RISE with SAP: What It Is, What the Contract Covers, and What IT Should Ask Before Signing

RISE with SAP is the journey SAP uses to move a customer from a legacy ERP, such as SAP ECC or on-premise SAP S/4HANA, to SAP Cloud ERP Private, the commercial name of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. For IT, that journey takes the form of a subscription contract that bundles the ERP, infrastructure on a hyperscaler or in an SAP data center, technical operations, support, and transformation tools and services, with SAP as the single party accountable for the service level of what was contracted. RISE with SAP is not an S/4HANA release, it is not the SAP HANA database, and it is not an ERP that competes with S/4HANA: the software running inside the contract is still S/4HANA.

The technical decision sits one level below that definition. As of October 2026, what SAP operates and what stays with the customer comes from four public, versioned documents (the Supplemental Terms and Conditions, the Service Description Guide, the Service Level Agreement, and the Roles and Responsibilities catalog) plus the signed Order Form. The catalog states that every task that applies to the environment and was neither purchased nor provided by SAP as a standard service is the customer's responsibility. Custom code, interface monitoring, regression testing, and upgrade rehearsals all fall in that band.

What RISE with SAP is and what it is not

SAP launched RISE with SAP on January 27, 2021, as business transformation as a service: a subscription offering with one responsible party for the service-level agreement, operations, and support, and with infrastructure in an SAP data center or with a hyperscaler of the customer's choice. As of October 2026, the official page defines RISE with SAP as a complete journey that helps organizations move from a legacy ERP system to the SAP Autonomous Suite, with SAP Cloud ERP Private as the destination.

The same page presents the RISE with SAP Methodology, which combines a standardized framework built on SAP Activate road maps, SAP expert guidance, and an agent-led toolchain.

The table separates software, commercial name, and contracted offering, using the terms SAP uses as of October 2026.

Name	What it is	Relationship to RISE with SAP
SAP S/4HANA	SAP's ERP and the technical name of the product family	It is the software that runs inside the contract
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition	The technical private cloud product, with functional scope comparable to on-premise S/4HANA	It is the target ERP in SAP's current presentation
SAP Cloud ERP Private	The commercial name tied to Private Edition; SAP announced the package on April 22, 2025	It is what SAP now calls the RISE destination
SAP S/4HANA 2023 and 2025	Software releases, numbered by year	RISE has no version number; the contracted system does
SAP HANA	The in-memory database S/4HANA runs on	It comes as a runtime database in the packages that include it
SAP GROW	The adoption journey for the public ERP, SAP Cloud ERP	It is SAP's other journey, with a different target ERP

Two date caveats prevent misreading. The pairing of RISE with private cloud is the commercial presentation as of October 2026: SAP's August 2025 communication about the RISE journey still mentioned both editions, and older RISE contracts exist on the public edition. And the contract documents keep the earlier names: the current Supplement lists SAP Cloud ERP Private side by side with RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition in its base, premium, and premium plus variants. The full map of names is in What is SAP S/4HANA.

What the package announces and what the Order Form actually grants

The April 22, 2025 announcement presented the SAP Cloud ERP Private package with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, SAP LeanIX and SAP Signavio capabilities, SAP Build, SAP Business Network Supplier Portal, SAP Enterprise Service Management, SAP Taulia solutions, and embedded activation services. The announcement describes the offering; the usage right for each item, with quantity and limit, lives in the Supplement and the Order Form.

The table sets what SAP sources confirm against what depends on the order. The limits come from the Supplement, version v.10-2026 (October 2026), and the Service Description Guide, version v.12-2025, last updated December 8, 2025.

Item	What the source confirms	What depends on the order or carries a limit
ERP	SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, measured in FUEs	FUE quantity, system sizing tier, and additional tiers
Infrastructure and technical operations	Standard Services in the Roles and Responsibilities catalog	Additional, Optional, and Packaged Services, all charged separately
Toolchain	SAP Cloud ALM, SAP LeanIX, and SAP Signavio are at the core	Use varies with the project phase and the licensed SAP solutions
Transformation preparation service	Included at no additional cost since April 2025; it delivers a road map, activates the toolchain, and demonstrates SAP Build and Joule use cases	The road map covers up to one end-to-end process; it is not the implementation
SAP Business Technology Platform	SAP's official course says BTP is part of the subscription, with some services not charged and others carrying a fee	Consumption credits (CPEA) are negotiated during the sale; the voucher exists only if the Order Form specifies it
Bundled Cloud Services	For the base, premium, and premium plus offerings, the Supplement lists each service with its limitation	Examples: SAP Build Work Zone with one active user per FUE; Supplier Portal with 100,000 documents on the premium offerings
Starter System sandbox	Comes with the subscription	Lasts 90 days from the product start date or 30 days after the development environment is provisioned; the data is then removed
Disaster recovery, long-term backup, and the 99.9% SLA	The Service Description Guide lists all three as separate subscriptions	They exist only if the Order Form includes them

