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SAP Cloud Security: Best Practices to Safeguard Your Cloud-Based SAP Systems

What is SAP?

SAP is a global leader in enterprise application software, with solutions like ERP, CRM, and BI that power business-critical operations. As organizations modernize their environments through offerings like RISE with SAP and SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), securing these cloud-based systems has become a critical priority.

Understanding SAP Cloud Security

Businesses are increasingly turning to cloud solutions to streamline operations and improve efficiencies. One such solution is SAP Cloud, which offers a range of enterprise applications and services to help businesses grow and scale. However, with the benefits of cloud computing come security concerns, and it is essential for businesses to understand how to optimize their SAP Security to protect their valuable data and assets.

SAP Cloud Security refers to the policies, technologies, and controls designed to protect SAP applications and data hosted in cloud environments. As organizations migrate to cloud-based ERP solutions like SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), and RISE with SAP, ensuring a secure cloud foundation becomes critical to safeguarding business operations.

Why SAP Cloud Security Matters

SAP systems manage core business functions like finance, HR, supply chain, and more. In cloud environments, these systems are exposed to new risks, including misconfigurations, unauthorized access, and third-party integration vulnerabilities. Cyber attackers actively target SAP applications, and cloud-based systems increase the potential attack surface.

Security incidents involving SAP can lead to data loss, regulatory penalties, and operational disruption. Cloud-specific risks—such as insecure APIs, poor identity governance, and insufficient visibility across hybrid environments—make proactive SAP cloud security essential.

Key Principles of SAP Cloud Security

Effective SAP Cloud Security strategies align with the following principles:

  • Defense-in-depth architecture: Layered security controls across application, platform, and infrastructure levels.
  • Least privilege access: Strict identity and access management policies for SAP roles, especially in BTP and multi-cloud configurations.
  • Continuous monitoring: Real-time detection of misconfigurations, suspicious behaviors, and policy violations.
  • Shared responsibility model awareness: Understanding what security SAP provides—and what customers must secure themselves—is foundational.

SAP’s cloud products include built-in security features, but these are not comprehensive. Organizations must implement additional controls and continuous monitoring to achieve full protection and compliance. Onapsis helps fill this critical gap by providing visibility into cloud misconfigurations, user activity anomalies, and unpatched vulnerabilities across SAP BTP, RISE with SAP, and S/4HANA Cloud. With threat intelligence and automation from Onapsis Research Labs, enterprises can confidently secure their SAP cloud environments beyond native tools alone.

What is the SAP Shared Responsibility Model?

The SAP Shared Responsibility Model defines which aspects of security are managed by SAP and which are the responsibility of the customer. In cloud and hybrid SAP environments such as SAP BTP, RISE with SAP, and S/4HANA Cloud, SAP is responsible for securing the infrastructure, including physical data centers, network controls, and the hypervisor. Customers, on the other hand, are responsible for securing application configurations, user access, integrations, and any custom development.

This division of responsibilities is often misunderstood, leading to critical security gaps. For example, while SAP may patch the underlying infrastructure, it is the customer’s responsibility to apply SAP Security Notes, manage roles and authorizations, and monitor for application-layer threats.

Onapsis helps organizations operationalize the shared responsibility model by providing continuous visibility, compliance assurance, and real-time threat detection across the parts of SAP environments that customers are responsible for securing.

What are the advantages of SAP Cloud Security?

Scalability

SAP Cloud Security solutions can scale seamlessly with your organization’s needs. As business demands grow or shift, your security posture can be adjusted without the heavy investment required by traditional on-premise infrastructure.

Cost-Effective

By eliminating the need for physical infrastructure and reducing the overhead associated with ongoing maintenance, SAP Cloud Security lowers total cost of ownership while still delivering enterprise-grade protection.

Operational Flexibility

Cloud-based SAP security allows organizations to adapt their security controls to specific business and compliance requirements. Whether managing a hybrid environment or scaling globally, teams can implement granular, context-aware protections.

