On-Premise and Cloud United with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud

In implementing a cloud-based data warehousing solution, how can on-premise and cloud work together seamlessly? What do you do if you have an on-premise database already? Do you have to move all your data to the cloud? You have questions, and we have answers.

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud addresses some of the core challenges that businesses face when it comes to managing reporting and analysis in modern data environments. It provides pre-built templates, integration to SAP and other data sources, and the power and flexibility of SAP HANA in-memory processing to ensure agility, speed, and simplicity.

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is enterprise functionality made simple. Data marts and other data warehousing solutions are easy to build, allowing for faster implementation. Plus, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud removes barriers for departments, regions, divisions, or individual business users‒allowing them to set up data marts for projects and proactive research as needed.

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud’s simplified user interface makes it accessible to business users in a way that data warehousing solutions typically are not, giving a new level of access and control to the people who are closest to the data.  It makes it easy to deliver a completed analytics solution that is flexible both in scope and access. And, critically, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud addresses the challenges associated with implementing a full cloud-based analytics solution whether data is located exclusively (or predominantly) on-premise, in the cloud, or in multiple clouds.

Getting to the Cloud

Introducing a cloud-based data warehousing solution in an environment where some or all of your data is currently on-premise raises questions about how the two environments can be made to work together successfully. What happens to the on-premise databases? Do you have to move them to the cloud or maintain copies of the data in two places?

The short answer is no—you don’t have to move it. That data can stay where it is, on-premise. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud can not only be used as a standalone cloud tool; it can integrate seamlessly with all your on-premise systems (whether they be SAP or non-SAP systems). You can either move the data to the cloud or access it remotely.

But “remotely” means something different where SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is concerned. The system provides simplified administration with centralized visibility and governance. This means that although the data may be located in two (or two dozen) different locations, it is being governed from one central point. The data warehouse cloud workflow concept treats the entire distributed data architecture as a single entity. It is your data repository. From an analytics perspective it is the single source of truth.

Finding the Balance

This allows organizations to find their individual balance between on-premise and in the cloud. Organizations with large on-premise databases don’t have to move to the cloud in a “big bang,” but can (for example) use SAP Data Warehouse Cloud to allow business users to extend the data provided by IT on-premise with their own data to conduct specialized reporting or analysis. This gives business users a cheap and flexible environment to conduct their individual analyses based on high quality, governed data from IT without interfering with the more stable IT backend systems. (Alternatively, an IT department can use SAP Data Warehouse Cloud to build new scenarios in the cloud—based on or combined with data they keep on-premise, allowing for an evolution into a full-fledged cloud data warehouse over time.)

Enabling business users to set up their own environments may be reminiscent of  the classic “shadow IT” dilemma. But this is far from shadow IT. As Stefan Hoffmann outlines here, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud eliminates the painful security, trust, data quality, and other issues that come with shadow IT. It provides a new model of collaboration between IT and the business, in which the business has the flexibility and independence it needs while IT maintains the centralized governance that prevents chaos.

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud makes that evolution a smooth transition or a smooth series of transitions. For organizations looking to ultimately migrate to the cloud, SAP gives the option of defining as many steps along the way as makes sense for that enterprise. There are many possible hybrid configurations between a pure on-premise environment and a pure cloud environment, and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud supports all of them. You can take it fast or take it slow. The move to the cloud can be as agile, as gradual, and as incremental—or as accelerated—as makes sense for your business.

Learn More

Learn more about intelligent data warehousing on the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud product page.