One clause changes how renewals read: Bundled Cloud Services and their limits follow the Supplement in effect on the date of the initial Order Form. Two companies on RISE can therefore hold different rights to the same service. The limits above are the ones in version v.12-2025, and the SAP Trust Center publishes the current and archived versions of the guide, so each contract has to be checked against the version named on its own Order Form.

Who does what: the SAP and customer responsibility matrix

The Roles and Responsibilities document for Private Edition, version v.07.2026 (July 2026), is a service catalog in five categories. Standard Services are covered by the subscription fee and performed by SAP. An Additional Service is a one-off task, charged separately, that only SAP can perform. Optional Services must be itemized in the contract. Packaged Services, formerly SAP Cloud Application Services, are tasks the customer can perform or pay SAP to deliver. Excluded Tasks can only be performed by the customer.

Service availability varies by infrastructure platform and by region. The matrix summarizes the rows that matter most to Basis, integration, and development teams.

Activity	Category in the catalog	What stays with the customer
Infrastructure, operating system, database, and technical availability	Standard Services	The connection up to SAP's point of demarcation, including the internet link
Standard backup and restore	Standard Services, with up to 12 customer-requested restores per system per contract year	Validating the logical integrity and consistency of restored data
Disaster recovery	Optional Service, provided only if it is part of the contract	Functional tests during the DR test, plus recovery procedures for the connections and interfaces it manages
Interface configuration and monitoring (IDoc, qRFC, tRFC, bgRFC, ALE)	Packaged Services	All of it, when the package was not purchased
Transports	Initial TMS setup is a Standard Service; executing transports is a Packaged Service	Testing and acceptance of object changes, an Excluded Task
Homogeneous system copy for ABAP systems (refresh)	Standard Services, with up to 12 per system per contract year, within the same region	Data masking
Security notes	Applying Basis and ABAP notes without manual activities is a Standard Service, on request; identifying the relevant notes is a Packaged Service	Reviewing notes in SAP for Me, raising the request, and testing
Support packages and feature packs	Standard Services, with scheduled downtime; the Zero Downtime Option (ZDO) is an Additional Service	Post-installation tasks that are not technical
Release upgrade	Technical execution is a Standard Service; planning, pre- and post-upgrade Basis tasks, and SPDD and SPAU adjustments are Packaged Services	Rehearsals, decisions on customer objects, and all testing
ECC to S/4HANA conversion	Readiness Check and custom code analysis setup are Standard Services; the technical conversion is an Additional Service	Functional conversion, simplification items, custom code remediation, and project management
Managed third-party ABAP add-ons	Installation and updates are Standard Services	Configuration, monitoring, and support with the vendor
Application security and custom code	Excluded Tasks	The security concept, SSO design and implementation, and reviewing and optimizing customer code

Two rules complete the matrix. Customers do not get operating system access to managed servers; when a customer task requires it, SAP performs the task or provides another method, on an occasional basis. And SAP troubleshoots technical issues in the managed systems, while application-related problems must be resolved by the customer.

Uptime, backup, and maintenance windows in the standard contract

The Service Level Agreement for Private Edition, version v.7-2025 in October 2026, carries the numbers product pages tend to leave out. The table summarizes the default; the Order Form can raise availability.

Item	Default in the document
Production availability	99.5% per month, unless a higher percentage appears in the Supplement or the Order Form
Non-production availability	95.0% per month
Production database backup	Daily full backup plus log backup, 30 days of retention, replicated to an alternate data center or location
Very high priority incident in production	Reaction within 20 minutes, 24x7, and a resolution, workaround, or action plan within 4 hours
Service credit	2% of the monthly service fee for each 1% below the agreed level, capped at 100% of the monthly fee
Termination right	Available if production availability is missed for 3 consecutive months, or in 5 months within any 12

The calculation excludes scheduled, agreed, and emergency downtime. The Supplement defines scheduled downtime as one 4-hour window per month, on a weekday for non-production systems and on a weekend for production, with at least seven business days of notice and five business days for the customer to object and ask for another date. SAP may perform emergency maintenance without prior consent. The agreement does not apply to customer-provided software, and credits are the sole remedy for a missed service level.