Reduced Security Risk

SAP Cloud Security providers continuously update systems with the latest patches and threat intelligence, helping organizations stay ahead of vulnerabilities and reduce the risk of breaches or compliance failures.

Centralized Control

SAP Cloud Security allows for centralized management of  SAP cybersecurity measures, policies, and access controls. This provides organizations with greater control over their security infrastructure and ensures that security policies are consistent across the organization.

Built-in Compliance Support

SAP Cloud Security solutions often come pre-aligned with major compliance frameworks (e.g., GDPR, SOX, HIPAA, PCI DSS), helping reduce audit burdens and streamline documentation. However, Onapsis extends this baseline by offering deeper visibility, continuous compliance monitoring, and enterprise-grade audit support across complex SAP landscapes.

Improved Incident Response

Modern SAP Cloud Security platforms offer built-in threat detection and real-time alerting capabilities, enabling faster detection and response to suspicious activity across your SAP landscape.

Continuous Monitoring and Visibility

Tools like Onapsis Defend provide continuous insight into the security and compliance status of SAP cloud workloads, ensuring teams can detect misconfigurations, policy violations, or active threats before they escalate.

Overall, SAP Cloud Security offers scalable and efficient protections that help organizations strengthen their security posture, reduce operational costs, and maintain regulatory compliance, especially when paired with advanced capabilities from trusted partners like Onapsis. This comprehensive approach is key to achieving a truly secure cloud transformation.

Challenges with SAP Cloud Security

While SAP Cloud Security offers powerful protections, organizations still face significant challenges in securing complex hybrid environments, managing shared responsibilities, and ensuring full visibility across their SAP landscape. These challenges include:

Limited Visibility Across SAP Landscapes
Complex Hybrid Architectures
Gaps in Shared Responsibility Awareness
Compliance Requirements
Insider Threats
Data Breaches
Limited Visibility Across SAP Landscapes

Many organizations struggle to gain full visibility into their SAP cloud environments. This lack of unified oversight creates blind spots across applications and infrastructure layers, making it harder to identify misconfigurations or detect malicious activity in real time.

Complex Hybrid Architectures

Securing SAP in hybrid environments where cloud, on-premises, and third-party systems intersect requires unified policies and coordination. Without centralized control, inconsistencies in security posture can introduce exploitable gaps and complicate audit readiness.

Gaps in Shared Responsibility Awareness

Security in SAP cloud environments is shared between SAP and the customer, yet many organizations overlook their part. This can result in unprotected interfaces, improperly configured user roles, and reliance on default settings. These are issues that Onapsis frequently uncovers during assessments.

Compliance Complexity in Cloud Environments Maintaining compliance in SAP cloud deployments is more difficult due to constantly changing workloads and integrations. Without specialized tools like those from Onapsis, organizations risk falling out of alignment with critical standards like SOX, GDPR, or HIPAA.

Compliance Requirements

Organizations using SAP cloud solutions may need to comply with various regulatory and industry standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. Meeting these requirements can be challenging, and failure to do so can result in significant financial and reputational damage.

Insider Threats

Internal actors – whether negligent or malicious – pose a serious risk in SAP cloud environments. Weak access controls, excessive privileges, and a lack of monitoring can enable unauthorized actions. Organizations must implement granular role-based controls and continuous activity monitoring to reduce exposure.

Data Breaches

SAP systems in the cloud are high-value targets for attackers. Misconfigurations, vulnerable services, and exposed endpoints can all lead to data loss. Protecting against breaches requires layered security: encryption, access restrictions, and proactive vulnerability management.

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How to Strengthen SAP Cloud Security

While SAP Cloud provides robust security features, SAP customers need to take additional steps to optimize security and protect their data and assets. Below are some tips and best practices for optimizing SAP cloud security:

Define Access Controls

Access controls are essential to SAP cloud security. Organizations should apply the principle of least privilege, granting users only the minimum access needed to perform their roles. This minimizes exposure to unauthorized access and data misuse.

To strengthen access control, regularly audit permissions and immediately revoke access for users who no longer require it. This reduces the risk of insider threats both malicious and accidental.

