SAP Career- Stability & Future

Various rumours have been circulating that ABAP will be replaced by Java and that SAP will start investing in a future filled with cloud-based development which will make the knowledge of ABAP futile. There are many people with a direct relationship with ABAP who are concerned about their job security as developers, technical consultants, and analysts. A standard SAP Application utilizes ABAP, which is a high-level programming language which provides a platform best suited for complex business applications.

The cause of fear among ABAP developers

• The J2EE platform developed by Sun was implemented by SAP for SAP’s Netweaver can be considered as a reason of fear among developers. The benefits of this platform included various benefits such as object-oriented, web centred, analytical applications which are highly functional.
• These applications facilitate a secure, portable, component-based framework which promotes high scalability and usability.
• It had been observed that 2013/14 saw a rise in Java job seekers, but it was quickly crushed by the number of ABAP job seekers. This fluctuation was actually a reflection of the candidate-driven market which consists of lesser ABAP developers and more Java developers. A user can now implement the products developed by SAP’s Netweaver rapidly because SAP has bridged the gap between existing functionality written in ABAP code with the new product codes written in Java.
• Another reason contributing to this concern is the advent of cloud and its augmenting demand. The reason why the requirements for ABAP may reduce is the adaptation of cloud suited for microservices which can be scaled and disseminated globally at all data centres.
• While incorporating cloud services, the programming is done keeping the cloud scenario in mind. This scenario does not contain ABAP or Java at all.
• However, what everybody fails to notice that even this development is not competent enough to squash ABAP. SAP may be looking for new innovative methods to improve its software, but its core applications such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) are completely coded using ABAP, which is why ABAP cannot become obsolete.

The fate of the scope of employment of ABAP developers

• Currently, it has been observed that ABAP developers should have nothing to worry about because a large number of legacy systems have been coded in ABAP. It is a tedious task to rewrite all these systems in Java code, which means that ABAP cannot become obsolete.
• ECC software is core software used by all companies and it is coded using ABAP.
• Apart from these conditions, it should be remembered that ABAP is still a robust and reliable platform that is trustworthy for the development of business applications.
• Java is not being used to replace ABAP, but it is being used to support all the codes written in ABAP. Change is constant and technology keeps changing to meet the growing demands of businesses which is why SAP keeps looking for new methods for meeting the demands of all customers. However, there will always be support for legacy systems and SAP will ensure their retention.

Thus, ABAP developers must not worry about job security, but they should be open-minded when it comes to software such as Java and HANA and learn about them as well.