Version v.10-2026 of the Supplement added a clause the July version did not have, the Infrastructure Continuity Charge. SAP may increase memory, application server capacity, or infrastructure beyond the sizing in the Order Form, without a prior amendment, to prevent a significant impact on the system. SAP notifies the customer in writing, and the customer has 30 days from the provisioning date to return to the original allocation. After that, the additional resources are charged at SAP's then-current list price, from the provisioning date.

How the FUE metric works

FUE (Full Use Equivalent) is the aggregation method by which the customer allocates individuals' access to the cloud service, according to ratios set in the Service Description Guide. The ratios below appear in the Private Edition guide, version v.12-2025, and match the April 2025 version.

Use type	Accesses per 1 FUE	What the type permits
Advanced use	1	All solution capabilities of the service
Core use	5	A closed list of capabilities that includes Maintenance Planning, Maintenance Execution, and Technical Assets, Structure and History
Self-service use	30	A shorter list that includes Maintenance Execution and Maintenance Demand Processing, plus display and approval rights
Developer access	0.5	Development tools for building ABAP add-ons

The guide lets the customer reallocate each FUE among use types during the subscription term and does not allow one FUE to be divided between use types. System size follows the FUE tier: in the smallest tier, up to 135 FUEs, the guide delivers no quality assurance system. Access through third-party applications integrated with the ERP, and access by non-human agents, has its own metric, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Digital Access, measured in documents created per year.

The version matters as much as the ratios. The guide is effective as of the Order Form date, and earlier orders follow the corresponding archived version. SAP does not publish a price per FUE in U.S. dollars on its public pages; the figure comes with the quote.

Who installs the upgrade and who tests it?

SAP releases a new version of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition every two years, with seven years of maintenance for each, and plans feature packs every six months in the first two years. As of October 2026, the latest release is SAP S/4HANA 2025, whose official guide records FPS02 on October 7, 2026. Inside the contract, the division of work is explicit.

• SAP performs the technical installation of upgrades and new releases on request, and the customer is responsible for having them installed in time.
• The customer may only use a version whose maintenance is current: mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, or as otherwise identified in the Order Form.
• Simplification and incompatibility checks for add-ons are executed by the customer, who evaluates the results to make sure business processes, applications, and integrations keep running.
• If SAP cannot perform upgrades because of a lack of customer cooperation, the availability service levels no longer apply.

The Roles and Responsibilities catalog spells out what technical execution covers. The standard upgrade task cannot be used for upgrade rehearsals, repeated testing, repeated system refreshes, or dry runs: running the upgrade several times to the same target release requires a separate project or engagement scope. Adjustments to SAP objects in SPDD and SPAU are a Packaged Service, and customer objects require the customer's decision during execution. SAP offers regression testing as a Packaged Service, using test cases the customer provides.

Rehearsals and functional regression sit outside the standard service and need their own budget.

RISE with SAP vs. running your own S/4HANA on a hyperscaler

Hosting your own S/4HANA license on AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud does not create a RISE contract. The software can be the same release; what changes is who contracts the infrastructure, who operates it, and which terms govern the service. The comparison follows the Offering Comparison page on SAP Help and the Private Edition contract documents in force in October 2026.

Dimension	RISE with SAP (Private Edition)	On-premise S/4HANA you host yourself
Software contract	Subscription	Perpetual license with maintenance
Supplier	Software, support, services, and infrastructure from one supplier, with one set of service level agreements	Individual agreements for infrastructure and for technical operations
Operating system access	The customer does not get it	Per the customer's own hosting contract
Upgrades	SAP installs on request; the customer must plan in time to stay in maintenance	The customer manages the upgrades
Add-ons	Add-ons qualified for S/4HANA; SAP may restrict or require removal of an add-on that poses a risk to the service	Any SAP or partner add-on for S/4HANA
Modifications to standard	Possible but not recommended; the right depends on the offering named in the contract	Per the license, with clean core as the recommendation
Other software on the server	Not permitted, unless SAP grants an exception	The customer's decision

SAP itself describes on-premise as the option for organizations that need complete control and ownership of the application and data landscape, want to reuse existing IT infrastructure, budget, and infrastructure-as-a-service agreements, or must comply with industry or country regulatory requirements. Private Edition is described as the option for those who want subscription economics, one supplier, and a way to safeguard ECC customizations and partner add-ons.

