SAP BW modernization: How do companies move to SAP BDC?

In the context of the Autonomous Enterprise and SAP Business AI Platform, the modernization of the SAP BW landscape is gaining additional relevance. Companies that are currently still using SAP BW are asking themselves how they can make the move from their SAP BW system, which has been operating reliably for many years, to the modern world of data products and artificial intelligence (AI). The key lies in evolving the traditional data warehouse approach into a business data fabric architecture with SAP Datasphere or SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) as its central component.

Key takeaways:

• The modernization of SAP BW is achieved through a Business Data Fabric architecture with SAP Datasphere or SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) as the central data foundation – a prerequisite for the productive, scalable use of AI.

• SAP Business AI Platform serves as the enterprise platform for AI agents, data, models, and governance , while SAP BDC provides the business-ready data foundation for this.

• Key tools that support the transition include the Data Product Generator, the Query Template Generator, and the SAP BW Migration Assistant (available from Q4/2026), which is expected to reduce the migration effort by up to 50% compared to greenfield approaches.

• Companies using SAP BW 7.5 and SAP BW/4HANA follow the same innovation path. Existing investments are preserved and transferred to an AI-enabled architecture.

Prerequisites for productive AI use

When companies deploy AI, scalable business value often fails to materialize for three reasons:

• The business and process context is missing: The data does not reveal how the company actually operates.

• The relevant data is not consistently connected: System landscapes that have evolved over time struggle to present data in the correct context.

• There is no governance in place. Proper AI requires a clear governance structure to make results traceable and controllable, as well as to enable predictions with a certain degree of reliability.

Many companies are currently stuck in an AI pilot phase. In most cases, the foundation for artificial intelligence is not yet robust enough to use AI productively and make it scalable. This requires an integrated database, a business context, and a solid governance foundation. A prerequisite is a high-performance data platform that serves as the basis for AI. In the vision of the Autonomous Enterprise, SAP Business AI Platform becomes the foundation for all data.

How SAP Business AI Platform and SAP BDC are connected

With the help of SAP Business AI Platform, AI agents can access the same business context, the same data, the same models, and the same governance. This creates a platform on which AI is not only developed but also integrated and scaled across processes and domains. Within SAP Business AI Platform, SAP BDC provides the necessary data foundation. If companies want to seriously engage with AI and SAP data, there is ultimately no way around SAP BDC. This is because SAP BDC establishes a business-ready data foundation that brings together AI, applications, and governance.

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From SAP BW to SAP BDC: This is the path to modernization

The modernization path outlined by SAP from SAP BW to SAP Business Data Cloud consists of three stages: Optimize, Modernize, and Innovate.

Optimize

First, the SAP BW system is migrated as a Private Cloud Edition (PCE) to an SAP-operated cloud environment. This eliminates the costs associated with hardware maintenance, infrastructure, and operations. Before migrating to the PCE, it is recommended to optimize the on-premise system through housekeeping and an upstream data tiering strategy (dividing data into hot, warm, and cold categories). The goal is to scale the SAP BW system to a size that makes the move to the private cloud cost-effective and performance-efficient. SAP is currently planning to prolong the extended maintenance for SAP BW 7.5 PCE through 2035.

Modernize

The next step involves seamlessly integrating SAP BW data as data products into SAP BDC using the Data Product Generator. The Query Template Generator converts queries into analytical models in SAP Datasphere within SAP BDC. In this way, companies can use semantically defined SAP BW data products to meet the requirements for further data transformations and modeling in SAP Datasphere.

Innovate

Thanks to the open partner ecosystem, companies can combine their SAP BW data products with data from Databricks, Snowflake, or Microsoft Fabric and use them for machine learning scenarios and AI use cases. Direct access to the data via the Object Store enables the implementation of new use cases with SAP BW data products. In the next step, companies replace their existing SAP BW scenarios with proven, SAP-managed data products. A range of automated offerings enables the gradual phasing out of the SAP BW system.

Companies currently still using SAP BW 7.5 follow the same innovation path as those already using SAP BW/4HANA. By combining SAP BW and SAP Datasphere, legacy data and new data are migrated to SQL-based modeling approaches. What companies have built in SAP BW is preserved and transferred to a powerful, modern platform, ensuring that the architecture meets the requirements of an AI-driven enterprise. Through gradual modernization, the existing SAP BW system will become obsolete over time, but the data will continue to be used.

The right tools for the move to SAP BDC

SAP provides various tools that companies can use to transform their SAP BW system into SAP Business Data Cloud. A key advantage of this tool-supported modernization is that it protects a significant portion of the investments made in SAP BW in the past.

Data Product Generator

With the Data Product Generator, companies generate data products based on BW Info Providers. The data products are stored in the SAP Object Store. Access to the data products is provided via SAP Datasphere to build additional models. For other non-SAP data engineering use cases, third-party tools can access the data via SAP BDC Connect. The available data products are cataloged in the Predictive Library and can be used for machine learning on SAP HANA Cloud.

Query Template Generator

The Query Template Generator translates SAP BW query functionalities into analytical models in SAP Datasphere. This makes it possible to build data models from SAP BW queries.

SAP BW Migration Assistant

The current roadmap calls for the rollout of the SAP BW Migration Assistant in Q4 2026. This is an AI-powered migration of data pipelines and data flows from ABAP to SQL. Compared to a traditional greenfield approach, the migration effort is expected to decrease by up to 50%.

Conclusion: Develop a clear strategy for SAP BW modernization

SAP’s strategy (and that of the entire IT world) is clearly and irreversibly focused on AI and data platforms in the cloud. Looking ahead, companies need to focus on building an architecture with SAP Business Data Cloud that is prepared for the productive and scalable use of artificial intelligence. The migration tools provided by SAP support SAP BW customers in their modernization efforts. Whether the path via the Private Cloud Edition for SAP BW 7.5 or SAP BW/4HANA makes sense must be evaluated on a company-specific basis. As a starting point for SAP BW modernization, companies need a clear strategic plan that outlines where they stand, where they want to go, and what the next steps along this path will look like.