Encrypt Data

Encryption is a critical component of any security strategy, and businesses should ensure that data is encrypted both in transit and at rest in SAP cloud environments. 

SAP Cloud solutions offer native encryption capabilities for data at rest. For data in transit, SSL/TLS should be enforced to protect information as it moves across networks. Consistently verifying that these controls are active helps prevent data leakage or interception.

Implement Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) significantly improves SAP cloud access security by adding a secondary verification step beyond a password.

SAP Cloud includes built-in 2FA functionality, and organizations should enforce it across all accounts. This is particularly effective against phishing and credential theft, helping ensure only authorized users gain access to business-critical systems.

Monitor User Activity

Real-time monitoring is key to detecting threats and maintaining visibility across your SAP cloud infrastructure. Implement logging and alerting tools for effective SAP security monitoring.

SAP provides native monitoring features, but organizations should customize these tools to match their security requirements. Reviewing activity logs regularly can help detect early signs of compromise and support incident response.

Regularly Update Systems

Timely system updates are critical to mitigating known vulnerabilities. SAP cloud services offer automated updates, including security patches and bug fixes. 

Organizations should ensure that these updates are applied consistently across all systems and integrations. Staying current helps close potential security gaps and strengthens the overall resilience of your SAP cloud environment.

Compliance and Regulatory Considerations

Meeting Industry Standards

Organizations using SAP in the cloud must comply with regulations such as GDPR, SOX, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. These standards require strong controls over data privacy, access management, and security operations.

Customer Responsibility in the Cloud

While SAP provides foundational compliance features, businesses are ultimately responsible for configuring, maintaining, and validating compliance across their SAP landscape. This includes enforcing proper access controls, enabling encryption, and maintaining activity logs.

How Onapsis Supports Compliance

Onapsis helps streamline compliance by offering automated risk assessments, continuous monitoring, and audit-ready reporting. These capabilities allow teams to quickly detect control gaps, validate configurations, and stay aligned with evolving regulatory requirements in both cloud and hybrid environments.

Conclusion: Securing SAP in the Cloud Era

Cloud Security Is a Business Imperative

As enterprises adopt cloud and hybrid SAP environments, security cannot be an afterthought. Protecting mission-critical applications is essential to maintaining operations, preventing data loss, and meeting regulatory demands.

SAP Cloud Security Requires a Shared, Strategic Approach

SAP provides foundational tools and protections, but customers are responsible for securing configurations, access, and monitoring. Organizations must approach SAP Cloud Security with a clear understanding of their responsibilities and the evolving threat landscape.

Onapsis Helps Organizations Stay Ahead

Onapsis supports businesses in closing the visibility gap, automating patching, and strengthening compliance. By leveraging expert insights and purpose-built solutions, companies can reduce risk, meet audit requirements, and protect SAP applications from advanced threats.

Common Questions about SAP Cloud Security

How does SAP Cloud Security support regulatory compliance?

SAP Cloud Security helps organizations meet compliance requirements by enabling access controls, audit trails, data encryption, and reporting aligned with frameworks like ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR. For deeper protection and audit readiness, organizations often turn to third-party platforms like Onapsis.

What are best practices for strengthening SAP Cloud Security?

Recommended practices include regularly applying SAP Security Notes, enabling multi-factor authentication, conducting security assessments, monitoring user activity, and training staff on secure usage of cloud applications.

Can SAP Cloud Security be tailored to fit unique business needs?

Yes. SAP Cloud Security supports customization through role-based access, fine-grained policy configuration, and integrations with external security solutions such as those from Onapsis, allowing businesses to align controls with specific operational and compliance goals.

How is SAP Cloud Security different from traditional security models?

Unlike on-premise security, SAP Cloud Security addresses the challenges of remote access, elastic infrastructure, and shared responsibility. It emphasizes securing data across distributed environments and maintaining visibility across both SAP-managed and customer-managed layers.

What are the core components of SAP Cloud Security?

Key elements include identity and access management, data protection through encryption, secure configuration of SAP applications, continuous monitoring, and automated compliance enforcement.

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