Clean Core
Clean Core is the architectural discipline of keeping the S/4HANA digital core upgrade-safe by minimizing modifications and classic customizations, and instead extending SAP functionality through released APIs, in-app extensibility tools, and side-by-side platforms such as BTP. This topic covers why Clean Core matters for upgradeability and TCO, the extensibility options and their trade-offs, governance mechanisms to enforce clean core over time, and how these decisions differ across ECC, S/4HANA on-premise/private cloud, and public cloud.
Overview
Clean Core is the architectural discipline of keeping the S/4HANA digital core upgrade-safe by minimizing modifications and classic customizations, and instead extending SAP functionality through released APIs, in-app extensibility tools, and side-by-side platforms such as BTP. This topic covers why Clean Core matters for upgradeability and TCO, the extensibility options and their trade-offs, governance mechanisms to enforce clean core over time, and how these decisions differ across ECC, S/4HANA on-premise/private cloud, and public cloud.
Lessons in this topic
- Why Clean Core Matters: Business and Technical RationaleIntroduces the clean core concept, why SAP and customers adopted it, and the core problems it solves compared to classic ECC customization practices.
- Clean Core Governance, Operations, and Long-Term Roadmap ManagementEstablishes the governance structures, monitoring practices, and roadmap planning needed to sustain a clean core over multiple release cycles, including how to measure extensibility health and manage cost trade-offs.
- Extensibility Models and Trade-offs Under Clean CoreExplores in-app, developer, and side-by-side extensibility options under clean core, with concrete trade-offs for choosing between them across deployment models.
- Choosing Extension Patterns: In-App vs Side-by-Side under Clean CoreHow to decide between in-app key-user extensibility, developer extensibility, and side-by-side extensions on BTP, and how that choice affects integration flow and long-term maintainability.
- Data Boundaries, Security, and Governance for Clean Core ExtensionsHow to enforce API-only data access, design the security model for extensions, and establish governance controls that keep custom code upgrade-safe over time.