All ways lead to… SAP Datasphere

A Greenfield scenario

You have no Datawarehouse solution in place. To accelerate your setup, there is standard SAP (free to install) and 3rd party content available to start from.

Source of Data is SAP ECC (+ BW Bridge)

In case of SAP ECC, it can be useful to use the Business Warehouse (BW) extractors that are delta-enabled on SAP ECC. Unfortunately SAP does not offer a direct way to ingest these delta’s in SAP Datasphere directly. But then there is … SAP BW Bridge.

Within SAP BW bridge, an environment for IT-oriented people, you are able to implement data extraction and staging scenarios up to the Composite Provider level. You cannot access BW Bridge directly with reporting tools such as SAC, PowerBI, BO reporting tools, etc.

You can use BW and CDS Data sources to load new and changed data into BW Bridge (the so-called delta loads). The BW Bridge objects (ADSO / Composite Providers) are virtually exposed in SAP Datasphere in the so-called “BW Bridge Space”. They can be shared with other spaces and can be used to build SAP Datasphere models. The data is persistent in BW bridge and is consulted in SAP Datasphere as remote tables.

>> Read how BW Bridge eases data migration at Nipro.

Source of Data is S/4HANA

When you have an SAP S/4HANA ERP system running, connecting the dots becomes a bit easier. Using an ABAP S/4HANA connection, You can use ABAP CDS views with primary key, which are delta-enabled to display a preview of the data. At this point, the actual data is not stored in SAP Datasphere but it connects to the source system (S/4HANA) each time. As a result, the data access is “remote” or “virtual”.

Replicating the data to Datasphere for better performance, could be another option you want to consider. In the “data integration monitor” you can switch the “remote” setting (virtualisation) to “replicate” (replication), data frequency is set to “real-time”. Each 15 seconds, possible changes in the source system are replicated into SAP Datasphere, where the data is being stored.

Using a HANA-SDA connection between S/4HANA and SAP Datasphere, you can virtually access any kind of table or view. You can persist the data by loading a snapshot if the CDS is extraction-enabled.
Of course, BW Bridge itself can also be installed to use also the classic BW Extractors in S/4HANA.

Extend your existing (on prem) BW investments

If this would be the scenario, SAP Datasphere can perfectly complement existing SAP BW solutions running within the organization. We can leverage the virtualization and replication capabilities from SAP Datasphere, Customers of SAP BW can easily extend current on-premise environments to include cloud scenarios. You can choose to move data from SAP BW/4HANA to SAP Datasphere, a managed-service offering.

Alternatively, the data can stay where it is, and Datasphere can consume data sets directly from SAP BW/4HANA – without replicating them – and enrich these data with third-party data sources from cloud or on-premise systems. A last option would be a hybrid approach, where you leave some data on premise in SAP BW/4HANA and put some data in the cloud in SAP Datasphere.

Migrating to SAP Datasphere

SAP provides the technical possibilities to migrate your existing SAP Datawarehouse to SAP Datasphere using a migration cockpit to SAP BW Bridge. Here as well, there are two different options.

• Shell Conversion

For this conversion type, a newly provisioned SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge is needed. A Transfer Cockpit can be used to migrate selected data models without transferring data into an SAP BW bridge tenant. This is an accelerated way of converting your models and data flows.

• Remote Conversion

For this conversion type, SAP BW bridge is needed as well. A Transfer Cockpit can be used to migrate selected data models into an SAP BW bridge tenant and performs a remote data transfer into that tenant as well.

Let’s start your cloud journey

To summarize, whether you have existing BW solutions you want to convert, extend, or you have no BW solution at all, moving to SAP Datasphere is possible. Depending on your source system, we also provided the major keys above with which you can get access from Datasphere to the data on your source system. This access can be virtual or can be directly loaded into SAP Datasphere. Our experts can help your organization setting up a clear and strategic roadmap towards the data services on the Business Technology Platform and provide you with a tailor-made solution design.