Technical Articles
Conversion to SAP Datasphere: Conversion Paths and Cloud Transformation Steps
Abstract
Innovate your IT landscape with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, which is SAP’s strategic target solution for all data warehousing use cases in the puplic cloud, in line with SAP’s data-to-value portfolio strategy. This blog post provides SAP BW and SAP BW/4HANA customers an overview of how existing on-premises investments can be converted to the cloud. More importantly, a Cloud Transformation Checklist which can be used when preparing the project and during the actual conversion to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. The checklist contains the various conversion paths (Shell- and Remote Conversion), and their individual steps in different tabs, including the corresponding SAP Notes. The checklist is in no way intended to replace a dedicated project plan, but rather to provide support for effort orientation. For initial project planning and rough structuring, it makes sense to think through all project parts one by one. Tip: Click on the figures of the individual project phases below for better readability.
Overview
SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is SAP’s strategic public cloud product for data warehousing. It improves agility, accelerates time-to-value, and unlocks innovation with unprecedented business user enablement, a new form of openness, and embedded partner offerings. Looking at conversion, SAP offers the possibility of a tool-supported move of SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA investments to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge (see figure 1). SAP BW bridge is a feature of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, that provides a path to the public cloud for SAP BW and SAP BW/4HANA customers. It enables connectivity and business content via proven SAP BW-based data integration (extractors) from SAP source systems. In addition, it provides staging layers of SAP BW to manage data loads (including deltas) with partitioning, monitoring, and error handling. This allows customers to leverage their existing SAP BW skills and protect their SAP BW investments in the public cloud. For more information about SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge, check out the announcement blog post and the detailed blog post. Note: SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge is not a full SAP BW/4HANA component within SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. See SAP Note 3117800 for feature scope of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge.
Figure 1: SAP BW to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud
Figure 2: Conversion Paths
SAP provides a Pre-Check Tool (see SAP Note 2575059) that identifies important steps customers need to take to ensure their system is compatible with the conversion process. The tool determines which objects are compatible with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge and which objects are not available in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge. In addition, it checks which objects can be automatically converted, deleted, or need manual adjustments (see figure 2).
Figure 3: Conversion Overview
Regardless of the type of conversion (see figure 3), the Simplification List (currently in preparation, see SAP Note 3154420) and the Conversion Guide are suitable as a starting point. The Simplification List describes in detail, on a functional level, what happens to individual data models and objects in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge. The individual Notes explain what needs to be done in the conversion process. The Conversion Guide is the end-to-end documentation of a conversion to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge. Note: There is an individual Conversion Guide for the Shell Conversion (see Link) and an individual Conversion Runbook for the Remote Conversion (see Link).
Shell Conversion to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud
Shell Conversion: General Sequence
Figure 4: Shell Conversion – General Sequence
Shell Conversion (see figure 4) is offered by SAP to convert an SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA system into SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. It does not include the transfer and synchronization of existing data sets. Instead, customers can choose to load data from original sources, load data from the sender SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA system, or simply ignore historical data and start fresh. For SAP BW systems on releases from 7.30 to 7.50 (running on SAP HANA or Any-DB) and SAP BW/4HANA 2021, a shell conversion can be performed.
Shell Conversion: (T1) System Requirements
Shell Conversion: (T2) Pre-Checks
Shell Conversion: (T3) Custom Code Check
Shell Conversion: (T4) System Provisioning
Shell Conversion: (T5) Shell Transfer
Shell Conversion: (T6) Post Conversion Tasks
Shell Conversion: (T7) SAP Data Warehouse Cloud Core Tasks
Shell Conversion: (T8) Go-Live
Remote Conversion to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud
Remote Conversion: General Sequence
Figure 5: Remote Conversion – General Sequence
Remote Conversion (see figure 5) is offered by SAP to convert an SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA system into SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. It enables customers to move whole data flows or transfer only selected data flows including data. Customers are able to decide whether they want to build a clean system, leave old and unused objects behind. For SAP BW systems on releases from 7.30 to 7.50 (running on SAP HANA or Any-DB), a remote conversion can be performed. SAP BW/4HANA 2021 as a sender system in a Remote Conversion will be possible soon.
Remote Conversion: (T1) System Requirements
Remote Conversion: (T2) Pre-Checks
Remote Conversion: (T3) Custom Code Check
Remote Conversion: (T4) System Provisioning
Remote Conversion: (T5) Remote Transfer
Remote Conversion: (T6) Post Conversion Tasks
Remote Conversion: (T7) SAP Data Warehouse Cloud Core Tasks
Remote Conversion: (T8) Go-Live
Summary
SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge, helps to accelerate the transition to cloud data warehousing while protecting previous and new investments in the cloud. In fact, the value of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is clearly recognized by many SAP customers. However, customers want a smooth conversion path to secure their investments in SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA. Converting an SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA system to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud does not happen in one go. It is therefore essential to understand and deal with the differences between SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge. Indeed, customers should carefully analyze their existing system, estimate the complexity and duration of the required tasks, as well as properly plan all conversion activities. If customers manage it correctly, their conversion to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud will be very successful.
SAP offers a Conversion Execution Service for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. With the conversion execution service for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, customers can accelerate their move from an existing SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA system to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. In addition, the course “SAP Data Warehouse Cloud: SAP BW Bridge” (DWCBW1) is available at SAP Education, see also the dedicated blog post for this SAP training. Find further information to get started with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and check out Best Practices in the Community for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. Customers will find more information about what is new or changed with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge on the SAP Help Portal: New Features and Changes in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge.
Please let me know, if you have any specific question. SAP’s Experts from SAP Data Warehouse Product Management & Strategy, and SAP Data Warehouse Development are involved in this topic.
Thank you to my colleagues Udo, Dominik, Konstantinos and Klaus-Peter for their support.
Best regards,
Deniz
Thanks, I great post. you made a complex topic easy to understand.
😉
Hi Deniz,
very interesting blog post, thank you!
When will the remote conversion approach be available exactly?
Does this approach require DMIS add-on somewhere? And if yes, what are the implications on license costs?
Regards - Frank
Hello Frank Riesner
Remote Conversion always uses the DMIS Add-On as prerequisite and you know the implication: You never get rid of it ...
So the Shell Conversion, Is the was I would use. Furthermore, despite the Bridge is available for SAP BW System Version 7.x, a conversion to SAP BW/4 2021 would be preferred as well, as you don't want to loose existing Functionality and the conversion journey to SAP DWC could bring more complexity which is not foreseen, yet.
Best Regards Roland
Hello Frank,
Thanks for your interest and your feedback. I hope the blog post is helpful.
Kind regards,
Deniz
Great Blog Deniz Osoy
Thanks for putting all this together Deniz Osoy!
Nice blog.
Best,
Adem
Thanks for this great blog, Deniz!
Wow, high quality content as always from you Deniz and colleagues! Appreciate your effort!
Hi Deniz,
Very useful technical info. Thanks for sharing.
Regarding shell conversion for BI 7.0 to DWC, is that still on cards for Q3 release.
For customers, who are on version 7.0, upgrading to 7.3 for shell conversion becomes an additional effort and cost,
Please advise.
Thanks
Best Regards
Poshan
Hi Poshan,
Thank you very much for your feedback and your interest.
For the time being, it is not planned that a transfer from SAP BW 7.0 to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge will be possible (the XML transfer does not work here). SAP BW 7.30 to 7.50 (on SAP HANA or Any-DB), and SAP BW/4HANA 2021 can be considered as sender system for a transfer to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge.
Best regards,
Deniz
Thanks for clarifying Deniz. Appreciate your response.
Very informative and comprehensive blog.
Thanks, Deniz!
Great blog.
What with customers who already use AMDP in their transformations? BW Bridge only supports ABAP ...
Hi Koen Van Dijck,
thanks for your feedback and your interest.
In fact, AMDPs are also supported in SAP BW bridge. Customers can create ABAP code according to SAP BTP ABAP environment coding conventions for custom-logic transformations in SAP BW bridge. Transformations can generally be executed either in SAP HANA runtime or ABAP runtime depending on the feature set and programming language used. If the transformation is executed in SAP HANA runtime then AMPDs are executable via SAP HANA Script.
Best regards,
Deniz
Hi Deniz,
Thanks for the excellent blog!
Is there a Cloud Transformation Checklist (or links to a blog) for a new implementation on SAP Data Warehouse Cloud as well?
A client's SAP BW system still contains 3.x and 7.x objects together with BW4/Hana objects and I was wondering if it would be less stressful to try and convert old objects and just develop everything in native Data Warehouse Cloud from the beginning?
Thanks,
Regards
C Faurie
Hello Cornelius,
Thank you for your feedback and your interest.
Currently, we don't have such a checklist for the Greenfield only SAP DWC Core approach.
Best regards,
Deniz
Thanks very much Deniz, noted. Do you know if such a checklist will be made available and if so, when?
Kind regards
C Faurie
Hi Cornelius,
currently such a checklist is not planned.
Best regards,
Deniz
Hi,
In your figure 1 you have written like Migration,Conversion*. Is migration & conversion refer to same thing OR there is some difference between them.
Hello Nishant,
In this case it is actually both.
The term "migration" is used when we talk about a database switch. For example from anyDB to SAP HANA.
It is also a conversion because the BW objects need to be converted/transferred to BW Bridge compatible objects, e. g. cube to advanced DSO, multiprovider to composite provider, etc.
Best Regards,
Eduard
Hi Nishant,
Thank you for your question and your interest. I think the answer given by my colleague Eduard should now be clarifying.
Best regards,
Deniz
Hi,
we're going to convert our SAP BW 7.4 to SAP Datasphere using BW Bridge ( most probably doing a shell conversion ).
At the moment, we only have a productive tenant of SAP Datasphere/BW bridge (later we should have also a development tenant). We need to do some tests on the productive tenant (the only one available at the moment) on how shell conversion works (i.e. converting some objects/dataflows from BW Development) before starting with actual conversion from BW Production.
Anyway we don't know if it makes sense or it's possible to do given that:
Thanks in advance.
Regards.
Roberto
Hi Roberto,
thank you for your interest and the questions.
#1 You are right. You cannot use a productive tenant for development/testing. So as you mentioned, the only solution is to wait the availability of dev tenant and do the test there.
#2 If you want to reset a tenant, you have to delete it and create it again - or delete the relevant objects one by one (in the right order). You can also reset a shell conversion tasklist using the report RS_B4HANA_TRANSFER_REM_RESET as documented in 5.3.1 in the Shell Conversion Guide.
All the best with the conversion. My colleagues from the SAP HANA Competence Center and I will gladly assist you if you have any further questions.
Best regards,
Deniz