Reverse Proxy (Relay Server) Vs VPN

[former_member198480]

Dear Experts,

We are making an important Landscape Design decision in which we need to recommend Reverse Proxy or VPN based access to one of our SMP clients.

We need clarity on following questions.

Application Set 1: Custom SAP UI5 Applications, SMP, OData and Netweaver Gateway

Application Set 2: FIORI Applications

1- What is SAP recommended approach, Reverse Proxy OR VPN based direct access to SMP server ? Any reference document will be highly appreciated.

As per our current analysis, SAP always used Reverse Proxy in Productive Landscape.

2- I have read in one of SAP Documents that FIORI based applications does not support Reverse Proxy. Does VPN based approach a good fit for FIORI based application if user is outside corporate Network?

3- Is it possible to create Clustered Environment with Fail over without Reverse Proxy?

4- Is it possible to do Load balancing without Reverse Proxy?

5- What are other Pros and Cons of using VPN based approach instead of Reverse Proxy?

A prompt response will be highly appreciated.

Regards,

Umer

[Kevin_SAP]

First, Fiori Client does not support Relay Server.  This is documented on SCN . 

Fiori Client does support Reverse Proxies such as SAP Web Dispatcher or F5 among others.  In my experience, you should never expose an enterprise server directly to a client and it should have a proxy or network appliance in front of it.  This is not specific to SAP Mobile Platform, but any application servers, databases, etc, should never be directly exposed to client for security reasons.  SAP Mobile Platform is not a load balancer and there would need to be some load balancer solution whether it's mixed with a reverse proxy or not.  You would have to judge whether a VPN or a reverse proxy is better for you solution.  There are many links on the web that can provide the pros and cons of both.

Regards,

Kevin Bates