In this post I look back
to pre-2000 years to times when new millennium was approaching. Back then all
computer industry was scared in wake of what will happen when computers clock turn
from 31.12.1999 23:59:59 to 1.1.2000 00:00:00. This problem was known as year 2000 problem. SAP
was watching this space also and preparing its software for this change.
They came up with SAP Note
with very famous number: 2000 - Internal
SAP AG Year2000 activities. In this Note they briefly described what this year change
will bring and advised its customers to prepare their computers system for this
change. Initiative of the year 2000 within SAP was driven by so called “Year2000
Taskforce” (y2000@sap-ag.de, sap.com/y2ki and sapnet.sap.com/y2000). The taskforce
coordinated all activities related to this change. Covering all known facts, problems,
methods, tools, organizational and legal questions.
All analyzing and testing
of SAP software done for this year change generated about 130+ (based on my brief
count of Note numbers in collective Notes) SAP Notes. They vary from databases and
OS related changes by different vendors, date field format adjustments in SAP
tables like date 1.1.1 is converted to 1.1.0001, ABAP statements like “WRITE
date YY/MM/DD”, file format generated by SAP interfaces and so on.
SAP provided also couple
of tools to help customer with testing of their systems (like Safety Check 2000
tool, Verification Tool). Customers were encouraged to setup separate system
where they shall simulate the year change and test how the SAP software will be
affected.
All in all as we all know
whole thing ended up successfully. There were no major interruptions of computer
systems neither in SAP systems reported. So what will be next challenge? Year 2038
problem or just year 10,000 problem? Some of us will see that J
Information sources on this
topic:
2000 - Internal SAP AG
Year2000 activities
99664 - General
information on year 2000 (collective note)
99662 - Collective
note Year2000
135460 - Year 2000
guide for R/3 customers
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