SAP Data Warehouse Cloud: Bridge between business and IT

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud will be a central element in future BW architectures. It offers a platform for creating data models and integrating data and was developed especially for the cloud. The scalable solution integrates data from on-premise and cloud systems. This data can either be replicated and persisted or the data source can be accessed live.

The SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is part of SAP HANA Cloud Services. Their other components are closely linked to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. While SAP Analytics Cloud acts as a consistent front-end for analytical applications - from business intelligence to planning to predictive analytics - and displays data, SAP HANA Cloud acts as a powerful foundation in the sense of a database as a service (DBaaS).

In the area of conflict of interests

In many companies the data warehouse is located at the central IT department. At the same time, the requirements of the business departments with regard to the use of company data in local applications and systems are increasing. Conversely, the challenge is also to filter business-relevant information from local data in order to make it available to other departments.

It is precisely in this area of conflict that SAP Data Warehouse cloud, in conjunction with the other SAP HANA cloud services, plays out one of its strengths: It enables better collaboration between business and IT, as well as greater integration of the players involved. In a sense, SAP Data Warehouse cloud shifts the point of data transfer between departments to a more complex place in the system. The result: greater harmony between business requirements and technical necessities.

Each department has its own Space

The central objects in SAP Data Warehouse cloud are the so-called Spaces. These are units in which the data models can be found, independent of the source system connection and the users. Each Space can be defined for a specific department, for example, marketing or finance, according to specific requirements. Within the Spaces, the departments model data independently of other actors and thus work individually - without the risk of affecting the central company data. This is because the technical composition of the data models remains unaffected.

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud uses SAP HANA Cloud as its database. Via the data interfaces of SAP HANA Cloud, SAP Data Provisioning Agent creates a source data connection to on-premise ABAP or HANA databases. Other cloud applications can deliver data to SAP Data Warehouse cloud via an OData data connection. Whether cloud systems from SAP or other providers or on-premise applications - different data sources can be flexibly connected. Thus, SAP Data Warehouse cloud can be used as a gateway and as a data platform to create a harmonious data basis in a heterogeneous system landscape.

As a front-end, SAP Analytics Cloud is integrated into SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. It provides a uniform interface for all applications. It does not matter whether the data comes from an ERP system, SAP S/4HANA or a BW system.

Possible applications

If a company wants to bring its entire BW system into the cloud or expand the BI self-service functionalities for the business departments, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud proves to be an important component. It helps to build a flexible and scalable data warehouse in the cloud, which allows access to data from on-premise or cloud data sources in a reporting. Based on this data, stories, customized analytics applications, or planning applications can be used in the SAP Analytics Cloud using predictive services.

An on-premise BW can also use SAP Data Warehouse Cloud as a data source. In this case, SAP Data Warehouse cloud takes on the role of a middleware with which on-premise and cloud data is centrally acquired and forwarded to an on-premise BW/4HANA system.

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud also supports migration projects from older ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA. SAP Analytics Cloud is increasingly becoming an integral part of SAP applications such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Ariba, SAP SuccessFactors, etc. The fact that these applications can be integrated into the SAC environment of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud provides the user with a unified environment for a wide range of possibilities. This also helps to avoid data silos.

Structure of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud

As far as the architecture of SAP Data Warehouse cloud is concerned, there is a level for the technical activities, for example, building data or connecting data sources. Above this is a semantic level that includes the business area. This is where the virtual assembly of data models takes place via a graphical interface. Semantically structured content can also be found in the Business Catalog, which ensures its reusability.

In short, the central advantage of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is also reflected in its structure: It shifts the work in the BW system from the technical to the conceptual dimension, which means that the business areas can be involved more than in the past.