Product Information
How does SAP Data Warehouse Cloud Work Webcast Recap
Beta planned for summer, GA is planned for SAP TechEd
The legal disclaimer applies, that things in the future are subject to change.
Source: SAP
Cloud service, cloud native service, managed by SAP
Uses HANA database in the cloud
Existing customers, this is meant to extend on premise use cases to the cloud
connect and extend with cloud data warehouse
Or new use case such as new data marts
Cloud native datawarehouse from scratch
New solution, independent of cloud
For IT and business users
Source: SAP
Designed to be easy to access and use
It is a managed service
It is an “agile solution”
“fast time to value”
Open SQL interface, SQL scripting
scale up and down
Figure 4: Source: SAP
Architecture level; at bottom it is an open solution, connect to SAP and non-SAP data sources, either on premise or cloud
3rd Data ingestion tools
Connectivity to data lakes
Virtual or federated access
It is based on the HANA cloud offering – 4 services – repository services, modeling services, data warehousing services, governance services
Consumption layer for analytics tools, such as SAP Analytics Cloud
Source: SAP
Lower left, data layer with components to generate tables, views, data flows, connection management to on premise or cloud systems, and enhancement to the data store object
Separating semantic layer from data layer
Semantic layer is a virtual layer to create models, entities, facts, dimensions, hierarchies
The business can create objects – e.g. invoice, order, deliver – map from semantic layer to data layer or reverse
Goal is to generate semantic layer, virtual, based on nature of the objects, for line of business users to find way to integrate data
Business catalog will have predefined objects; open to be enhanced, include documentation objects such as data lineage, versioning
Source: SAP
Attributes related to layers
Data layer – how access, how provisioned, could be virtual, no need to load data to data warehouse cloud
Could also persist data in data warehouse cloud
Top – semantic layer, describe the virtual business entities and related KPI’s
Provide business model
Focus semantic layer on stable, connected layer, closely to SAP Analytics Cloud, strong connection to semantic model
Source: SAP
Concept of spaces
Data layer integrated with spaces
Integration with data lake spaces (IQ in the cloud)
Data layer is based on different spaces
On the left, IT managed operational systems, such as S/4HANA, C4/HANA – golden color. Move to the right – marketing, finance, sales, blue part – managed by business to create model, generate virtual tables
Spaces help you manage data, locate the data
On the right, blue only, business maintained
Source: SAP
Watch the replay for demos; it is here
Source: SAP
This was part of the demo
Q&A
Q: Migration tools/BW/4HANA
A: conversion path from BW/4HANA
Q: would you put CDW next to BW/4HANA?
A: hybrid scenario, if put it on top
Could have BW/4 provide data or virtual access
Q: advanced engines from HANA from modeling process
A: will be made available, can’t tell you now
Q: virtual connection
A: done by virtual table, federated access by source system, not by BICS
Q: based on neo or cf
A: based on Cloud Foundry
Part 1 of this blog is here – what is SAP Data Warehouse Cloud
What do you think? Will business users use it?
The obvious question is - does this replace BW/4HANA? It seems to solve the exact same business problem.
If so, what would an organisation that had just gone through a huge migration to BW/4HANA think about being told to migrate again?
Is this like HR where people are told to move to Web Dynpro Java, and as soon as they are finished they are told to move to Web Dynpro ABAP and as soon as they have done that are told to move to Fiori? Just to stand still, functionality wise?
good question, Paul
Typically BW/4HANA is on premise, and in the webinar(s) SAP discussed hybrid possibilities but these were "data bite" webinars which are short in nature. On the surface it does not appear to replace BW/4HANA - my take only
Having two (or more) products which do the same thing really muddies the waters though. I imagine most BW/4HANA installations are on-premise but it was pushed as a cloud product i.e. when it came out SAP marketing kept on about how the cloud version was so much better than the on-premise version etc...
The irony is that on one hand SAP are pushing "simplification" i.e. in S/4HANA where there were four solutions to a problem three of them were removed, and at the same time adding a new product in the analytics space every so often, some of which appear to be duplicates i.e. the slogan could be "Run Complex"
SAP says it is "leaving no customer behind"
So is the acronym for Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC)?
I don't mind DWC existing if all the features in DWC are down ported to BW/4HANA. But will SAP do this? If not, then SAP's intent is to promote DWC as a replacement for BW/4HANA. We'll see less number of enhancements going to BW/4HANA once DWC becomes GA. BW/4HANA will die from neglect.
I like the automatic update concept that comes with a SaaS EDW especially since SAC is constantly fixing/upgrading its ANI/BICS interface to BW. There are a hundred notes just for ANI/BICS fixes and upgrades to apply in each new BW SP. Maybe it'll become more manageable someday.
What I don't like about a SaaS EDW is the cost of having the same network bandwidth to on-premise enterprise systems as does an on-premise EDW. I assume this won't be a problem if we use DWC with S/4HANA cloud. But will S/4HANA cloud along with SCP be in state such that large companies are willing to go to it? I have to check on how Shell's implementation on S/4HANA cloud is going.
Thanks again for the excellent write-up on this, Tammy.
Is there recording for this?
Mel Calucin
Hi Mel - reply link is here (I think)
A question I've heard from many and have been wondering myself, is does SAP DW Cloud use the same code-line as BW/4HANA? Prior to Sapphire we had heard that the upcoming cloud product, then under the guise of a fruit project, was to do so - but since then I haven't seen any material confirming this one way or another.
I guess I'm wondering because when it comes to enhancements or developments, will BW/4HANA consultants be already up to speed and good to hit the ground running or will there be yet another skill / toolset to become familiar and adept with?
Hi Cal -Thank you for reading/commenting
I don't know; you may want to ask this at answers.sap.com
Hey Cal, DWC does not use the same code line as BW/4HANA. I reckon what you referred to was Project Blueberry, which doesn't exist any more. Going forward, DWC will be SAP's SaaS DW.
Not sure about the details from the skillset's perspective, in SAP's latest roadmap, it is planned to migrate BW4/HANA's dataflow to DWC in 2020. Stay tuned...