The Future of SAP Security: Preparing for 2030 and Beyond

By Raghu Boddu, SAP Security Guru/Evangelist

SAP systems are the backbone of modern enterprises, supporting everything from finance and HR to supply chain and customer management. As we look ahead to 2030, the landscape of SAP security is shifting dramatically. It won’t be enough to just manage roles and authorizations anymore. Emerging technologies, cloud adoption, AI, and evolving regulations are transforming what it means to secure SAP.

So, what are the trends that will define SAP security over the next decade—and how can your organization prepare today?

1. Zero Trust as the Default Methodology

The legacy perimeter-centric security model will be outdated by the year 2030. SAP environments—hybrid, multi-cloud, and highly integrated—will need to implement identity-first security. Every API, every user, every bot will need to authenticate itself at all times, and that is called Zero Trust.

Zero Trust is one security model that presupposes no user nor any system—both within and beyond the network—ought to always be fully trusted. Rather, any access attempt must always be substantiated through rigorous identification verification, principles of least privilege, and time-based monitoring. It advocates for the use of micro-segmentation, firm authentication, as well as persistent verification with the aim of curbing security breaches. It keeps any modern environment as sophisticated as SAP safe by only granting authorized objects access at all times.

It is suggested to begin implementing the principles of Zero Trust today. MFA, Entra ID, incorporating with Corporate IDPs, Azure AD, and conditional access policies are your stepping stones.

2. AI-Powered Threat Detection Replaces Passive Monitoring

Security is more than user management fundamentals (SU01) and role configuration (PFCG). There are already formal procedures for many organizations with SAP GRC products, and the legacy log‑based products flag anomalies by recognizing patterns. That is quite passive methodology.

Emerging AI and machine‑learning technologies enable real‑time behavioural analysis to spot unusual activity, such as an internal user accessing data outside their normal pattern. To be ready for the next decade, invest in SAP‑integrated security information and event management (SIEM) and user and entity behaviour analytics (UEBA) tools like SAP Enterprise Threat Detection (ETD), ThreatSenseAI SIEM & SOAR solution or Sentinel for SAP. Start feeding these systems with your organization’s behavioural data now so they can develop robust anomaly‑detection models well before 2030.

3. API and Machine Identities Will Have to Be Managed

Non-human identities—APIs, Agents, bots, service accounts—will outnumber SAP users ten to one by the year 2030. These are the digital identities and are a very large and largely overlooked security threat when not managed properly.

Plan for: Enabling least privilege to all machine accounts with token-based access, secret expiration handling, and governance policies for the technical identities. Get to know SAP’s User-Centric Authorization (UCON), Service Communication Interface (SCI), and X.509 certificate integrations.

4. Cloud-Native Security Will Define the Centrepiece

SAP landscapes in the next five years will be completely transformed/owned by the adoption of automation, artificial intelligence, and the cloud. Machine identities—APIs, Agents, bots, service users, and system integration—will outnumber SAP human users at least ten to one by the year 2030. The revolution is already gathering steam with the mass adoption of RISE/Grow with SAP, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), SAP Cloud Integration, and Business AI.

However, this explosion in non-human users introduces a new, largely overlooked layer of risk. These digital identities often operate silently, without interactive sessions, but with access to critical business processes and sensitive data—making them prime targets for misuse and cyberattacks.

Why This Matters More Than Ever in Cloud-Driven SAP Landscapes

As businesses embrace modular, composable enterprise architectures with the SAP Cloud Integration as the center and extend through APIs and event-based services, every integration point is a security boundary. Machine identities are therefore imperative to supporting:

* Integration of S/4HANA Public Cloud with non-SAP, or third-party applications

* Service-to-service communication inside SAP BTP applications

* RPA/AI agentic bots executing everyday SAP activities behind the users

* Orchestration of data between SAP modules, hyperscalers, and partner platforms through RISE with SAP

To stay secure and compliant in this new paradigm, organizations must evolve their identity and access governance strategies beyond traditional models. Here’s how to prepare:

Reconfigure IAM with Least Privilege as the Goal: Consider each bot, each API, and each background job to be a high-risk user. Create purpose-based roles with limited access. Do not reuse technical users across applications or systems.

