SAP BusinessObjects Cloud Data Integration Deep Dive Webcast Notes

Note:

This was posted on SCN beta, but beta is going away so I am posting it here

 

This was an SCN webinar last month

 

SAP said “SAP BusinessObjectsCloud is the new name for SAP Cloud for Analytics”

 

Source: SAP

 

The legal disclaimer applies

 

Source: SAP

 

The above is the agenda

 

Source: SAP

 

HANA Cloud platform is the foundation

 

SAP BusinessObjects Cloud is self-service, analytical workflow, mix and mashing, presenting data

 

Digital Boardroom is based on the BusinessObjects Cloud

 

Above shows the positioning

 

Source: SAP

 

How shape, how model the data

Source: SAP

 

The above shows the workflow

 

It was released last year

 

It changes rapidly

 

Every two weeks there is a release

 

Enhancements are at a fast pace

 

Already on the 9th release of the year

 

Where is my data located?

 

Source: SAP

 

Today 5 deployments of BusinessObjects Cloud

 

Go to sapdatacenter.com page for details on how data centers are running

Overview

Source:SAP

 

HCP DBaas offering

 

Empty arrows show remote

 

On-premise – connect to BPC, BW, universes, SAP ECC

 

Connects to local files

Source: SAP

Source: SAP

 

Users will see only what they have access to see

Source: SAP

 

Steps from an end user perspective

Source: SAP

 

Remote connection is covered above

Source: SAP

 

Remote reverse proxy to connect to on-premise

Source: SAP

 

Drag data source and it will model..

Source: SAP

 

Install 2 agents; see Harjeet’s blog

 

Source: SAP

 

Drag and drop experience

Understand prompts from universe

BI4.1 SP5 minimum

 

Source: SAP

 

BW online connection is planned

Source: SAP

Source: SAP

Data wrangling, semantic enrichment, geomaps (ESRI)

Source: SAP

 

System provides visual feedback to act on issues

Source: SAP

 

A summary of what have seen during the demo

Source: SAP

 

Rights to a model, dimension

 

Source: SAP

Provide autonomy to end users

Enabling partners/customers to add their own data source

Source: SAP

 

Looking at SAP cloud solutions and non-SAP

Source: SAP

Big effort in data preparation this year

 

Question & Answer

Q: I noticed SDA (Smart Data Access) for traditional database access… so, that will be a link to underlying HCP..

 

A: SDA via HANA is just one way to “access” non-SAP data. indirectly. We plan for a direct data acquistion approach as well.

 

Q: Slide #10 showed SAP C4A and Browser separately with differeent data sources. What is the difference between Browser and SAP C4A?

A: Browser is the client which users will access BusinessObjects Cloud. Both content and data are shown directly within the Browser client

 

Q: Can we share the Lumira Story Boards or Design Studio dashbaords to this cloud ?

 

A: It is possible today to share a Lumira “dataset” which the data can be acquired into BusinessObjects Cloud as a data acquistion approach

 

Q: Then we need to redoo the visualizations and storyboards all over again for the same data …if we want to use the Cloud ?

 

A: There is no migration path for on-prem created content into BusinessObjects Cloud

 

Q: Question about compression

 

A: For data acquistion concept, there is no inbuilt data compression techniques used. Data volume is always under heavy consideration, thus as best practices, it’s recommended to carefully choose the specific metdata you need in order to build your visualization

 

Q: Can I connect to Successfactors from BI Platform? on-premise

 

A: BusinessObjects Cloud can conect to relational Universes (unx) from BI platform and acquire data. BOC does support directly connecting to SucessFactors, and acquired that data you need into BOC

 

Q: Can you elaborate on how SBOCloud specifically enhances user autonomy vs. its predecessors?

 

A: Best to have a conversation with Paul on this: But user autonomy/agility is described in this webinar under the concept of data acquistion. It is about bringing “agilty” to data analysts that want to play wiht the data, be able to explore the data, basically an agile modelling experience. Agility also comes withn we bring the data in smartly, so that users for users that dont’ want to do modelling, can simiply start playing with BOC and building visualizaitons quickly

 

Q: Not sure this question got answered: Is there a developer sandbox specifically for SBOCloud? Thank you!

 

A: There is no developer sandbox per say. But you can try out BusinessObjects Cloud via two method: trial account and POC account.

 

Q: What’s about bw connection? is still the process required to set up hana cloud connector etc. in orde rto connect to a remote system or will a direct access be possible?

 

A: it is possible to connect to BW today via data acquisition. To enable the data acquistion process, customer needs to install and configure two simiple components called the BusinessObjects Cloud agent and HANA Cloud Connector. You can find more information on the online help: https://cp.hana.ondemand.com/dps/d/preview/06d2c3deddfc425e920f2448e4f1e654/release/en-US/frameset.htm. As for online connection to BW, that is planned for later this year in Q4 as first release

 

Q: Connect to OData?

A: This is on the roadmap

 

Q: can we connect to an on-premise hana system directly or do we need a hcp gateway etc.?

A: You can connect to HANA on-premise today via a reverse proxy setup.

 

Q: Is there a way to setup SSO with remote connection to on-premise HANA?

A: Yes, SSO is posssible to on-prem HANA via Reverse Proxy in conjunction with SAML-2 complaint identity provider

 

Q: what’s about write-back functionality of planning data to on-premise system?

A:  write-back is possible for Planning, as part of the data acquistion workflow. This is on write-back capability possible for online connection to SAP backends

 

Q: Another user question: Are the “HANA” modeling features in BOC used with remote connect intended for business users, or only technical? Just trying to figure out the vision from SAP’s perspective

A: Connection to on-prem sources like HANA has no modelling concept. It only applies in the case where you are bringing data into BusinessObjects Cloud. Reason is because when connecting  on-premise SAP backends like HANA, the modelling is already done on the SAP backend, so BOC will simply leverage that

 

The modelling concepts today in BOC are geared for the data analysts workflow.

 

Q:  Do we have plans to support NULL values in the data set?

 

A: Yes, this is one of the areas of improvement which Dev team will plan to address

 

Q: Adrian mentioned data preparation features are used “only when the data is acquired”. Can you explain what that means? In other words, is this the same thing as uploading data via the browser or something else?

A: Correct. There are two connectivity methods today: online connection and data acquistion. For online connection, we support connection to SAP sources (HANA today, BW and S4 is planned) . Connection to SAP backends as mentioned before, we will leverage the underlying views/queries directly. Data prep and data modellig concepts as explained in webinar today would only apply for the data acquistion concept (i.e. bringing that data into Cloud)

 

Q: when loading data, can you use a kind of ‘delta’ mechanism or are these always full loads ? Are there differences depending on the source (ERP,BO, non SAP, …)

A: delta loading of acquired data is not possible today. But development team is investigating the concept. No roadmap timeline yet

 

Q: Will IE be supported?

A: No IE support yet. No timelines o this at the monment, but some discussions are looking towards Microsoft Edge instead, due to similarities with Chrome

 

Q: Can we push data from BOCloud into HANA or HCP? If so, where can we find more information about this?

A: Yes, you can bring data into BOC (which basically runs on top of HCP). This is via the data acquistion worfklow as explained by Paul today

 

Q: Can we write back to HCP on real time basis to control edge devices in IoT scenarios

 

A: NO write back is supported to HCP as DBaaS, or HCP which BOC tenant is running on

Write back to BPC is supported for Planning workflow in BusinessObjects Cloud via data acquisiton