CMIS Represents the Evolution of SAP ArchiveLink

05.06.2024

Topic: Archiving | Cloud | S/4HANA | SAP

The familiar SAP archive interface is increasingly becoming obsolete. SAP ArchiveLink is still supported for S/4HANA On Premises and Private Cloud, but SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud requires a mandatory connection to the Content Management Interoperability Service (CMIS). CMIS has also been released for xSuite and is available on our cloud platform. The range of functions is similar to ArchiveLink, but offers much more. In this article, we explain what it's all about.

“Content standard to build bridges between data warehouses” was the headline of the (no longer published) Computerzeitung September 2008 issue. It was referring to an initiative of major industry players such as SAP, IBM, EMC and Microsoft to improve interoperability between content systems by developing an interface standard for ECM systems, which was defined as a public standard with the OASIS organization. Content Management Interoperability Service (CMIS) is based on web services standards such as REST. The purpose of this service is to allow applications to access the repositories of various ECM providers.

CMIS is not entirely new. But even back in the day, Gartner analysts predicted that the initiative would have a good chance of success – as opposed to other emerging standards in this area. And they were proven right: CMIS has long since established itself as an open, manufacturer-independent standard for connecting content management systems. CMIS uses four object types (document, folder, relationship and policy types) to create a data layer between the client and the repository to control access to documents and folders.

This is becoming increasingly relevant in view of SAP’s strong focus on the cloud. Take SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, for instance, where the entire archiving process is being moved to the cloud. How does archiving work in the SAP public or private cloud and what aspects need to be considered? In this context, SAP ArchiveLink is no longer viable. The key reason from a technological point of view is that it is not multi-client capable. In the early 1990s, there was no need for multi-client capability in a world where on-premises was the only operation model. After almost three decades without any significant technological changes, the veteran interface simply does not stand up to the demands of the public cloud. It also does not support many of the functions expected of a modern document management system today, such as versioning, check-in/check-out or enriching documents with additional metadata.

When outsourcing the archive to the public Internet (public cloud), ArchiveLink can only meet the constantly increasing security challenges by encapsulating it externally in suitable security technology.

The two interfaces are still interchangeable, but SAP is fully committed to the CMIS protocol as an open standard. It enables interoperability between different ECM and ERP systems and connects companies’ own applications as well as customer and partner solutions with the SAP S/4HANA Cloud and the SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform). The CMIS interface thus represents the new standard for archive connectivity. It is becoming an increasingly essential tool for building an enterprise information management solution with an archive. Virtually all business-critical applications, whether from SAP, Microsoft or other providers, will migrate to the public cloud sooner or later. This further underscores the importance of the cloud-optimized standard.

We have therefore implemented a completely new, proprietary development of the CMIS standard in our time-proven public cloud platform. This means that our customers do not have to worry about security gaps that arise with developments based on the still valid reference implementation. Continuous development and improvement of the xSuite Public Cloud provides a solid basis for the secure receipt and storage of customer data.