BI in the Cloud – ASUG Webcast Summary

Today SAP provided a BI in the Cloud webcast.  The purpose of the webcast was to provide an :Overall cloud analytics strategy”, “How run Enterprise BI in the cloud” and “How you can build cloud applications”.

Below are my notes.

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows that the usual legal disclaimer applies that things in the future are subject to change.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Why move the cloud? According to recent IDC report shown in Figure 2, 75% of IT expenses will be for cloud or hybrid by 2015

Customers are moving to the cloud in a faster rate

IT moves to technology support & maintenance

Businesses view IT as a bottleneck to growth and look to other avenues to meet needs

Speed of business innovation is increasing

IT must deliver agility that businesses are demanding

If processes for businesses are not met businesses can’t meet goals; will potentially effect revenue

If move to cloud, processes can change in real time

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Customers say what their needs are

One of the main drivers for moving to the cloud is to shift from traditional capex model – long budgeting process, large amounts of money to more of an opex model to allow for more regular payment methods

Customer want to be free of lengthy maintenance schedule

Does it have to happen in IT or access to all the latest solutions with no effort from IT?  Customers “move to cloud to reduce their risk”

Figure 4: Source: SAP

As Figure 4 shows, “Cloud is an innovation platform” with a “Strategy to simplify software consumption to provide additional choices”

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows examples of customers in the cloud

WTA is co-innovating with SAP, using Data Services, BI Platform, HANA, and Mobile

NFL fans are interested in how their favorite players are doing

Figure 6: Source: SAP

Figure 6 shows three pillars based on customer needs – HEC HCP SaaS

SaaS  is quick way to consume BI software without involvement of IT

HEC: SAP can run all BI suite solution including Lumira Server on HANA Enterprise Cloud – private managed cloud offering

HCP will offer Lumira Server on HCP

BI Hosted in the Cloud

Figure 7: Source: SAP

Figure 7 shows “not just one offering” but  3 main offerings

HEC is mainly targeted for SAP BI / BW customers – or HANA data marts

Another option is also available through third party hosting partners

Last one on the right is third party public cloud; primarily used by agnostic BI customers who do not have a HANA deployment

MS Azure may be new to most – SAP just certified to run on Azure in the last month

Figure 8: Source: SAP

Figure 8 covers HEC – enterprise class managed offering done in secure data centers world wide – private, single tenancy infrastructure – not in customer data centers for existing and new customers

Figure 9: Source: SAP

The SAP speaker said Figure 9 shows the “Importance of moving to the cloud”

SAP went from 1 data center in Germany to all these data centers across the world

Figure 10: Source: SAP

Figure 10 is to cover “Different customer needs” as not every customer has same licensing needs

Figure 10 tailors cloud offerings to different varieties

You can bring licenses to cloud and subscribe to HANA OR last on the right of Figure 10 subscribe to whole HEC environment

Figure 11: Source: SAP

Figure 11 shows three use cases, including real time analytics.  It can be both for existing SAP customers and new customers

First 2 cases are targeted for current install base; most common deployments on HEC; also BI with a HANA datamart for existing and new customers

Figure 12: Source: SAP

Figure 12 shows the BI cloud options.  Some are traditional keep to keep on premise and do not go full cloud right away

Some start a few projects in the cloud, then move more deployments

You want the data close to users for best performance

Figure 13: Source: SAP

For free, you can use the Amazon SAP Test BI program – easy way to glimpse run analytics in the cloud with 7-8 click throughs

BI for Cloud Application Deployment

Figure 14: Source: SAP

The speaker said you can embed BI in the application that you are building in the cloud

You can build an extension to an application building in the cloud with the in memory platform as a service offering

Figure 15: Source: SAP

Figure 15 shows that SAP plan to offer Lumira Server for SAP HCP/ HANA Cloud Platform

BI Software as a Service

Figure 16: Source: SAP

The fastest easiest way to consume BI in the cloud is shown in Figure 16

Data discovery from Lumira for software as a service application was launched in 2013: SAP Lumira Cloud built on HANA Cloud platform

Figure 16 shows that Lumira Cloud has more than 70K users

Figure 17: Source: SAP

Figure 17 shows the differences between Lumira Cloud free and Enterprise; note the support differences

Figure 18: Source: SAP

I don’t have any specific notes on this slide, but I am including it for completeness

Figure 19: Source: SAP

Figure 19 shows the roadmap for SAP Cloud BI, including moving Crystal Reports & Lumira Server to the HANA Cloud Platform and we’ll see more embedded content in SAP Cloud applications

Question and Answer

Q:  So can BI clients sit on users desktop and deal with the HEC latency?

A:  Yes. BI clients are installed on premise and access the HEC environment via VPN. 

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Q:  HI..is Design Studio available or planned on HCP ?

A:  It is not available today; would like to offer and cannot offer timelines 

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If you are an ASUG member you can watch the recording here.

Reference

For more upcoming webcasts see Upcoming ASUG Analytics SIG Webcasts

Join us: ASUG BI pre-conference session at ASUG Annual conference

Monday, May 4. (extra registration fees apply).

Register here

Hands-on SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 w/ SAP NetWeaver BW Powered by SAP HANA – Deep Dive

See details here