Note 1648480 - Maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 Software

Summary

Symptom
Information on maintenance of SAP Business Suite 7 required
Other terms
SAP Business Suite 7, SAP NetWeaver 7.0, Java, 7.0x, maintenance, maintenance strategy, maintenance extension, 2020
Reason and Prerequisites
This note describes details, restrictions and impacts of the maintenance extension for SAP Business Suite 7 core application releases and corresponding enhancement packages through 2020.
Solution
In October 2011, SAP announced an extension of the mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 core application releases and corresponding enhancement packages from end of December 2015 to end of December 2020. This gives SAP customers long-term predictability and planning security.

This note may be updated at short notice.

More details about the maintenance extension for SAP Business Suite 7 will be communicated with the new version of the brochure "SAP's Release Strategy for Large Enterprises" to be published in early 2012 (see http://service.sap.com/releasestrategy).
Restrictions
Please note the following restrictions that apply in the context of the maintenance extension of SAP Business Suite 7 to 2020:

• ABAP-based applications will be supported to 2020.

• Applications based on Java 7.00, 7.01, 7.02, 7.03 will be supported in mainstream maintenance to 2017. Extended maintenance will not be offered.

• Applications based on Java 7.10, 7.11, 7.2, 7.30, 7.31 will be supported to 2020.

Java 7.00, 7.01, 7.02, 7.03 are based on Java version 1.4. This Java version has reached its end of life and will be 15 years old by 2017. SAP has invested significantly to ensure SAP customers can get support for this version until 2017, and with SAP NetWeaver 7.3 has provided a new, Java EE 5 certified release, which has significant improvements, for example in stability and performance, over SAP NetWeaver 7.0.
Customers running software based on Java 7.0x should prepare to plan for upgrades to SAP NetWeaver 7.3 in time before end of 2017. Customers with Java-based SAP NetWeaver 7.0x dual stack systems should also plan to split the dual stack before upgrading to SAP NetWeaver 7.3x in time before end of 2017.
Impact
Please note that the following are general guidelines. Exceptions may apply for individual releases. For information on maintenance for specific releases please refer to the Product Availability Matrix at http://service.sap.com/pam.

In general the maintenance extension only affects the SAP Business Suite 7 core application releases and their enhancement packages, SAP NetWeaver, and other releases whose maintenance was aligned with the SAP Business Suite maintenance (that is, releases which had planned mainstream maintenance to December 2015 and extended maintenance to December 2017 in line with the SAP Business Suite 7 core application releases). The maintenance for older releases, and releases which were not aligned with the SAP Business Suite 7 maintenance phases, remains unchanged.

Core application releases of SAP Business Suite 7
Mainstream maintenance for SAP ERP 6.0, SAP CRM 7.0, SAP SCM 7.0, SAP SRM 7.0, SAP PLM 7.0 (delivered with SAP ERP 6.0 enhancement package 4) and enhancement packages to these releases will be extended through December 2020. Please note that the restrictions in support for Java-based applications may affect these releases to such a degree as they contain, work with or form the basis of Java 7.0x content or applications (also see below under "SAP NetWeaver Java").

ABAP add-ons, other ABAP-based standalone releases
For ABAP-based add-on applications to the core application releases, to their enhancement packages, or to SAP NetWeaver, as well as for other ABAP-based releases, SAP will decide on a case-by case basis whether existing releases of these applications will follow the longer mainstream maintenance to 2020 or whether SAP will ship new releases.

SAP NetWeaver ABAP

• SAP NetWeaver 7.3 and enhancement packages to this release: Mainstream maintenance will be extended through December 2020.

• SAP NetWeaver 7.2: Mainstream maintenance will be extended through December 2020.

• SAP NetWeaver 7.1 and enhancement packages to this release: Mainstream maintenance will be extended through December 2020.

• SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and enhancement packages to this release: Mainstream maintenance will be extended through December 2020.

SAP NetWeaver Java

• SAP NetWeaver 7.3 and enhancement packages to this release: Mainstream maintenance will be extended through December 2020.

• SAP NetWeaver CE 7.2: Mainstream maintenance will be extended through December 2020.

• SAP NetWeaver CE, PI, Mobile 7.1 and enhancement packages to this release: Mainstream maintenance will be extended through December 2020.

• SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and enhancement packages to this these releases: Mainstream maintenance will end in December 2017 (extended maintenance will not be offered). Please note that this restriction also affects applications based on or comprising SAP NetWeaver 7.0x Java. Java applications of SAP ERP 6.0 and also its enhancement packages EHP1, EHP2 and EHP3 are not enabled to run on SAP NetWeaver Java 7.3. Therefore customers should plan to update to at least SAP ERP 6.0 EHP4 in time before end of 2017 to be able to upgrade the Java technology stack to at least SAP NetWeaver Java 7.3 as well.

Java add-ons, other Java-based standalone releases and content

• Standalone and add-on applications as well as content based on or working with Java 7.00, 7.01, 7.02, 7.03 will be supported to 2017. Please note that applications may also offer a release sequence, meaning that the timeframe to 2017 may be filled by more than one release based on e.g. SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Java.

• Standalone and add-on applications as well as content based on or working with Java 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 will be supported to 2020. Please note that applications may also offer a release sequence, meaning that the timeframe to 2020 may be filled by more than one release based on e.g. SAP NetWeaver 7.3 Java.

Additional information
The maintenance outlook for SAP Business Suite 7 is currently to 2020. There is no decision yet on availability, timeframe and conditions of extended maintenance after 2020.

Information on maintenance phases specific releases is also published in the Product Availability Matrix at http://service.sap.com/pam.

Header Data

Release Status:	Released for Customer
Released on:	22.11.2011  10:05:41
Master Language:	English
Priority:	Recommendations/additional info
Category:	Release planning information
Primary Component:	XX-SER-REL Releaseinformation ERP

Affected Releases

Release-Independent

Related Notes

	1532805 - Add-On Compatibility of SAP NetWeaver 7.3
	153967 - BI Content Release Strategy