SAP NetWeaver Gateway, SAP Mobile Platform, SAP API Management, Integration Gateway: the SAP Mobile Integration playing field includes multiple players. What are their roles, and can they play well together?
SAP Mobile Integration technologies and products
The role of SAP NetWeaver Gateway is exposing SAP ABAP-based Business Suites for consumption by alternative UI-channels, SAP and non-SAP. Including mobile apps, a.o. the SAP Fiori Apps.SAP delivers also SAP Mobile Platform as a standard product. SMP 3.0 includes an internal component Integration Gateway. This is something different than NetWeaver Gateway, although it’s role is comparable: expose data and functionality for external consumption. Starting SMP 3.0 service pack 4, SAP positions SMP also as “Fiori-compatible”. Elements of this are SAP Fiori Client and Kapsel SDK within the SMP portfolio.
Early October, SAP in addition launched the new product SAP API Management. With this product, organization can manage and govern their service provisioning and usage by consuming organisations and Apps. Also this product thus has its rol in the mobile integration landscape.
How do these products play along?
SAP itself acknowledges that the pure existence of these 3 products, which seem to functionally overlap, likely will result in market confusion. To mitigate that effect, Joav Bally wrote an excellent article to clarify on higher level the difference in role positioning. Instead of repeating him, I simple refer to his post: Uniform Provisioning and Consumption of SAP (and non-SAP) Data. Another good information source is the post ‘There is a Gateway for that …’ by Mustafa Saglam.Inspired by the insights I gained via these 2 blogs, I sketched a conceptual architecture diagram in which the 3 SAP integration products/technologies are positioned in the architecture layers.
