Decision Path

RISE Reality Check

Moving to SAP Cloud ERP Private (RISE) changes the operating model. Some responsibilities shift to SAP—but many do not. Get clarity to avoid surprises.

SAP

manages infrastructure

You

manage application layer

8

key domains to map

Days

of system copy prep work

Reality Check

What Actually Changes

"Cloud" and "managed service" do not mean "fully managed." Teams often assume security, monitoring, or operational tasks are covered by SAP when they remain customer-owned.

What SAP Typically Manages

  • Infrastructure & Hosting

    Hardware, hyperscaler, data center

  • OS Patches & Updates

    Operating system maintenance

  • Database Management

    HANA administration, backups

  • System Availability

    Uptime, performance SLAs

What You Still Own

  • Application Configuration

    Customization, custom code

  • Security & Access Control

    Roles, authorizations, SoD

  • Business Process Monitoring

    Jobs, interfaces, KPIs

  • System Copy Prep/Post

    Config saves, reapplication

  • License Compliance

    Usage tracking, optimization

Deep Dive

Common Operational Examples

These are the areas where teams most often have gaps in their understanding of who does what.

System Copy Operations

The hidden effort in your contract

Even when your contract includes a set number of system copies per year, the operational effort is rarely "just a copy." The prep work and post-copy work can take days.

Typical customer tasks:

Save QAS-specific configurations
Remove production settings
Reapply QAS configurations
Validate interfaces and jobs

Security & Access

Cloud doesn't mean secure by default

You still own user access, role design, segregation of duties, and continuous monitoring of authorization risks. Cloud infrastructure doesn't change this.

Your ongoing responsibilities:

Role and authorization governance
SoD conflict monitoring
User access reviews
Custom code security scanning

Monitoring & Alerting

Infrastructure ≠ business processes

SAP monitors infrastructure health, but you must monitor business processes, interfaces, jobs, and application-level performance.

What you need to monitor:

Background job failures
Interface errors (IDocs, APIs)
Business process KPIs
Custom report performance

Framework

Build Your Responsibility Matrix

The best way to avoid surprises is to map responsibilities explicitly across all operational domains. This becomes your operating model documentation.

Get the template
Security & Access
Operations & Monitoring
System Copy & Refresh
Licensing & Compliance
Ticketing & Support
Integration Management
Change & Release
Disaster Recovery

Map Your RISE Responsibilities

Take the 5-minute RISE Responsibility Check to identify gaps in your shared responsibility model and get a clear action plan for closing them.

Start Responsibility Check