Solution Manager to Cloud ALM: what to move, what to drop

SAP Solution Manager 7.2 has been the backbone of documentation, change control, testing and monitoring in many SAP landscapes. Its mainstream maintenance ends on 31 December 2027. Extended maintenance runs through 2030, but it only covers selected areas: requirements, project and process management, the test suite, change control, IT service management and landscape management. Everything else moves to a different support model. The software does not stop working on 1 January 2028, but the support behind it thins out.

SAP's recommended destination is SAP Cloud ALM, a SAP-managed cloud service for implementation and operations, with SAP Focused Run for large estates that need advanced monitoring.

Cloud ALM is not Solution Manager in the cloud

SAP is clear that there is no functional parity between the two. Cloud ALM is simpler, cloud-native and built around SAP Activate and the newer SAP products. Some Solution Manager features have equivalents, some are handled differently, and some are not offered at all. That is a reason to treat the move as a review of how you manage your landscape, not a migration of every object.

A decision framework

For each Solution Manager capability you use, ask three questions:

1. Do people actually use it? Process documentation that nobody has opened in three years is not worth migrating.
2. Is there a Cloud ALM equivalent? SAP provides a readiness check that maps your Solution Manager usage to Cloud ALM capabilities.
3. If not, does it matter? Some gaps are better filled by tools you already own, such as your IT service management platform for incident handling.

Typical outcomes

• Implementation projects move to Cloud ALM's requirements, tasks and test management, especially for S/4HANA programmes following SAP Activate.
• Change control moves to Cloud ALM and Cloud Transport Management for hybrid landscapes, or to features in your ITSM tool.
• Monitoring of business processes, interfaces and jobs moves to Cloud ALM operations, with Focused Run where scale or depth requires it.
• Documentation that is still valuable is moved selectively. SAP offers a selective data transfer rather than a full database copy.

When to start

If you are planning an S/4HANA programme, set up Cloud ALM at the start of the programme rather than building new content in Solution Manager and moving it later. If you are not, aim to finish the review in 2027 so you are not relying on the narrower extended maintenance scope.