The Bundeswehr's SAP transition is encountering difficulties

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The Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) is also an SAP customer and has to manage the transition to SAP's new generation S4/HANA. However, this is apparently not going as planned, as information transfer via the software is not reliable.

"The error-free transfer of data cannot be reliably ensured at the present time," quotes the news magazine Spiegel from a confidential paper from the Ministry of Defence. Previously, the Bundeswehr had to extend its testing periods again and again. Another internal status report from September, according to Spiegel, already speaks of "deficient functionality" and "insufficient operational readiness." S4/HANA was actually supposed to go live in October. But there are problems with numerous connected applications.

SAP CEO: "Lack of software quality"

SAP itself also seems to recognize the problems. As early as the end of August, according to the internal paper, the SAP Executive Board is said to have admitted "lack of software quality" and recommended postponing the launch to spring 2026.

The responsible department head for armaments and organization wants even more leeway. Spiegel quotes a note on the matter in which he pleads for "an unspecific formulation" such as "within a year or so." He also emphasizes that the postponement was "absolutely necessary." All parties involved need a minimum of time to "further optimize the solution and thus improve acceptance within the Bundeswehr as a whole." Apparently, the problems were therefore not purely technical.

Own Bundeswehr Cloud with SAP and Google

In June Google announced that it would supply the Bundeswehr with special cloud services, which are also intended to house the troop's SAP landscape. The "pCloudBw," the private Bundeswehr cloud with its own data centers, is to consist of two physically separate instances. One for open and one for protected data.

Mission-critical applications are to run on SAP's "Business Technology Platform" (BTP) in secure operation within their own data center or network. The Bundeswehr uses SAP software for logistical and administrative purposes. It only works with certain systems; an open solution like OpenStack is not among them.

Google's "Air-gapped" Cloud

The cloud environment can be installed and operated physically isolated from the public internet and other Google systems in the Bundeswehr's own data centers, which Google calls "air-gapped" and assures: "The Bundeswehr thus has control over its own data at all times and thus meets its requirements for information and data security."

The botched switch to S4/HANA is already the second major digital project causing problems for the Bundeswehr. The equipping of the army with digital radios is going disastrously. Millions for consultants are now supposed to fix it.

(nen)