Why transition now

SAP Solution Manager has been the ALM backbone of most ECC customers for over a decade. Contoso is typical: its ECC support team runs change control (ChaRM) on Solution Manager 7.2 for ED1, EQ1 and EP1, keeps regression test packages in the Test Suite, and watches the ECC landscape with technical monitoring. Meanwhile, the S/4HANA conversion program already runs in SAP Cloud ALM. Two tools, two ways of working, and a clock running on one of them. This lesson sets out the dates and SAP's position, and what they mean for planning.

The maintenance dates

SAP's support pages are explicit. Solution Manager 7.2 follows the SAP Business Suite 7 maintenance approach. Mainstream maintenance runs until the end of 2027, and SAP's FAQ notes that this includes the Focused Build and Focused Insights add-ons. Customers who choose the optional extended maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 get extended maintenance for Solution Manager 7.2 to the end of 2030 at no extra cost, but only for selected functions.

SAP Note 3255311 describes the extended scope. SAP's FAQ explains why it is partial: extended maintenance exists so that customers can move from Business Suite to S/4HANA without changing their ALM platform in the middle of the project. It is a bridge for programs already underway, not an invitation to stay. Functions outside the list, technical monitoring among them, move to customer-specific maintenance after 2027.

Can you keep running it?

Yes, with conditions. SAP's FAQ says customers with on-premise maintenance agreements keep their perpetual license and can continue to use Solution Manager after mainstream or extended maintenance ends, under customer-specific maintenance with the restrictions in SAP Notes 52505 and 3053725. In practice that means no new functions and narrowing support, on a system the customer patches and operates.

Licensing adds a second constraint that surprises RISE customers. SAP's FAQ states that a RISE with SAP contract includes a Cloud ALM entitlement but does not include Solution Manager usage rights. Those come from an on-premise maintenance contract or a specific Solution Manager private cloud offering. When a customer moves to S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, its Solution Manager usage rights end unless another valid on-premise maintenance agreement or special offering applies.

Cloud ALM usage rights

SAP's FAQ lists who gets Cloud ALM: customers with cloud subscriptions (which include SAP Enterprise Support, cloud editions), SAP Enterprise Support customers and Product Support for Large Enterprises customers. SAP Standard Support customers have no Cloud ALM rights unless they also have a qualifying cloud subscription. SAP Focused Run, the advanced operations product for large hybrid landscapes and service providers, is licensed separately.

For Contoso the practical reading is simple. The S/4HANA program is already in Cloud ALM, so new work has the right home. The open questions are about the old estate: how long ChaRM and the Test Suite must keep serving ECC, what must be archived for audit when ECC retires, and which Solution Manager functions, such as the System Landscape Directory, other teams still rely on. Those questions are answered by an inventory, which is the next lesson.