SAP’s Clean Core Approach: Security, Compliance & How Onapsis Helps
As organizations embrace SAP S/4HANA and RISE with SAP, the concept of maintaining a Clean Core has become increasingly critical within SAP cybersecurity.
The Importance of a Clean Core in SAP Cybersecurity
The SAP Clean Core Approach emphasizes leveraging a streamlined core SAP system by eliminating unnecessary or redundant custom code while optimizing and securing the essential custom code that remains. It also encourages exploring SAP’s native extensibility features to replace custom ABAP code where possible, improving efficiency and maintainability.
The Role of SAP BTP in Supporting a Clean Core
This approach ensures easier upgrades, better system stability, and a streamlined path to innovation. When organizations adopt RISE with SAP and transition to SAP S/4HANA, maintaining a Clean Core becomes crucial for leveraging the full benefits of SAP’s cloud-driven strategy. The SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) complements this by offering a flexible environment for building custom applications and extensions—without altering the core enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Security Challenges in a Clean Core Environment
However, as SAP’s Clean Core approach seeks to reduce complexity within the ERP system, it shifts more and more development to platforms like SAP BTP. This transition introduces new security challenges—including increased attack surfaces, potential vulnerabilities in custom code, and the need to manage security across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
The Need for Strong Security Measures
Without thorough security measures, organizations could unintentionally expose critical business processes and sensitive data to risk. Addressing these challenges in your BTP environment is essential to fully realize the benefits of a Clean Core approach.
Why SAP Clean Core Matters:
- Simplified Upgrades: Minimize disruption during upgrades with smooth custom code management.
- Accelerated Innovation: Stay current more easily with faster access to the latest technologies.
- Enhanced Security & Stability: Ensure end-to-end system security, continuity, and reliability.
- Optimized TCO (total cost of ownership): Maximize efficiency in infrastructure and license usage.
- Comprehensive Traceability: Maintain full visibility across all core areas.
Many organizations migrate rather than starting fresh with a greenfield RISE landscape, bringing decades of custom applications that may not easily fit within a Clean Core approach. Even if the ultimate goal is a fully clean core, the transition is a multiyear journey—one that requires ongoing security and compliance to protect critical applications and data every step of the way. Ensuring this code is secure is essential to prevent vulnerabilities that could impact the broader SAP landscape. We’ve found that our customer SAP environments contain a range of 2 million to 100 million lines of custom code. With the average cost of a failed, delayed, or scaled-back digital transformation project being more than $4 million dollars1, it’s not a risk most organizations are willing to take. However, with most application development teams already strained for time and resources, how do you ensure your code is clean?
Onapsis Control extends comprehensive application security testing capabilities to SAP BTP, integrating seamlessly with SAP-recommended integrated development environments (IDEs) like Eclipse with ABAP Development Tools, SAP Business Application Studio, and Visual Studio Code. This empowers developers to:
- Catch Security Issues Early: Real-time, inline security scanning identifies vulnerabilities as code is written.
- Automate Code Integrity Checks: Reduced manual testing through automated scans of Git repositories.
- Simplify Compliance: Centralized management ensuring the application of consistent security policies and practices across all projects.
Whether you’re migrating existing custom code, developing new applications in ABAP, UI5, or BTP, or working with external partners, Control ensures secure, optimized code from the start. It applies the same rigorous security and quality standards across all development efforts, reducing costly fixes later in production. By shifting security left and embedding automated checks throughout the development lifecycle, Onapsis Control helps organizations get clean, stay clean, and build a more resilient SAP environment—supporting both SAP’s cloud transformation goals and the long-term security of your business.
Curious to see how Onapsis can enhance your SAP security strategy? Discover more about Onapsis Control for SAP BTP today!
1https://onapsis.com/blog/cleanse-your-code-and-reduce-sap-digital-transformation-project-costs/