When your target architecture includes SAP S/4HANA with multiple solution capabilities or a growing set of side-by-side extensions, a high-level overview stops being enough.
For a subset of applications, a more detailed modeling approach is required. With the promotion of clean core principles and the side-by-side extension of, for example, SAP S/4HANA, the modeling of SAP BTP–based applications gains momentum. Therefore, let’s look at the discovery of SAP BTP–based applications and services plus best practices for how to model SAP S/4HANA in more detail.
Because out-of-the box integrations, such as the previously introduced SAP landscape discovery, provide valuable insights into how modeling best practices should look, we’ll start by exploring additional out-of-the box integrations, namely:
Similar to SAP landscape discovery, these integrations can be configured individually and leverage the concept of the inbox to enable a staged discovery and import of new fact sheets or linking to existing fact sheets.
For the configuration of the SAP Build integration, the following two prerequisites need to be fulfilled:
Visit this page for more information about these prerequisites.
Within SAP LeanIX, you set up the SAP BTP integration by first navigating to the Integration section of the Administration area, which can be found under Discovery and Integration.
After choosing Add integration, you can narrow down the integration options by filtering on SAP Discovery. The integration options shown in this figure will be presented.
Choose to configure a new SAP Build integration and provide an integration name, as shown here.
In the next step, in Cloud Management Service Key, paste your key, as outlined in the figure below.
In the last configuration step, you must define the SAP Build instance by pasting in the SAP Build instance service key, as shown in this figure.
With the activation of the SAP Build integration, information will be retrieved from the SAP Build instance and made available in the discovery inbox.
For the configuration of the SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment integration, the following two prerequisites need to be fulfilled:
Refer to this help page to meet the prerequisites.
For the setup of an SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment integration, choose the respective integration options as shown previously. Enter the name of the SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment integration as shown in this figure.
In the next step, paste in your Cloud Management Service Key.
In the last step, the specific details of the Cloud Foundry certificate need to be added, as outlined in the figure below. The following information is required:
With the activation of the SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment integration, information will be retrieved from the Cloud Foundry instance and made available in the discovery inbox.
We recommend adding a filter for the Type of the discovery item, as outlined in the next figure, to allow a better potential selection of various discovery items. In this example, we selected SAP Build Events as a type to identify the Customer Return Event application.
Each discovery item provides an overview of the discovered fact sheets of the application, IT component, platform, and provider types, in addition to general information such as name, description, creation time, and so on. If the fact sheet does not exist in the inventory yet, it will be highlighted without a solid fact sheet–specific color; existing fact sheets can be easily identified by the solid, fact sheet–specific color-coding. Before the actual linking and import into the inventory takes place, you can edit individual fact sheets to ensure correct assignments while avoiding duplications.
The figure below provides an example of an SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment application and the discovered fact sheets. With the linking of the discovery item, existing fact sheet types will be reused and related while new ones will be created as new inventory entries.
With the insights gained from the out-of-the box SAP BTP integrations, you can derive the SAP BTP modeling best practices outlined in the next figure. The platform fact sheet plays an important role here, as it is used to reflect the global and subaccount setup in a hierarchical structure.
New SAP BTP–based applications to be added should apply these modeling best practices for the definition of their target architecture.
Detailed modeling of SAP BTP applications pays off as soon as your landscape grows past a handful of side-by-side extensions. The out-of-the-box integrations handle discovery for you, but the modeling decisions stay yours, especially how you structure platform fact sheets across the global account and subaccounts. Settle those conventions before the discovery inbox fills up, and new applications will slot into your target architecture without a cleanup effort later.
Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the book SAP LeanIX: The Practical Guide by René de Daniel and Marianne Dahmen. René has more than two decades of experience in enterprise architecture, having worked for several years at the intersection of strategy, transformation, and technology. Marianne is a principal internal consultant for strategic projects and initiatives and part of the SAP LeanIX Product & Engineering department.
This post was originally published 8/2026.