ORLANDO, Florida -- Users and industry analysts had mostly positive reactions to SAP's announcement that it would no longer charge for its Fiori user experience technology. But the reality that implementing "free" SAP Fiori could still be expensive wasn't lost on anyone, as questions lingered over cloud and middleware requirements.

"It's going to take some capital investment I wasn't anticipating," said CR Caton, director of ERP strategy at Verizon Services Corp. based in Ashburn, Virginia. Caton and his colleagues had just come from a chat on the show floor at last week's Sapphire Now conference with an SAP Fiori representative, where they learned they would need SAP NetWeaver Gateway middleware.