Editing SAP R/3 (section)

== History of SAP S/4HANA ==

===Earlier versions===
[[SAP R/2]] was a [[Mainframe computer|mainframe-based]] business application software suite that was very successful in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was particularly popular with large multinational European companies that required soft-real-time business applications, with built-in multi-currency and multi-language capabilities.

===R/3===
With the advent of distributed [[client–server]] computing, SAP SE brought out a client–server version of the software called SAP R/3 (the "R" was for "Real-time data processing" and "3" was for "[[N tier#Three-tier architecture|3-tier]]": 1) database, 2) application server, and 3) client (SAPgui)). This new architecture is compatible with multiple platforms and operating systems, such as [[Microsoft Windows]] or [[UNIX]]. This opened up SAP to a whole new customer base.

SAP R/3 was officially launched on 6 July 1992. Various releases of the software were made through the 1990s.

A newer version of the software, with revised technical architecture, was released in 2004, and renamed as [[SAP ERP]] Central Component (ECC). SAP came to dominate the large business applications market.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/05/18/gartner-supply-chain-management-market-share-update-sap-dominates-with-25-8-share/#5719c57b77a8|title=Gartner Supply Chain Management Market Share Update: SAP Dominates With 25.8% Share|last=Columbus|first=Louis|website=[[Forbes]]|access-date=2016-09-26}}</ref>  The newest version of the product is SAP ECC 6.0 Enhancement Pack 8.

SAP ECC is the core component within the SAP's Business Suite (a collection of applications including [[SAP CRM]], [[SAP SCM]] and others, alongside the ECC component). SAP ECC contains different, but integrated, functionality within its "modules" e.g. Finance module, HR module, Warehouse Management etc. all within the ECC). The combined complexity of the Business Suite, along with newer in-cloud competitors, has in recent years led SAP to invest heavily in simplification and massively improved system response times, culminating in the announcement of the S/4 Simple Suite in February 2015.  S/4 has a single tenant architecture and is being built upon SAP's in-memory database technology stack (HANA) and will be available in a choice of in-cloud and on-premises deployment.  The classic three-tier and database-agnostic architecture of R/3 is replaced with a two-tier architecture.