SAP releases a new S/4HANA version every 2 years and gives 7 years of support (private/on-premise). The end date for the support for S/4HANA is 2040. Considering these informations, what will be the last S/4HANA release?
Disclaimer: I searched a little bit what the release plans are for after 2040. I found not much. In case I missed an important piece of information, please let me know (best via LinkedIn).
2035
Starting from the 2025 release, the next S4 release will be S/4HANA 2027, followed by 2029, and so on. Taking the 2 years of active maintenance (FPS) and 5 years of mainstream maintenance, the last S/4HANA release with 7 years of support is S/4HANA 2033.
This release schedule fits perfectly in to the 2040 deadline and the 7 years maintenance. The problem is: if this stays this way, S/4HANA 2033 will be the last S4 release with full support time frame. That is “only” 4 new S4 releases (2027, 2029, 2031, 2033). In SAP terms, 2033 is just around the corner. With 2033 being the last year with a new S4 release, there won’t be much of innovation possible. The FPS are stopped being delivered in 2035. This gives 5 years of support without any new release, features, etc.
Aternatives
An alternative is that SAP continues to release new S/4HANA releases until 2040. The possibilities here are that SAP offers support until the official 2040 deadline. In that case, you might get a 2037 release with 2 years of active support and FPS, followed by normal support until 2040. And the 2039 release comes with 1 year and 2 FPS.
Hard to believe that either SAP or customers are willing to adopt this approach. Even when an update is an easy task (all are clean core), it is still effort. And as there won’t be a 2041 release … Maybe extending the support of any S4 release that was released before the 2040 is the solution? The 2035 release will be offically 2 years supported after the 2040 deadline, the 2037 for 4 years and the final (?) 2039 release for even 6 years?
Autonomous Enterprise
Another possibility is that the Autonomous Enterprise will take over. SAP honours the 2040 deadline, is not offering a new S4 release after 2033 and will force their customers to adopt the Autonomous Enterprise (AE).
This might then be even a “classical” S/4HANA release in its core, but enhanced with all what it takes to be AI and agent ready. In that case, the transition from S4 to AE will be as smooth as any other transition to a new SAP release. In the “worst” case customers will have the S/4HANA 2033 release and 7 years, fully supported, to go to AE. Or find a company that offers custom SAP support, outside SAP Support organization.
Quo Vadis S/4HANA?