Transport Management – SAP BTP

Introduction

In the rapidly evolving landscape of the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), efficient and secure transport management has become a business-critical requirement. With the increasing adoption of the sidecar approach as part of the clean core strategy, the number and complexity of development objects on BTP are growing exponentially. Transport management ensures that these objects are moved seamlessly across different environments while maintaining integrity, security, and compliance throughout the entire process.

To address the challenges of transport management in SAP BTP, we recommend the following approach.

Dedicated Subaccount for DevSecOps

Central Control: Use a dedicated subaccount for the centralized governance of DevSecOps, covering both DevOps and secret management.

Centralized Configuration: Consolidate all transport-related configurations within a single subaccount to simplify the overall landscape.

Benefits:

• Structure: Clear and well-organized deployment of development objects.
• Security: Improved security through isolation of sensitive configurations and credentials.
• Efficiency: Simplified, more efficient, and easier-to-control management processes.
• Compliance: Support for robust DevOps practices and adherence to security and regulatory requirements.

SAP BTP provides a wide range of services and user interfaces that enable seamless content transport across environments. These services offer powerful tools for managing and deploying various development objects, ensuring they are moved securely and efficiently within the BTP landscape. The following services are, in our view, essential for effective transport management.

Continuous Integration and Delivery Service

The Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD) service is a core component for automating the software development lifecycle. It focuses on the regular integration of code changes and their efficient and secure delivery.

Automated Build Processes: The service can automatically build source code from various source control management (SCM) systems such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. This reduces manual errors and accelerates the development cycle.

Testing and Validation: CI/CD pipelines can include automated tests to ensure code integrity and functionality, ensuring that only tested and stable code is deployed.

Continuous Deployment: After successful builds and tests, the CI/CD service can automatically deploy applications to different environments such as development, testing, and production.

Example Use Cases:

• Building and deploying SAP Fiori/UI5 applications.
• Developing and managing CAP projects (Cloud Application Programming Model).

Transport Management Services

These services support the secure and structured transport of data and application deployments across different subaccounts within the same global account or across multiple global accounts.

Centralized Management: Provides a central platform for managing transport requests and packages, simplifying the deployment process.

Secure Transport: Ensures secure data and application transports by leveraging SAP security protocols and best practices.

Cross-Account Deployments: Enables the transport of content across different global accounts, providing flexibility and scalability for organizations operating multiple global accounts.

Example Use Cases:

Deploying configuration changes such as role collections, destinations, and variants from a development subaccount to a test or production subaccount.

Moving integration content between different regions or data centers to meet regulatory requirements.

Content Agent Service and UI

The Content Agent Service and its user interface are key components for managing and transporting integration artifacts within SAP BTP. The service simplifies the transport of content such as iFlows, APIs, and other integration components across environments.

Transport Packages: Supports the creation, management, and triggering of transport packages containing multiple integration artifacts.

User-Friendly Interface: Provides an intuitive user interface for managing integration content, simplifying organization and deployment.

Monitoring and Logging: Offers tools to monitor transport status and logs, ensuring transparency and traceability throughout the process.

Example Use Cases:

Moving iFlows from development to production environments.

Managing API transport packages to ensure consistent deployment across multiple subaccounts.

Summary

Effective transport management in SAP BTP is essential to handle the increasing volume and complexity of development objects driven by the sidecar approach and clean core strategy. By using a dedicated DevSecOps subaccount and leveraging key services such as the Content Agent Service and UI, organizations can ensure secure, efficient, and structured content transport across environments. This approach simplifies management, enhances security, and supports robust DevOps practices.

For further information or support, please contact us. We are happy to help you optimize your SAP BTP transport management strategy.