SAP will continue to release new versions of its Business ByDesign cloud ERP suite, despite some recent indications to the contrary, according to the vendor's head of development.

"ByDesign is continuing, yes," said executive board member Vishal Sikka in an interview this week. "We are refactoring the product to run on HANA," SAP's in-memory database platform, he said.

A team will remain in place to support the current version, which runs in an ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) application server, according to Sikka. "The product is going to be redone in HANA," he said. "We'll move every customer to this refactored ByDesign when we have it."

SAP continues to land new customers for ByDesign, "including some very big ones," Sikka said. A number of these are longtime customers of other SAP products, and SAP would never betray them by inking a contract for ByDesign subscriptions only to mothball the product, he added.