February 2016 SAP Cloud for Analytics Virtual Class: Getting Started with BI in the Cloud Q&A
This was a short SAP webcast earlier this month, mostly by demos, so my notes are limited. As always the Q&A for me is interesting; answers provided by SAP.
Question & Answer
Q: Where register for a trial?
A: You can register for trial invite at the following link: http://discover.sap.com/cloudforanalytics/en-us/index.html. Please provide us as many details on your use case, as part of the invite description. Yes, we do read the registration invite request details 🙂
Q: I have trial access, how can I get access to modeler perspective?
A: assuming your C4A tenant has been provisioned with a BI trial license, this should already include the Modeler and Perspective linking functionality already
Q: Looks Lumira-like
A: developed in Vancouver
Q: Q: C4A show up as a service in our HCP? Will we be able to read data from a Hana database created/stored in HCP?
A: Lots of questions about importing
Today, there are a few options to get data into C4A. You can connect to and acquire from CSV, Excel, and Google Drive, acquire from BW, acquire from planning data sources BPC). More options are coming, from a roadmap perspective
Source: SAP
Q: When connect to the universe?
A: Connectivity to Universe support is planned for H1 2016. This will be an early v1 release.
You can find our roadmap for Cloud for Analytics here: https://websmp101.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/012002523100016366762015E.pdf
Question & Answer from Cloud for Analytics Roadmap Webcast
Q: Do we have connection for SAP ECC (non HANA)
A: not yet. Working on it.
Q: when we can expect this planned innovations features like ECC, BW, etc.
A: BW is planned for Q2. ECC is still under review. No specific month yet
Q: Will be support Python at some point? Is there any roadmap for support on R server and development environment?
A: there are no public APIs at this point, but they are planned and will support any modern development language.
R support is in the strategic plan, but no details at this point.
R would be supported through the Predictive Feature set
Q: looks like Chrome on a mac is being used? Will this also work on Chrome for iPad? Chrome on Android?
Q: any decisions on IE or Firefox support?
A: IE support is being worked on.
No plans for Firefox at this point.
Q: If I am not interested in planning, can we buy licenses focused just on BI functionality?
A: yes
Q: if someone wasn’t creating reports but is only consuming reports, is a C4A license needed?
A: Yes; all licenses are named user
Q: I registered for C4A trial 2 months back and i have not received invitation yet. Any idea when there is a plan to allow trial access?
A: We are sending out invitations in groups
You should receive in invitation in the next week or two
Register on sapcloudanalytics.com and we will send you an account on our tutorial system. Wait time is currently 1 to 2 weeks while we process requests made previously by others
Q: is it planned to be able to connect to an SQL server?
A: yes, we plan to connect to SQL Server directly. You can connect to SQL server today via HANA Cloud Integration with HANA Cloud Platform
Q: is it replacing any existing tools
A: C4A is only replacing Lumira Cloud for the cloud-based data discovery capabilities. All other functionality is unique to cloud and does not replace any of our on premise analytics solutions
Q: Are OData sources supported?
A: We support OData today via HANA Cloud Integration with HANA Cloud Platform
We are also planning to support OData directly, but no specific timeline that I can share right now
Q: comparing SAP Agile Preparation to C4A, does C4A as good as ADP for data preparation?
A: no it’s not. We are working with the ADP team now to see how we can integrate ADP has more data quality capabilities like address cleansing and de-duping.
Slides from the roadmap webcast are here:
Source: SAP
This was from the class; it looks to be the full license with Digital Boardroom and administrative access
Source: SAP
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Related:
Registration for the 2016 ASUG Annual Conference is now open and also provides you with access to SAPPHIRENOW® 2016. Register by March 25 to receive the discounted early bird rate: a savings of up to $300. ASUG will have sessions on Cloud for Analytics including a roadmap session. See this ASUG BI Brochure.
Upcoming ASUG Cloud for Analytics webcast:
April 4 Effective and Engaging Data Visualization in SAP Cloud for Analytics
Thanks for sharing