--- title: "SAP Databricks: uniting data with AI for smarter insights" date: 2025-11-14T08:30:00+01:00 author: Flexso canonical_url: "https://www.flexso.com/en/insights-blog/sap-databricks-business-data-cloud" section: cp.sections.blog --- ![SAP Databricks blog](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%271360%27%20height%3D%27544%27%20style%3D%27background%3Atransparent%27%2F%3E) **As an SAP user, you’re sitting on a goldmine of data. But did you know that most SAP users only tap into a fraction of their data’s potential? To unlock those valuable insights, SAP joined forces with Databricks, infusing AI and governance into the SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) platform. Take a peek behind the scenes to discover what SAP Databricks is and how it helps you turn data into insights.** Before we dive deeper, let’s take a step back. You might be wondering: “Why all these new data solutions? What’s wrong with SAP BW, SAC and a data warehouse?” They’re not wrong, it’s just not the full picture anymore. With the explosion of data and AI, companies need stronger architectures and smarter technology to truly make data work for them. That’s why SAP introduced [**SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC)**](https://www.flexso.com/en/insights-blog/sap-business-data-cloud-faq). Curious how SAP Databricks can boost your data strategy? [Curious how SAP Databricks can boost your data strategy?](https://www.flexso.com/en/contact) ## From data warehouses to SAP BDC and Databricks If you’ve read [our blog on why SAP BDC is a gamechanger](https://www.flexso.com/en/insights-blog/sap-business-data-cloud-faq), you already know that the BDC platform is SAP’s **central data environment.** It connects business data from across your SAP landscape and beyond, while keeping it clean and secure. Still, structure and governance aren’t enough to get deep insights. You also need to explore data, understand it, and experiment with it. That’s where [**Databricks**](https://www.sap.com/products/data-cloud/databricks.html) fits in. ## What is SAP Databricks? **Databricks** is a unified analytics and AI platform that bundles **analytics, machine learning,** [**data engineering**](https://www.flexso.com/en/solutions/data-analytics/data-engineering-ai) **and collaboration tools**. This enables data engineers and analytics or AI teams to clean, transform, and explore vast amounts of structured and unstructured data using familiar tools such as SQL, Python, and R. What sets Databricks apart is its ability to scale effortlessly, while ensuring reliability and speed. One major part of that secret is powered by **Delta Lake**. This is an open-source technology that brings ACID transactions, schema enforcement, and optimized data layout to your data lake. Combined with Databricks’ **interactive notebooks, high-performance SQL engine and collaborative workspace**, it enables business users to work efficiently with large-scale data in real time. The mission of Databricks is to help organizations make sense of all their data, wherever it lives, and put AI to work faster. Exactly what SAP aims to do. ## How does SAP Databricks work? To bring the powerful features of Databricks into the SAP ecosystem, SAP joined forces with Databricks, the team behind the platform, to launch SAP Databricks. This dedicated, SAP-certified version **is embedded right into SAP BDC**, ready for you to activate. **As SAP Databricks seamlessly fits into your SAP landscape**, your SAP data stays where it belongs: inside SAP’s secure environment. No exporting, no replication, no risk. You simply access your SAP data products as governed datasets in Databricks and start exploring, analysing, or training AI models. Moreover, working with SAP Databricks feels intuitive and safe. Here’s how it goes: ## Setup: quick and effortless Getting started takes minutes, not days. With just a few clicks, you can activate **SAP Databricks** straight from your **SAP for Me** portal and dive in – no separate setup or extra logins needed. Moreover, the platform’s compute power scales automatically with your workload, so instead of worrying about infrastructure, teams stay focused on insight and innovation. ## Use: collaboration, insights and speed Inside Databricks, business users, analysts, and data scientists share **one collaborative workspace** where they can explore data, visualize results, and build AI models without switching tools. The analytics experience is powerful: analysts can write and run SQL queries in a high-performance, serverless environment, or jump into shared notebooks to code, annotate, and model together with colleagues. Whatever you do and with whomever you work: **collaboration feels effortless** AI-assisted tools like ***Databricks Assistant*** speedthings up and make experimentation accessible to anyone. **For machine-learning teams**, there’s MLflow for training, tracking, deploying, and monitoring models. With Mosaic AI, you can even fine-tune large language models with your own business data. ## Governance: built in With **Unity Catalog**, access management and compliance tracking happen behind the scenes. Manage access rights, trace data lineage, and keep full control over compliance, all from one place. Data stays traceable, responsibilities stay clear. ## Working with SAP data in and out of Databricks Because SAP Databricks is integrated with SAP BDC, **everything connects natively**. When a data product is activated in BDC, it’s instantly available in Databricks through a secure **Delta Share** connection – no extra ETL required. And once you’ve built insights or trained models, you can publish them straight back into SAP, enriched, documented, and ready to power dashboards or business applications. In short: the loop between **SAP** and **Databricks** is seamless. Data goes in, value comes out – all within SAP’s trusted ecosystem. ## Powered by Flexso Analytics: bring your business to a higher level Analytics wizards that transform data into smart business insights and accelerated growth. Retain your competitive edge. Let’s transform your data into insights. [Get to know us ](https://www.flexso.com/en/brands/flexso-analytics) --- Written by ![Stef Depraetere](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%2794%27%20height%3D%2794%27%20style%3D%27background%3Atransparent%27%2F%3E)**Stef Depraetere** Share - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flexso.com%2Fen%2Finsights-blog%2Fsap-databricks-business-data-cloud"e=Authors%20%2B%20brand) - [LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flexso.com%2Fen%2Finsights-blog%2Fsap-databricks-business-data-cloud&title=Authors%20%2B%20brand&summary=&source=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flexso.com%2Fen%2Finsights-blog%2Fsap-databricks-business-data-cloud) - [Whatsapp](whatsapp://send?text=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flexso.com%2Fen%2Finsights-blog%2Fsap-databricks-business-data-cloud) ![SAC Releases 2024 - SAP Analytics Cloud - Header](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27375%27%20height%3D%27281.25%27%20style%3D%27background%3Atransparent%27%2F%3E)SAP Business Data Cloud, Datasphere & SAP Analytics Cloud: Discover the latest releasesWhat’s new in SAP Datasphere this year? 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