RISE with SAP and SAP GROW in brief

SAP GROW, launched on March 21, 2023, as GROW with SAP, is the adoption journey for SAP's public ERP, SAP Cloud ERP, whose technical product is SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. RISE starts from a legacy ERP and lands on private cloud through system conversion, selective data transition, or new implementation. GROW is always a new implementation on standardized processes, with two major upgrades a year managed by SAP. Company size alone does not decide: a subsidiary of a large group can adopt the public ERP while headquarters stays on private cloud.

The full comparison is in RISE with SAP vs. GROW with SAP, and the differences in scope, extensibility, and integration between the editions are in SAP Cloud ERP public vs. private.

Entry paths: new implementation, system conversion, selective data transition, and lift and shift

The Transition Paths page on SAP Help defines four paths to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, depending on the source system. The table summarizes the definitions SAP published as of October 2026.

Path	What SAP describes	Source system
Lift and shift	The system is moved as is, with no change to the software or the release	SAP S/4HANA with at least nine months of mainstream maintenance remaining
System conversion (brownfield)	The ERP is converted with the Software Update Manager in a one-step procedure covering database migration, data model conversion, and replacement of the application code	SAP ERP 6.0 on any database
Selective data transition	Configuration, master data, and transactional data are selectively migrated and transformed; it is typically delivered as a consulting or service offering	SAP ERP 6.0
New implementation (greenfield)	A new, clean system, with a single cutover or a phased rollout	SAP ERP 6.0, earlier SAP versions, or a third-party system

In a conversion, SAP delivers technical execution as an Additional Service, ordered for each run, and the database migration to SAP HANA is requested separately. Overall project responsibility and the functional conversion stay with the customer. For anyone running Business Suite 7 on a third-party database, SAP's October 7, 2026 communication sets a deadline: system conversion to S/4HANA or SAP Cloud ERP is only available before the end of 2030, and after that only new implementation remains. The selection criteria are in greenfield, brownfield, and the paths from ECC to S/4HANA, and what to do with custom code is in SAP clean core.

The ECC transition option for 2031 to 2033

SAP ERP, private edition, transition option is a time-limited cloud subscription, centered on SAP ECC on SAP HANA, that SAP created to give large customers with complex installations continuity from 2031 to 2033. It does not extend maintenance for on-premise ECC, which for the last three enhancement packages runs to December 31, 2027, with optional extended maintenance to December 31, 2030. The conditions SAP published on August 4, 2025, are these:

• systems must be migrated to SAP ERP, private edition on SAP HANA before December 31, 2030;
• SAP HANA is the only supported database;
• the minimum size is 2 TB per system subscribed under the option;
• eligible products are listed in SAP Note 3591251, and products outside the list need mitigation coverage;
• the option is only available in combination with the max success plan during 2031 to 2033.

The October 7, 2026 communication added that the option does not support Java-dependent capabilities. Pricing is an uplift over the SAP ERP, private edition pricing valid at the end of 2030: SAP disclosed a standard 20% uplift for customers who sign in 2026 and has not disclosed the figure for 2027 onward. The eligible product list sits in SAP Note 3591251, in SAP's support portal, where a customer with an S-user checks product by product before counting on the option.

The dates for every version, from ECC by enhancement package to S/4HANA, NetWeaver, and HANA, and what each maintenance phase covers are in SAP maintenance end dates by version.

Incentives: what is history and what has to be in the proposal

Three facts are documented. On January 30, 2024, SAP announced the RISE with SAP Migration and Modernization program, with credits to offset the cost of maintenance, cloud services, or cloud subscription and the statement that the offer may reduce the cost of migration by up to 50%, valid through the end of 2024. In August 2025, SAP offered customers who signed SAP ERP, private edition by the end of 2025 a move to the transition option on commercially equivalent terms. And on April 27, 2026, an SAP publication with the German-speaking user group DSAG cited the 2024 program, a transformation incentive in 2025, and the statement that options for 2026 were being looked at together.

SAP has no published incentive program in force in October 2026. Percentages, credits, and eligibility from 2024 and 2025 belong to those years, and any discount offered today has to appear in writing in the proposal, with its own end date.

What IT should ask before signing

The questions come straight from the clauses and catalog rows cited above. The third column says which document answers each one.

