Normally, DevOps tools aim to deliver better performing code through lots of tweaks to code already in production, based on frequent feedback using real-world data. Our new DevOps for SAP tool achieves similar results without constantly rewriting your ABAP code – accurately forecasting code’s performance data, as you write it.
You look at your monitor to see a notification from your ITIL systems, the KPIs say your resolution rate isn’t improving. There’s an endless queue of changes to make and your team of developers are sitting in another root cause performance meeting – refactoring code has become a matter of “some, not all”. Oh, and on top of that you need to find time for a HANA or S/4HANA upgrade.
Some of us (well, probably most of us) will be all too familiar with this workday and how it can grind production systems to a halt. But not any more! We want to introduce you to a new set of tools that can help you automate your way to a more productive day.
DevOps for SAP by Gekkobrain empowers you to develop and change existing applications with a full understanding of how the code will behave in production, without ever having to slow your production system down again.
Whether you want to discover a faster and more cost-effective development process or you need to keep track of your outsourcing partner’s code quality, DevOps for SAP is the version of DevOps you’ve been waiting for.
Foresight of How Your ABAP Code Performs in Production
In the world of IT, DevOps is almost everywhere. For example, in an e-commerce environment, the number of changes going into production is staggering – dozens, or maybe even hundreds a day.
This is continuous integration, continuous deployment. Not weekly or fortnightly.
SAP users have been frantically trying to replicate these benefits, but, unfortunately, e-commerce developers tend to rely on DevOps tools and coding vernacular that are not well-suited to SAP systems.
Instead, SAP developers will need a new strategy.
Under traditional DevOps methodology, amended ABAP code would be deployed many times a day based on feedback from real-world performance data. This is a great strategy, if you feel comfortable with making many changes and making them fast.
At Gekkobrain, we feel it’s more beneficial to show you how to build a routine that enables you to achieve the same highly-performing ABAP code, while only writing and deploying code once.
This is possible thanks to DevOps for SAP’s accurate forecasts of performance data based on knowledge extracted from your run-time information. Empowering you to write ABAP code that you know works well in production.
Unparalleled Level of Information for Developers and Technical Lead
But how does Gekkobrain DevOps for SAP work in practice?
We want to be specific about how Gekkobrain DevOps for SAP works in practice. It’s a cloud solution that tells you how the ABAP you are currently working on in your development system runs in production.
In short, the tool combines code checks with a whole host of dynamic checks from your production system. This allows us to tell you exactly how the code you’re developing is performing and what you need to do to improve it – or what you need to be aware of if you want to change it.
For technical leads, DevOps for SAP will provide the same information, both at an aggregated level and on a specific level, as well as for specific user groups. Due to this, you’ll be able to see how particular users or user groups are affected by the code.
The benefits are obvious:
- You save on costs
- Development time is reduced dramatically
- Faster deployment to production
- Better performing code
- Less computing units
- More efficient databases
At the same time, you’ll be able to monitor the performance of your outsourcing partner, empowering you to check whether the ABAP code is of acceptable quality and give feedback based on performance before it’s even in production.
What it’s Like to Use Gekkobrain DevOps for SAP Day-to-Day
You need to change a function module. It’s an old function module that you aren’t familiar with, but the change request tells you to assess the coding standard because it was written nearly a decade ago – it also tells you to add three new fields to two new tables.
You amend the tables and begin the lengthy task of assessing the code. You discover that the module has been to production 3 times in the last year and, in fact, has been transported there more than 20 times since it was created in 2009.
A deeper look at the module reveals expensive SQL statements in 3 separate places and you discover it’s accessing some tables too many times for the same information. This explains why the module’s run-time has actually increased since you changed the code, this whole episode has wasted nearly an entire day and you still aren’t sure how to move forward.
DevOps for SAP delivers all this information without requiring a lengthy manual investigation in the module and prevents you from blindly following the change request.
A quick glance at the easy-to-read dashboard reveals that some of the recommendations in the change request are slightly too conservative. With predicted performance data supplied by DevOps for SAP, it doesn’t take long to develop a more sophisticated solution – by refactoring how the module accesses tables you reduce it’s run-time by 90%.
Possessing the performance information at Design Time means you can quickly make the required changes without any negative affect to your live systems. And this is only a third of why Gekkobrain’s DevOps for SAP is a great tool to have.
You Don’t Find Errors, They Find You!
Maybe, despite your best intentions, you didn’t have time to make every change you wanted or maybe the program is brand new and you didn’t have a full forecast of how it would perform. Either way, after your code has been committed, an application begins dumping in production and you don’t know why.
This is where the Ops side of the tool picks up the slack, notifying you which code item you recently changed is the reason for the problem.
Let’s say an application starts timing out. Again, using the dump monitor of DevOps for SAP, you can see where the application dumps. The information finds you and tells you exactly what is going on.
With Gekkobrain, errors don’t need to be found, they find you, and you would be amazed how gratifying it is to get accurate information about why your application is dumping.
DevOps for SAP Also Checks for Run-Time Data Outside the Scope
The final thing that makes our DevOps tool great is that it tracks the transaction pattern in your system and relays that information to your dashboard. While your code is in good shape, it’s still important to know that it’s called from a class that’s itself called from a BADI which sits in a USER-EXIT in your sales transaction VA01.
You can see that there is a call to a similar set of tables higher up in the call-chain already in the user exit and from this call you can see that the real problem is that your function is actually called for ALL ENTRIES inside an internal table in that USER-EXIT.
By now you know what we are trying to tell you. Gekkobrain’s DevOps for SAP informs you of the run-time outside the scope of the code you are changing.
Not Just Another Monitor
Oh, and there’s actually a fourth reason why our DevOps tool has been so well-received.
If there are no errors found in your code, DevOps for SAP simply stays empty. Your business has enough warnings and monitors as it is, so we won’t bother you if we don’t have anything meaningful to add to the conversation.
DevOps for SAP is the tool that finally brings continuous improvement to your SAP systems. To revolutionize how you develop programs for SAP, book a demo today.