SAP Data Warehouse Cloud: New Features in Q1 2021

The first quarter of 2021 has passed and this year’s first 6 versions of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud have been released with a bunch of new features. What’s in it for you? Here’s an overview of the most wanted features:

• the import of SAP BW/4HANA Models
• improved data provisioning agents
• enhancements in connection creation and new connection types
• new features in change management
• new Content packages

Here are the details:

Import of SAP BW/4HANA Models

With so many customers using SAP BW/4HANA we felt the need to integrate SAP BW/4HANA closely into SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. All the effort that you put into building a well-defined data persistency layer, and  a virtual and use-case driven layer on top now also has its use for  SAP Data Warehouse CLoud. By importing SAP BW/4HANA queries into SAP Data Warehouse Cloud Business users can not only use the SAP BW/4HANA queries, they can also automatically access the underlying InfoProvider and the involved master data entities. In the Business Builder, you simply import the query and then the entities in the Business Builder and the Data Builder get generated.

Enhanced Connection Creation and New Connection Types

And once again we have news about connections:

• Filtering: We introduced filtering capabilities in the connection creation wizard to assist you in more easily finding the suitable connection type for your use case.
• Enahnced properties: For dedicated connection types, we enhanced the range of connection properties which gives you more control about your connectivity setup.
• New connection types: We have new connection types that increase the scope of sources that you can use with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and which simplify connection creation.

Improved Data Provisioning Agents

Good news for Data Warehouse administrators:  We continuously improve the Data Provisioning Agent experience in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud:

• Pausing Real-Time Replication: Whenever you need to upgrade or patch your SAP HANA Smart Data Integration Data Provisioning agent, or you need to apply any changes to its configuration, you can do that without impacting your active real-time replications. Just pause real-time replication for all connections that use the agent all at once, apply the changes to your agent, and restart real-time replication.
• Filtering connection types: To assist you in finding the suitable connection type for creating a connection, you can now apply filters in the first step of the connection wizard.

Change Management

In the Data Builder, various new features support you in making changes to data entities that are used as sources by other objects: You can now

• replace sources in the Graphical View Editor
• delete a column in a table or view even if that column is used in views
• review and navigate to dependent objects of tables and views
• get a better overview on the object status

New Content Packages

These new content packages support you in implementing dashboards for different use cases:

• Finance for S/4HANA Cloud
• Statistical Process Control (SPC) Toolkit
• Procurement Analytics for SAP Ariba
• Telecommunication: Customer Value Management (CVM)

If you need an overview of all the features that have been released, read the what’s new information on the Help Portal:

https://help.sap.com/viewer/5a2cf6cf78ee4f03bbd49714d79d8559/cloud/en-US

If you rather watch and listen, watch the video on the highlights of Q1 2021 (including demos):

And last but not least you can watch my interview with Product Manager Jascha Kanngiesser, who tells us more about the import of SAP BW/4HANA models: