SAP E-SOA Authentication

SAP E-SOA, client certificate-based authentication is the only authentication method (besides username/password) and the only Single Sign-On method to be supported across all SAP technologies. Kerberos and logon tickets, for example, are not compatible with SAP service-oriented architecture.

Products

SAP's products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The company's main product is SAP ECC. The current version is SAP ECC 6.0 and is part of the SAP Business Suite. Its previous name was R/3. The "R" of SAP R/3 stood for realtime - even though it is not a realtime solution. The number 3 related to the 3-tier architecture: database, application server and client (SAPgui). R/2, which ran on a Mainframe architecture, was the predecessor of R/3. Before R/2 came System RF, later dubbed R/1.

SAP ECC is one of five enterprise applications in SAP's Business Suite. The other four applications are:

• customer relationship management (CRM) - helps companies acquire and retain customers, gain marketing and customer insight
• product lifecycle management (PLM) - helps manufacturers with product-related information
• supply chain management (SCM) - helps companies with the process of resourcing its manufacturing and service processes
• supplier relationship management (SRM) - enables companies to procure from suppliers

Other major product offerings include: the NetWeaver platform, Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solutions, Duet (joint offering with Microsoft), Performance Management solutions and RFID. SAP offers SOA capabilities (calling it Enterprise SOA) in the form of web services that are wrapped around its applications.

While its original products were typically used by Fortune 500 companies, SAP is now also actively targeting small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with its SAP Business One and SAP Business All-in-One.
On 19 September 2007 SAP announced a new product named SAP Business ByDesign. SAP Business ByDesign is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, and provides a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, On Demand. SAP Business ByDesign was previously known under the code name "A1S". In October 2007 SAP AG announced the friendly merger and acquisition of Business Objects. This acquisition has expanded SAP's Product Suite of Business Intelligence (BI) solutions and expanded the customer installed base to 89,000.

In May 2010 SAP AG announced that it is buying the database software maker Sybase for US$ 5.8 billion.

SAP officials say there are over 100,600 SAP installations serving more than 41,200 companies in more than 25 industries in more than 120 countries.