[2] SAP's classical R3, ERP and ECC based business suite and related products were designed to run on several database platforms, including those from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM.

The cloud edition went live at SAPPHIRE NOW (SAP’s annual customer conference) on 6 May 2015 in Orlando, Florida.

[7] Post-launch, Gartner analysts noted that SAP S/4HANA represented a "transformational shift," but raised questions about functionality, availability, pricing and migration issues surrounding S/4HANA.

During the third quarter earning calls that took place in October 2015, SAP confirmed that S/4HANA had more than 1,300 customers.

Subsequently, the previous product version received Service Pack Stacks (SPS) quarterly until the end of mainstream maintenance.

This change aims to offer customers greater opportunities for continuous innovation and a flexible path to cloud readiness.

Additionally, more easily adoptable feature packs will be introduced every six months during the first two years of a release, reducing the need for disruptive upgrades and lowering total implementation costs.