Automate Credential and Token Management: Leverage short-lived credentials and token-based access through SAP BTP destinations and OAuth2 mechanisms. Rotate X.509 certificates and keys frequently through SAP Identity Authentication Service (IAS) or cloud-native vaults.

Implement Governance Policies for Non-Human Users: Establish ownership, lifecycle policies, and access review policies for service accounts. Do this as part of your provisioning process with SAP Identity Access Governance (IAG) or GRC Access Control.

Leverage SAP UCON and SCI Capabilities: UCON helps reduce the attack surface by restricting external RFC calls to only whitelisted function modules. SCI provides a secure framework for managing communication between systems, enforcing modern security protocols.

5. Automation and Real-Time Compliance Will Be Implemented 

The time when compliance was nothing more than an annual box-ticking exercise is long gone. As data privacy laws such as the GDPR, the DPDPA, the California Data Protection Act, and other new worldwide privacy statutes are continuing to rapidly evolve at lightning speed, businesses can no longer afford to view compliance as a one-time-only audit — it needs to become part of the normal rhythm of everyday work. Auditors now want policies plus; they want persistent control proof, real-time visibility, and tamper-secure evidence.

Compliance today is converging on real-time assurance and automation. Businesses will need to have immutable audit trails, have access and change management policies auto-enforced, and violations discovered in real-time—not when the damage is already completed. That is particularly true for SAP environments, where there is high sensitivity of data and exposure to regulatory requirements.

How to prepare?: Begin by adopting tools built for continuous compliance readiness. This consists of automated audit trail protection products that satisfy requirements such as MCA Rule 11(g), real-time control monitoring platforms, as well as built-in enforcement mechanisms for user access, change histories, as well as data activity. Systems such as ThreatSenseAI allow businesses to establish a self-healing always-audit-ready state across their SAP environment.

Compliance in real-time is not merely about penalty avoidance—it’s about trust-building, being responsive in the regulated age, and demonstrating you’re always on top of things.

6. The Biggest Risk Will Be a Skills Shortage

Ironically, the rapid advancement of SAP technology—cloud-native architectures, AI-driven automation, and API-first integrations—is outpacing the availability of skilled professionals who can secure it. By 2030, the role of an SAP security expert will demand more than mastery over SU01, SUIM, SU24 and PFCG. It will require a fusion of traditional SAP knowledge with modern disciplines like AI, cloud security, API lifecycle management, and DevSecOps.

This is driving a growing skills gap. Most companies will run mission-critical SAP systems with inadequate talent to properly secure them—causing vulnerabilities to go unnoticed and compliance requirements to be unfulfilled. Security will not fail from tool shortage—it will fail from shortage of cross-functional skills.

The future ahead: Develop a pipeline of “T-shaped” professionals—individuals with in-depth knowledge of SAP security and wide knowledge of nearby cybersecurity functions. Foster upskilling within the functions of identity and access governance, secure coding practices, cloud-native security architectures, and threat detection based on artificial intelligence. Investing in lifelong learning is not just a strategy—it is the survivability of the rapidly moving digital enterprise.

Conclusion: Build Security into Your SAP from Day One

You cannot wait for audits to find gaps or react after breaches happen. Security must be integrated into your SAP environment on Day One—into your system architecture, custom code, business process, or integration. The successful organizations of 2030 are the ones preparing today. Get ready to transform your SAP security plan to take on the future with confidence. Since 2030 is nearer than we imagine.

Author Bio:

Raghu Boddu, an SAP Security Evangelist at ToggleNow Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., is a seasoned expert with over two decades of experience in SAP security, governance, and risk management. At ToggleNow, he leads initiatives that help enterprises modernize their SAP landscapes through automation, Zero Trust methodologies, and AI-driven security strategies. ToggleNow is a leading SAP Security and GRC consulting company based in India, empowering global organizations to strengthen cybersecurity, achieve continuous compliance, and embrace digital transformation confidently in the evolving cloud era.