How to Automate Security Monitoring for RISE with SAP and SAP BTP

Introduction

Security is more important than ever in the age of digital transformation. This is especially true as business customers move their applications and data to the cloud. With RISE with SAP and SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) on AWS, enterprises are unlocking new potential for transformation and innovation. However, cloud adoption also increases the complexity of security management. Automating security monitoring is essential from day one to actively pursue threat identification, compliance, and resource optimization.

This post explains how organizations can automate security monitoring for RISE with SAP and SAP BTP on AWS. Using AWS security features and SAP cloud solutions, businesses can protect their infrastructure while staying compliant

Get to Know RISE with SAP and SAP BTP on AWS

But before we get to the automating side of things, let us learn what is most important:

• RISE with SAP:
  RISE with SAP is an end-to-end solution that offers a comprehensive transformation for your business. It includes both the software applications and cloud capabilities needed for business transformation. Key services include SAP S/4HANA and other SAP applications. These applications are designed for the cloud, enabling businesses to innovate and scale.
  
• SAP BTP:SAP BTP is a set of services that help businesses run applications, integrate systems, and store and analyze data. With SAP BTP, you can gain valuable insights and foster innovation. It also allows you to easily integrate SAP applications with third-party services and applications running on SAP RISE on AWS.
  

Why Automate Security Monitoring?

As companies move to the cloud, security becomes more complex. Here’s why automating security monitoring is crucial

• Preventative Threat Mitigation:
  Automated systems track activity and prevent threats early.
• Compliant:
  Compliance is an increasing issue in our fast moving regulatory environment. Automation of security policies ensures consistency, reducing manual errors and compliance risks
• Resource Maximization:
  By taking security functions away from IT, you can allow your teams to concentrate on more strategic tasks.
  By knowing that ongoing security analysis is underway behind the scenes.
  

Automate Security Monitoring for RISE with SAP and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) on AWS

Now, let’s see how businesses can automate security monitoring of RISE with SAP and SAP BTP on AWS with the use of AWS’s comprehensive toolset for securing workloads, in combination with SAP control plane services.

• Deploying AWS Security Hub:
  AWS Security Hub provides a view of high-priority alerts and compliance status, helping detect, investigate, and resolve SAP alerts.
  
  • Single Source of Truth: Security Hub collects and organizes findings from supported AWS partner tools, providing a single view for identifying your highest priority issues across multiple Amazon services.
    
  • Best Practice Insights: It is designed to support businesses in following AWS’s best practices for security, providing ongoing scans against standards like CIS AWS Foundations, PCI DSS and more. It allows organizations to adopt best practices across their cloud mix while fully integrated with SAP environments.

Implementing SAP Cloud ALM:

SAP Cloud ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) offers extensive functionality to manage the life of SAP applications, such as monitoring and security.

• End-to-End Visibility: Companies can use SAP Cloud ALM to gain visibility across their IT landscape as well as receive real-time monitoring and transparency into the performance and security of applications.
  
• Automated Notification & Escalation: By defining thresholds and measurements with dedicated rules, companies can trigger alerts for certain security occurrences. This ensures step-by-step traceability of how to handle problems.

• Using AI and Machine Learning for Detection of Threats:
  Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides various machine learning (ML) services which can be used to automate the threat detection. The augments predictive capabilities for SAP workloads.
  
  • AI-Driven Threat Detection: AWS provides resources for businesses to utilize AI as a method for detecting behaviors outside the norm, though not EP-style – there are endpoints AI/ML offerings via Amazon Guard Duty and AWS Macie which can detect anomalies in security before they become threats.
    
  • Predictive Powers: Machine learning models have the power to predict potential vulnerabilities or system breaches through historical findings and current trends, enabling businesses to tackle threats in advance. Regular security checks are automated so that the business is always compliant with its regulatory and security policies.
    
  • Auto-Generated Audit Trails: AWS Cloud Trail logs every API call that happens in your AWS cloud so businesses can see everything that’s going on. Computerizing the planning of audits makes sure corporations on a regular basis Look at their protection methods.
    
  • Always Audit-Ready: Through the seamless integration of Cloud Trail with SAP monitoring solutions, organizations are able to conduct close real-time audits across their SAP environments to ensure compliance with international standards.
    
• Third-Party Tools Integration for Advanced Security:
  AWS provides support for the integration of third-party security tools that help expand the scope of security monitoring from native instruments into SAP environments.
  
  • Splunk: Splunk offers robust security information and event management (SIEM) functionality that helps organizations monitor, analyze, and act on security incidents in real-time.
    
  • Fortinet: Fortinet delivers high-end firewalls and network security products that can be combined with your Amazon and SAP architecture to achieve a multi-level protection of the cloud infrastructure.
    

Competitor Analysis

AWS is the dominant cloud platform in security but there are many other players offering similar clouds to SAP. Here’s a summary of what sets AWS apart:

• Microsoft Azure for SAP:
  Azure offers security options for SAP workloads too when it comes to identity and access management. But AWS has a tighter integration with RISE with SAP and a broader range of cloud-native security services, offering it an edge.
  
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP):
  GCP offers logical also horizontal scalability for running SAP applications, but there’s no equivalent to depth of AWS’ specialized tools that help monitor SAP security.
  

By using AWS native tools and embed them with RISE with SAP and SAP BTP, businesses have the most comprehensive security monitoring available in an automated fashion.

Conclusion

Automating security analytics for RISE with SAP and SAP BTP on AWS is vital for customers looking to have a guaranteed secure, compliant and well-architected cloud environment. Through the power of AWS security offerings, including Security Hub, GuardDuty and SAP Cloud ALM, enterprises can adopt a proactive security stance. It helps them detect threats in real time and automate from incidents. “As a result, we have reduced manual effort and resources.

At Cremencing Solutions, we are Custom Development SAP experts. We are can help tailored your SAP landscape according to your security needs. We will help you with AWS security best practices to speed up the deployment of RISE with SAP and SAP BTP while building on a secure base.

For more insights on SAP BTP read our blog SAP BTP and Artificial Intelligence What Happens When Automation Learns to Think Smarter

FAQs

What is RISE with SAP?
RISE with SAP is SAP’s business transformation service. It brings together SAP’s world-class offerings, including leading cloud software and services.

What is integration between SAP BTP and AWS?
SAP’s Business Technology Platform (BTP) is a platform for businesses to connect both SAP and third-party applications/services together, hosted on top of AWS. This integration provides more scalable, better data management and application development capabilities.

Why use AWS for SAP?
AWS delivers an infrastructure platform to SAP customers that enables increased availability of workloads, enhances security and compliance and delivers scalable solutions for them to run their SAP landscapes ad infinitum.

How Cremencing Solutions can be beneficial in SAP custom development?
A: Cremencing Solutions is an SAP custom development studio that develops tailored solutions in the areas of security. The integration and optimization for your SAP RISE and SAP BTP implementations on AWS. We provide the exact expertise your business needs, whenever you need it.

Resources

For more on automating security monitoring for SAP workloads also check out these:

• SAP AWS Security Implementation
• SAP Integration Suite on AWS