As enterprises increasingly embrace cloud-native architectures, SAP continues to evolve its technology stack to support flexible, scalable, and modern development paradigms. One of the key enablers of this transformation is SAP Kyma, an open-source platform designed to build, extend, and operate cloud-native applications on Kubernetes. Closely integrated with the SAP Cloud Platform (SAP Business Technology Platform - BTP), Kyma allows organizations to accelerate innovation by seamlessly connecting SAP solutions with custom and third-party services.
This article provides an overview of SAP Kyma and its integration with the SAP Cloud Platform, highlighting how this synergy drives agile, event-driven, and microservices-based extensions in the SAP landscape.
SAP Kyma is an open-source project based on Kubernetes that offers a modular and extensible environment to develop cloud-native applications. It combines several key components:
Kyma empowers developers to build extensions and integrations that are loosely coupled, scalable, and easy to maintain.
SAP Cloud Platform, recently rebranded as SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), is SAP’s comprehensive cloud offering that supports:
SAP BTP provides a unified environment for extending SAP solutions like SAP S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, and Ariba, enabling businesses to tailor their SAP environments to specific needs.
SAP Kyma is deeply integrated into SAP BTP as the Kyma runtime, enabling developers to build, deploy, and manage cloud-native applications with the benefits of Kubernetes while leveraging SAP’s cloud infrastructure and services.
Kyma runtime on SAP BTP offers a managed Kubernetes cluster where developers can deploy containerized workloads, functions, and microservices. This means businesses don’t need to manage infrastructure themselves while gaining full control over application logic and lifecycle.
Kyma provides pre-built connectors and APIs to integrate with core SAP systems such as:
These connectors allow Kyma applications to easily consume SAP business events and APIs, enabling real-time, event-driven integration.
The integration supports SAP Event Mesh for reliable, asynchronous event communication between Kyma applications and SAP systems. This facilitates reactive applications that respond to business events in near real-time.
Kyma allows customers and partners to build side-by-side extensions outside of the core SAP system, reducing complexity and upgrade risks. These extensions can use SAP BTP services such as:
Developers can use standard tools like kubectl, Helm charts, and Kubernetes operators alongside SAP Business Application Studio or Visual Studio Code extensions to develop, test, and deploy applications in Kyma runtime.
SAP Kyma’s integration with SAP Cloud Platform is a powerful combination that empowers enterprises to innovate rapidly with cloud-native, event-driven applications while leveraging SAP’s robust business processes and data. By adopting Kyma runtime on SAP BTP, organizations can future-proof their SAP landscape, reduce technical debt, and unlock new business value through extensibility and integration.
As cloud-native paradigms continue to shape enterprise IT, SAP Kyma stands as a cornerstone technology for SAP customers aiming to accelerate their digital transformation journey.