Basics of ITS
ITS comes with the R/3 installation and currently runs on an Intel-based server running under Windows 4.0 NT. As shown in Figure 15.1, ITS expands SAP's
standard three-tier architecture of database server, application server, and presentation server into a five-tier system.
The extra two tiers in the overall system include the Web server, which is sometimes referred to as the HTTP server, and the ITS. The HTTP server is the link to the Internet/intranet, and the ITS component communicates between the HTTP server and the SAP system. ITS is composed of two components. The first is the WGate, which must reside on the same hardware as the HTTP server. The WGate communicates with the second portion of ITS, called the AGate, which can reside either on the same piece of hardware or on an isolated system. The AGate portion of the ITS handles the communication to SAP.
Because ITS is scalable, you can have a simple intranet scenario in which a single PC acts as your Web server and also holds both the WGate and the AGate of ITS. Alternatively, you can have a much more complicated scenario, as shown in Figure 15.2.
Because most SAP installations contain sensitive data, security must be taken into account in any ITS installation. If the ITS system will be set up with access from the Internet, a high level of security can be maintained by placing a firewall before the Web server in order to allow a secure connection to it (that is, HTTPS). Additional security can be achieved by placing other firewalls between the WGate and the AGate and between the AGate and SAP itself. Access to the SAP system itself has also been enhanced for the IACs and can be achieved either through implicit or explicit logins. When the user is connected to the R/3 system, another Internet password system can be used to further restrict access to data. Access to this system is through transaction SU05. These different features can be implemented in any combination; a diagram depicting all of them appears in Figure 15.3.
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