Topic	Question	Where the answer is
Interfaces	How many interfaces read from and write to the ERP, on which technology, and who configures them in the new environment?	Your own inventory and the interface configuration row in the catalog
Interface monitoring	Was the monitoring package purchased, and how many interfaces does it cover?	The Order Form
Custom code	Who runs the simplification checks, who remediates the code, who decides in SPDD and SPAU, and does the offering on the order carry the right to modify standard?	The upgrades clause and the modifications clause of the Supplement
Add-ons	Has each third-party add-on been evaluated, is it managed or unmanaged, and who supports it?	The third-party software section of the catalog; the evaluation can take several weeks
Upgrade windows	When does the monthly 4-hour window fall, and how is downtime for an upgrade scheduled?	The system maintenance clause and SAP for Me
Rehearsals	How many upgrade and conversion rehearsals does the project plan, and under what scope were they contracted?	The project proposal, because the standard task does not cover rehearsals
Backup and disaster	Does 30-day retention meet legal and audit obligations, and is there a disaster recovery subscription?	The Service Level Agreement and the Order Form
Licensing	How were users allocated by use type, and does access through third-party applications fall under FUE or Digital Access?	The Service Description Guide in effect on the order date
Contract exit	In what format is the data returned, and which system will be able to read it?	The customer data return clause of the Supplement

On exit: at the customer's request, before termination or expiration, SAP provides a final export of the customer data in a backup media format SAP uses. The customer has two weeks from receipt to verify that the export is usable; without a response, it is deemed usable. The exit plan needs to say which system that backup will be restored into.

Is SAP RISE worth it?

RISE with SAP is worth it when what the organization wants to buy is what the contract delivers: one supplier accountable for software, infrastructure, technical operations, and support under one set of service level agreements, for an ERP with scope comparable to on-premise S/4HANA. It is a poor fit when the expectation is that the subscription will also cover functional implementation, testing, custom code, or interface administration, because the Roles and Responsibilities catalog leaves those with the customer. The criteria below can be checked before a proposal arrives.

Verifiable criterion	Points toward RISE with SAP	Points toward another option
Who should operate infrastructure, database, and technical Basis	The organization wants one supplier for software, support, infrastructure, and technical operations	The organization wants complete control of the landscape or has infrastructure agreements it intends to keep
Dependence on operating system access and on its own software on the server	No process depends on it	Agents, scripts, or software installed on the server are part of operations
Functional scope and customizations	The system needs scope comparable to on-premise and must preserve customizations and qualified add-ons	Processes fit the standard and the project is a new implementation, in which case the public ERP belongs in the evaluation
Testing capacity	There is a team and a budget for regression on every feature pack and every upgrade	The expectation is that whoever operates the environment will test the processes
ECC deadline	ECC on SAP HANA, 2 TB or larger, that will not finish migrating by 2030	The landscape depends on Java or on products outside the eligibility note
Regulatory or data residency requirements	The available region and provider meet the requirement	The requirement calls for the customer's own data center, which SAP treats as a special case

As for interest among SAP customers, ASUG's Pulse of the SAP Customer 2025 research, fielded in November 2024 with 787 members, found 45% considering RISE with SAP for the future, up from 39% in the prior comparison. That figure is intent within a member sample. It is not contracted adoption, and it is not a measure of the U.S. market.

What changes for plant maintenance and field apps

For plant maintenance, RISE keeps SAP PM in Private Edition, with both the classic processes and the phase-based processes, and changes the rules around it. Each role's use type needs to be checked against the Service Description Guide, because Maintenance Execution appears under self-service use and Maintenance Planning only from core use up. Every interface that carries work orders, notifications, confirmations, and measurement readings between the ERP and other systems belongs in the interface inventory, and every upgrade calls for regression of the field workflows.

Teams evaluating SAP's own app will find Private Edition among the back ends of SAP Service and Asset Manager 2511, which requires SAP BTP Mobile Services and Cloud Connector, both items to confirm on the order. What an integration log needs to record is covered in the SAP PM integration log, and the planning points of a mobility project are in SAP PM mobile project.

PM RUN is the maintenance execution, mobility, and planning platform that runs on top of SAP PM without replacing SAP, and it uses SAP PM on ECC 6.0 or on S/4HANA, on-premise or in the cloud. In a RISE project, the integration between the platform and the ERP follows the same discipline: it goes into the interface inventory, has defined monitoring, and passes regression on every upgrade. What a technician runs in the field is described in SAP PM work orders on mobile with PM RUN.