Database Reference
In-Depth Information
• A SAP technical architect who would like a handbook for planning and performing
activities, such as SAP sizing and SAP application technical integration to enterprise
backup software, such as Tivoli, and so on.
• A technical architect who would like to understand how SAP will integrate with the
organization's data center operations and plan for sizing and architecting the needed
infrastructure for rolling out the solution.
• An enterprise architect who would like to understand how a SAP infrastructure foot-
print could be integrated within enterprise architecture standards.
• A university professor or college lecturer who would like a reference topic in SAP
NetWeaver platform technology for teaching and training requirements.
Brief History of SAP
SAP was started in 1972 by five former IBM employees with a vision of creating a standard
application software for real-time business processing. SAP stands for Systems Applications
and Products in Data Processing. Since its inception SAP has issued several releases, such
as SAP R/1, SAP R/2, and SAP R/3. The R in these releases stands for “Real-Time” data
processing. The 3 in the R/3 stands for three-tier client-server architecture. The most current
release of SAP is SAP Business Suite 7.
Table 1-1
lists the major SAP releases and the release year.
T
ABLE
1-1
Major SAP Releases
