SAP stands for Systems and Application Products in Data Processing, is a package of integrated applications called modules that record and track the activities and costs of doing business.
It was founded in 1972 by five people: Wellenreuther, Hopp, Hector, Plattner, and Tchira all former employees of IBM in Germany. They created software for collecting large volumes of business data in a single machine and then processing the data in real time. Real-time processing was a novel development at that time due to slow computer processing power in 1970s.
Since that time, SAP has grown from a small regional company to the leading provider of business enterprise software in the world. At last count, SAP R/3 is recently installed at more than 84,000locations in about 120 countries around the world, and it is used by more than 10 million people every day. SAP is now the world's third-largest independent software vendor, and it is still growing strong.
The underlying architecture of the R/3 System is based on the three-tier model of distributed client/server processing. In this model there is a clear separation between the different processing layers - a prerequisite for the design of efficient business applications. These architectural principles lie at the heart of the enhancements which are evolving the system into a multi-layer R/3 Internet architecture.
The function of database layer is the actual storage of business data. These data are stored inside database servers, which are machine with huge amounts of storage memory and the capacity to fastly exchange data with the application servers.
The graphical user interface function or GUI are located on the desktops of the computers or clients that you use to access the software. The core of the GUI is the application window (called a session by SAP), where you put commands and data on scenes or screens by means of your mouse and keyboard.
It was founded in 1972 by five people: Wellenreuther, Hopp, Hector, Plattner, and Tchira all former employees of IBM in Germany. They created software for collecting large volumes of business data in a single machine and then processing the data in real time. Real-time processing was a novel development at that time due to slow computer processing power in 1970s.
Since that time, SAP has grown from a small regional company to the leading provider of business enterprise software in the world. At last count, SAP R/3 is recently installed at more than 84,000locations in about 120 countries around the world, and it is used by more than 10 million people every day. SAP is now the world's third-largest independent software vendor, and it is still growing strong.
The underlying architecture of the R/3 System is based on the three-tier model of distributed client/server processing. In this model there is a clear separation between the different processing layers - a prerequisite for the design of efficient business applications. These architectural principles lie at the heart of the enhancements which are evolving the system into a multi-layer R/3 Internet architecture.
The function of database layer is the actual storage of business data. These data are stored inside database servers, which are machine with huge amounts of storage memory and the capacity to fastly exchange data with the application servers.
The graphical user interface function or GUI are located on the desktops of the computers or clients that you use to access the software. The core of the GUI is the application window (called a session by SAP), where you put commands and data on scenes or screens by means of your mouse and keyboard.
There are many modules in the complete version of SAP R/3 (FI, CO, PP, MM, SD, SM, PM, HR etc), but most business enterprises do not use all of them. Instead, they purchase and install or implementonly those modules that they need to do their business. The selected modules are then integrated or linked to one another and to the database servers and clients by programmers, and the screens are customized or configured to fit the company's needs. Once the modules are integrated, the boundaries between them vanish and they work with one another as a single, seamless software package. This aggregation of modules is also very flexible: The company can often add more modules whenever they want so that the software grows as their business needs grow.
SAP Basis (now is transformed to SAP Netweaver) is considered like any other SAP modules, it's the technical part of SAP. The common tasks of Basis guys include SAP/DB installation, performance monitoring and tuning, Transport management, Landscape maintenance, DB maintenance, Printer Management, Background Job Management etc.
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