Veteran SAP career expert Jon Reed has fielded quite a few questions from ABAP developers concerned about SAP’s apparent focus on Java over ABAP. Indeed, things have had a distinct Java-flavor lately, which Reed discusses in depth in his most recent guest column, What SAP says about the future of ABAP.

As a follow-up, he asked Thomas Jung, who presented “ABAP Development: Update Your Skills to SAP NetWeaver 7.0” at TechEd Las Vegas this year, to take a look at the column and add any clarifications. Here is what Jung had to say:

Jon, nice article. I did see one thing I thought was interesting. You said, ‘But there’s no question that when it comes to designing new enterprise services, Java is the language of choice in most cases.’ You might want to ask someone at SAP what nearly all of Business Suite and Business by Design Enterprise Services are written in. You will find that the answer isn’t Java. But you make an excellent point in this article: does it really matter if the Enterprise Services themselves are written in Java or ABAP? No, not as long as the results are ‘open standards based.’

Jung went on to add:

Yes, to the outside world, it really doesn’t matter if it is ABAP or Java, since either way, the services are exposed via open standards. That is true. But at the same time, it is important to note that we continue to leverage the investment SAP, its partners and its customers have already made in the business logic written in ABAP.

Our eSOA strategy doesn’t mean that you have to discard that investment. Quite the opposite. You can continue to gain benefit from that investment while also extending it to new and open opportunities.

Perhaps the most important point Jung wanted to get across to us, and to the readers of this blog, is that the question of whether Enterprise Services are written in ABAP or Java is not the most key issue. Jung wants us to remember Vishal Sikka’s message that the underlying programming language is not as crucial as understanding how SAP is “wrapping” the code and exposing applications via Enterprise SOA.

So how do we summarize the question of whether ABAP is dead? We can start by saying that you can’t answer it completely in one blog entry. We’ll return to this topic frequently as more information comes to light.

But for now, we can safely say that ABAP is not going anywhere. It’s also becoming clear that whether you’re an SAP ABAP person or an SAP Java person, if you don’t make a commitment to understanding the latest generation of modeling tools (CE, Visual Composer, Aris for NetWeaver, etc.), and how they fit into the emerging Enterprise Architecture, you’re going to be left behind.

As of this writing, the final word on “is ABAP dead?” is not “yes” or “no.” The answer is that we’re asking the wrong question.

Jon Reed & Matt Danielsson

Humor is one way to deal with the daily frustrations that can plague a career in SAP. As a Star Wars fan, I enjoyed the following barb (please read in Yoda’s voice) “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to ABAP.” And here’s one more, “Einstein decided to become a physicist only after failing as an SD consultant, when tasked to configure Resource Related billing.” Ouch! Both zingers came from the SAP Facts – Chuck Norris style website.

Sure, SAP humor can be a hoot – and it does help alleviate frustration – but the best cure is to actually get an answer and end a specific SAP frustration. Wouldn’t it be cool to tap into the combined knowledge of your colleagues when you run up against an SAP roadblock? Well, now you can – on IT Knowledge Exchange.

We’ve completely redesigned IT Knowledge Exchange to make it easier than ever to collaborate with your peers. And since you’re already a member of SearchSAP.com, you can log in using your same email address and password.

Are you an SAP guru? Then drop by to answer a question to help a colleague out. Looking for SAP answers? Then search our knowledge base or pose your own question to your peers.

We’re building a community and we want you to be a part of it. IT Knowledge Exchange is free, gratis, cost nothing to use… so come interact with your peers and help create an essential IT resource. You can learn how to use IT Knowledge Exchange by visiting our ITKE Community Blog.

Brent Sheets
Community Manager

H1B visas have remained a hot button topic for SAP professionals for some time, and we’ve covered it quite a bit over the years. Last we heard, there was legislation put into motion to more than triple the H1B application fee, from $1,500 to $5,000. The influx of money would be used to fund new scholarships for U.S. students to the tune of $15,000 annually for qualified computer science students.

Well, that probably won’t happen after all. InformationWeek just reported that the amendment is most likely about the get the boot, which comes as good news to Microsoft, Sun and others who have gone on the record to support easing and increasing H1B visas. They view the H1B visa program as a key component of staying competitive and adequately staffing projects with the best and brightest in the world.

Not surprisingly, American IT workers and consultants beyond the SAP world are less than thrilled. Steven Ashley observed that:

“…By depressing the IT salaries, the H1B program has had an unforeseen effect, depressing the enrollment of students in IT training programs in U.S. Universities. Qualified students, seeing that IT positions no longer carry the prestige, high demand and salaries they once commanded have chosen more prestigious, higher paying, or less demanding majors.”

Ashley also quoted anti-H1B crusader Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) from a speech earlier this year:
“The H1B program was intended to fill jobs for a temporary amount of time while the country invested in American workers to pick up the skills they needed […] Unfortunately, the H1B program is so popular that it’s now replacing the U.S. labor force.”

Clearly, the H1B battle rages on with no signs of slowing down. We’ll continue to track the developments in the months ahead.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

The latest entry in our popular On The Spot series features Mario Linkies, CEO of Secude Consulting and former Director of Risk Management at SAP, answering questions about SAP security. Read his advice to users faced with challenges like ensuring security during a SAP upgrade, social hacking, limiting user transactions and many more in the November OTS.

For next month, the topic is SAP Basis administration. Our guest expert is Joey Hirao, author of the best-selling book “SAP R/3 Administration for Dummies” and a frequent contributor to SAPtips.com and other prominent SAP publications. Do you have a pressing Administration challenge looming? Looking for ways to find your footing after a NetWeaver upgrade? Perhaps you’re thinking of becoming an independent consultant?

Whatever the situation, we want your toughest Administration questions! Click here to submit your question (100 words or less) and stay tuned for the December issue of On The Spot!

Matt Danielsson
Editor