, and anomaly detection.
  • Automation and Efficiency: Automates system lifecycle processes, including onboarding and decommissioning and alert reactions, drastically reducing manual intervention.
  • Security and Multi-Tenancy: Built-in multi-tenancy and security features ensure data isolation and compliance across multiple customers, making sure there is data segregation to ensure compliance and security.

SAP Focused Run - Scope in Detail

 Fig 1: SAP Focused Run - Scope in Detail

SAP Focused Run is the go-to solution for:

  • Service providers managing multiple customer environments.
  • Organisations with high data volume requirements across hybrid landscapes.
  • Teams requiring deep technical insights into IT operations.
  • Businesses prioritising advanced root cause analysis, predictive analytics, and machine learning-based anomaly detection.

A simplified, cloud-centric solution for Operations

SAP Cloud ALM, as you might know, is a cloud-native application lifecycle management tool ideal for organisations with landscapes seeking a more user-friendly solution suitable for both IT and business teams. It provides intuitive tools for monitoring and managing hybrid environments. The main features on this platform are: 

  • Agentless Data Collection: Simplifies operations with an agentless approach.
  • Business Process Monitoring: Offers capabilities to monitor business processes in addition to technical landscapes, which is a service not included in SAP Focused Run - check our blog if you want to find out more details about this functionality.
  • Cloud-Centric Operations: Ideal for organisations focusing on cloud-based systems, however it also supports on-premise systems.
  • External Analytics and Automation: Facilitates external operations analytics and automation to enhance efficiency.

This platform is better suited for: 

  • Businesses needing a user-friendly solution for both IT and business teams.
  • Companies focused on business process monitoring alongside technical health monitoring.
  • Teams preferring an agentless data collection process for simplicity.

Job and Automation Monitoring in SAP Cloud ALM

Fig 2: Job and Automation Monitoring in SAP Cloud ALM

Considerations when choosing an operation platform for your SAP solutions

While both tools provide customers with similar operational capabilities, their focus and use cases differ and SAP has highlighted that SAP Focused Run and SAP Cloud ALM are not competing tools but complementary solutions. For businesses with complex needs, SAP Focused Run provides the technical depth as its target is to provide a central and unified Monitoring, Alerting, Root Cause Analysis and Analytics platform cross multiple stacks, and technologies based on out-of-the-box instrumentation, while SAP Cloud ALM adds value by enabling collaboration between business and IT users.

Recommendations between SAP Focused Run and SAP Cloud ALM

Fig 3: Recommendations between SAP Focused Run and SAP Cloud ALM

Choosing which platform to use depends on your organisation’s specific requirements. For large enterprises managing complex hybrid landscapes, SAP Focused Run is the ultimate solution for high-volume monitoring and diagnostics. Whereas, SAP Cloud ALM is ideal for organisations seeking a lightweight approach with a focus on business process monitoring. Together form a powerful duo, empowering businesses to achieve transparency, efficiency, and resilience in their IT operations.

Explore the Right Solution for You - At Rapid X, we specialise in leveraging platforms to support digital transformations. Contact us today to learn how these tools can enhance your operations and monitoring capabilities.

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Jose Cabrita

Jose is a Product Owner for SAP Cloud ALM and a certified SAP Solution Transformation Consultant with over 10 years of experience in the SAP ecosystem (especially with SAP Solution Manager). As an expert in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), he brings a deep understanding of SAP projects and a proven track record of helping organisations optimise their SAP landscapes. Jose is passionate about driving digital transformation and enabling businesses to maximise the value of their SAP investments, ensuring sustainable success and long-term impact.

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