Duet Enterprise for cloud.

[avishek_gorai2]

Hi All,

I want to know your views on the possibility of using Duet Enterprise for cloud based scenarios and specific comments on the following scenarios:

1. All systems viz. SharePoint, SCL and SAP backend are on cloud.

2. SharPoint and SCL are on cloud and the SAP backend in premise.

3. SharePoint is in cloud and SCL and SAP backend are on premise.

Cloud over hear means a public cloud. Please let me know what could be the complexities or road block sin each of these scenarios in your opinion.

Hoping for some constructive discussion on this topic, since these scenarios are catching a lot of eyes these says.

Regards,

Avishek.

[Former Member]

Hi Avishek,

at the moment none of the alternatives are possible; reason for that is that Duet Enterprise depends on SharePoint side upon Business Connectivity Services; and this is not yet supported within SharePoint Online.

However, Microsoft stated at the SharePoint Conference in October that it will include BCS within SharePoint online; that would open up Duet Enterprise cloud-based scenario's.

Best regards, William.

[Former Member]

Hi Avishek,

Update:

The november update of SharePoint Online (SPO) includes the earlier announced BCS support; see [Whatu2019s New in SharePoint Online: November 2011 Update|http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/BlogPost.aspx?pID=1002&prod=SP&type=BL].

Via this it is now possible to connect to external data in SharePoint Online context; through WCF endpoints to the external repositories.

However, utilization of Duet Enterprise is not (yet) possible; due:

1) Duet Enterprise is an Add-On to both SharePoint and SAP installations; and this Add-On is not included within SharePoint Online.

2) Moreover; via Duet Enterprise you have a bi-directional connectivity between your SharePoint and your SAP landscape; it is required that both parties know how to 'reach' to another. This is something that I do not see forthcoming in any shared (multi-tenancy) cloud / SaaS proposition. It effectively requires to have a organization-dedicated Duet Enterprise configuration; which should be possible in the cloud, but then boils down to a multi-instance installation in which you outsource the hosting of YOUR SharePoint environment to a 'hosting organization'.

Note that SAP and Microsoft have included in the [Duet Enterprise Planned Roadmap|http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=cloud%20model%20duet%20enterprise&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CEkQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft-sapphire.com%2Fresources%2FDuet%2520Enterprise%2520FP1.pptx&ei=45_pTun3F8GdOrr_mKAI&usg=AFQjCNH2ZjQQIxOSkBIlexBVQ2F1Fn1yVw] the following:

"Plan to support additional Mobile and Cloud scenarios" for a Next Version (following FP1)

As any roadmap, the value of this statement for now is limited; no guarantees given that it will actually be achieved.

Best regards, William.

[avishek_gorai2]

Hi William,

Good to get the updates on inclusion of BCS in SharePoint Online.

My point of discussion is the second option mentioned by you, where an organization gets a SharePoint hosted on a public cloud (Not SharePoint online/ Office 365), and then have the SCL on premise with the SAP Backbend system. In such situations if the IaaS provider provides an option to connect between the cloud and on-premise environments would it be possible to use Duet Enterprise. Please do consider the cross domain authentication using SAML in such a situation.

Regards,

Avishek.

[Former Member]

Hi Avishek,

Minimal requirement would then be that the SharePoint cloud hosting includes the Duet Enterprise SharePoint Add-On installation.

But even when that would be filled in:

a) Duet Enterprise operation requires that in the landscape both the SAP landscape and SharePoint landscape have intimate knowledge of each other, and on security level trust each other.

Wrt the latter: SAP landscape must import/registrate SSL and STS certificate of SharePoint; and SharePoint must import/registrate the SSL certificate of SAP (SCL, and also back-end in case of workflow or reporting Duet Enterprise scenario's)

Although not technical impossible, this is not something that will be supported in a multi-tenancy SharePoint cloud hosting.

b) Other aspect for the SharePoint side is that Duet Enterprise builds upon BCS. BCS is a Service Application, and default shared across the SharePoint webapplications in the farm. The SharePoint 2010 architecture enables and allows to have multiple instances of a Service Application, but this will have its costs.

Best regards, William.