¶ Ensuring Security and Compliance in Hybrid SAP Landscapes
Subject: SAP-Security-Operations
Author: [Your Name or Organization]
Date: [May 2025]
As organizations accelerate their digital transformation journeys, many are adopting hybrid SAP landscapes—integrating on-premise SAP systems with cloud-based environments such as SAP HANA Cloud, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, or SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). While hybrid landscapes offer unmatched flexibility, scalability, and innovation potential, they also introduce complex security and compliance challenges.
For SAP security operations teams, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data across distributed environments requires robust strategies that harmonize cloud and on-premise security frameworks. This article explores key considerations and best practices to ensure security and compliance in hybrid SAP landscapes.
¶ What is a Hybrid SAP Landscape?
A hybrid SAP landscape combines traditional on-premise SAP deployments with cloud-native SAP services. Typical scenarios include:
- Extending SAP ECC or S/4HANA on-premise with SAP HANA Cloud for analytics or data warehousing
- Integrating SAP IoT or SAP Leonardo services running on SAP BTP
- Using SAP Cloud Platform Integration for cross-environment process orchestration
Hybrid landscapes enable innovation while preserving legacy investments, but require secure connectivity, governance, and unified controls.
¶ Security and Compliance Challenges
Hybrid environments extend the attack surface across multiple platforms and networks, increasing risks related to unauthorized access, data breaches, and insider threats.
¶ 2. Complex Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Users and services span on-premise and cloud, demanding federated authentication, consistent role management, and least-privilege enforcement.
Sensitive business data flows between on-premise and cloud systems, necessitating encryption, data masking, and data sovereignty controls compliant with regulations like GDPR or HIPAA.
Divergent security configurations and monitoring tools between environments can create gaps and blind spots.
Hybrid SAP landscapes must comply with standards such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST, or industry-specific mandates, often requiring integrated audit trails and reporting.
¶ Best Practices for Security and Compliance in Hybrid SAP Landscapes
- Define enterprise-wide security policies that span on-premise and cloud SAP environments.
- Use SAP Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) tools to automate policy enforcement and compliance management.
- Regularly update policies to reflect evolving cloud and regulatory requirements.
¶ 2. Implement Robust Identity and Access Management
- Use SAP Identity Authentication Service (IAS) for single sign-on (SSO) and federated identity across hybrid systems.
- Employ SAP Identity Provisioning Service (IPS) to synchronize users and roles between directories.
- Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and monitor privileged access with SAP Access Control.
- Use encrypted VPN tunnels, private connections (e.g., AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute), and SAP Cloud Connector for secure integration.
- Segment networks logically to isolate critical SAP workloads and reduce lateral movement risk.
¶ 4. Data Encryption and Privacy
- Encrypt data in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher.
- Enable Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) on HANA databases.
- Apply data masking or tokenization for sensitive fields, especially in non-production environments.
- Implement data retention and deletion policies aligned with compliance mandates.
¶ 5. Continuous Monitoring and Incident Response
- Deploy SAP Enterprise Threat Detection (ETD) to analyze logs and detect anomalies across hybrid systems.
- Integrate cloud-native monitoring tools (AWS CloudWatch, Azure Monitor) with SAP security operations.
- Define and rehearse incident response procedures tailored to hybrid environments.
¶ 6. Regular Auditing and Compliance Reporting
- Leverage SAP GRC and audit logs to generate consolidated reports across systems.
- Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing covering both cloud and on-premise components.
- Automate compliance evidence collection to simplify audits.
A global bank maintains core SAP ERP on-premise while using SAP S/4HANA Cloud for agile product launches and SAP Analytics Cloud for reporting. The bank secures this hybrid setup by:
- Using SAP IAS for centralized identity and access management.
- Connecting environments over encrypted MPLS VPN.
- Applying strict RBAC policies with SAP Access Control.
- Monitoring suspicious activity with SAP ETD integrated into the Security Operations Center (SOC).
- Ensuring compliance with PCI-DSS and GDPR through continuous audits and controls.
This multi-layered approach safeguards customer data and maintains regulatory compliance.
Hybrid SAP landscapes enable businesses to innovate and scale, but they require vigilant security and compliance management. SAP security operations teams must adopt an integrated, proactive approach—unifying identity management, network security, data protection, monitoring, and compliance automation. With these strategies, organizations can confidently harness the benefits of hybrid SAP while minimizing risks and meeting regulatory demands.
Further Reading and Resources:
- SAP Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Overview
- SAP Identity Authentication Service (IAS) and Identity Provisioning Service (IPS)
- SAP Enterprise Threat Detection (ETD) Documentation
- Industry-Specific Compliance Guidelines (GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA)