Systemlandschaft

Systemlandschaft is a term used in information technology and enterprise architecture to describe the set, arrangement, and interconnection of an organization’s IT systems. It encompasses hardware, software, networks, data stores, interfaces, and the processes that use them. The landscape provides an overview of where systems run, how they communicate, and how data flows between them, serving planning, operation, change management, and compliance.

A system landscape typically includes servers and storage, networking equipment, operating systems, databases, applications, middleware, and data models. Interfaces and integration points such as APIs, batch feeds, and message queues are mapped to show dependencies. Environments for development, testing (quality assurance), staging, and production are usually distinguished, and some organizations maintain sandbox or pre-production environments. Cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployments may be combined within a single landscape, and data locality or regulatory requirements can influence the layout.

Governance and lifecycle management are key aspects. This includes configuration management, release and change control, security and access management, backup and disaster recovery, monitoring, incident response, and documentation. Landscape diagrams or repositories are used to model dependencies, data flows, and ownership to support planning and risk management.

In practice, the term is widely used in SAP environments, where DEV, QAS, and PROD systems (along with transports and clients) constitute the core landscape. More generally, system landscapes underpin enterprise architecture, IT governance, and system integration efforts.