SAP Datasphere: Overview and Architecture

SAP launched Datasphere on 8^th March 2023; well, I would say they rebranded the existing SAP DWC (Data Warehouse cloud). It is evolution of SAP DWC and include new features like Global Catalog, Advance Analytic model and has an embedded SAP Data Intelligence.

In today’s data-driven world, businesses of all sizes are faced with the challenge of managing and making sense of large volumes of data from various sources. This is where SAP Datasphere comes in, a cloud-based data management platform. SAP Datasphere offer a seamless access to your data, independently of where it is stored.

SAP Data Sphere, a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solution for managing and analyzing data.  With Integrated tools and data governance and Self-service analytics, you can easily cleanse, enrich, and visualize your data.

In this blog post, we’ll look at SAP Datasphere architecture, features, and benefits

SAP Datasphere:

SAP Datasphere is a solution that will help you to optimize your business processes so you can act faster and more successfully. SAP Datasphere follows a federation first approach – meaning you leave data where it resides, build your models, and later decide whether you want to replicate full tables, create view persistence’s to cater for source system workload, data egress, and performance towards the end user.

SAP Datasphere

SAP Datasphere enables a business data fabric architecture that brings together mission-critical data throughout the organization, allowing business experts to make the most impactful decisions. It supports data integration, cataloging, semantic modeling, data-warehousing, and virtualizing workloads for SAP and non-SAP data. It supports insights on real-time data across clouds and on-premises systems. It is not required to move the data to another data store layer which in turn simplifies your landscape.

SAP announced four strategic new partnerships to support the idea of a Business Data Fabric and to better support the integration of non-SAP data in a unified usage context. These partnerships expand SAP Datasphere and enable companies to build a unified data architecture that securely brings together SAP and third-party data.

Databricks – Integrates SAP Data, with its complete context, with Data Bricks Data Lakehouse platform

Collibra – Future proof data Governance, privacy, and compliance initiative

Confluent – Sets data in motion with its data streaming platform

DataRobot – Empowers organization to leverage augmented intelligence with automated Machine learning

SAP Datasphere Architecture:

SAP Datasphere is based on the SAP HANA Cloud and follows a clear DWaaS (Data Warehouse as a Service) approach in the public cloud with very fast release cycles.

SAP Datasphere Architecture

Following are the components of SAP Datasphere Architecture:

Space Management:

A space is like a small data warehouse for a specific business segment. It is a secure area created by the administrator in which member can acquire, prepare, and model data. Administrator can allocate disc and in-memory storage. Though we may have separate Space, they can be accessed by users to collaborate without having to worry about shearing the data. Example – Master Data only needs to be modeled once and can be accessed or used by several departments. Space creation is the starting point before you can build your model or stories

Note:

Only administrators can create spaces, allocate storage, and set the space priority and statement limits. The remaining space properties can be managed by the space administrators that the administrator assigns as members to the space.

Data Integration and Data Flow

SAP Datasphere can access data from wide range of source, both on premise and cloud or SAP and Non-SAP source and tools. Below connection types are available in SAP Datasphere:

Connection in SAP Datasphere

You can configure the connection parameter for the selected connection type and provide the Name and description. SAP recommends going through the how-to-paper by SAP – SAP: First Guidance: Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud – First Guidance: Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems

Each connection type support sets of features. At a high level a connection can have one of the following features:

Remote Table

You can import the source table directly or create a view on the tables. During import, the tables are deployed as remote table and you can access the data directly from source, get a snapshot or schedule replication or copy data change in real time (real-time replication)

Data Flows

The data flow feature supports building data flows. After you have created a connection, in the data flow editor of the Data Builder a modeler can add a source object from the connection to a data flow to integrate and transform your data. SAP Datasphere Data Flow functionality enables the definition of more advanced Extraction-Transformation-Load (ETL)  flows that complement existing data federation and replication services. One can use the standard transformation with no programing knowledge , but also provide functionality of creating transformation based on scripts.

External Tools

SAP Datasphere is open to SAP and non-SAP tools to integrate data to SAP Datasphere.

Model Import

The model import is a special feature for SAP BW/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud as a source. It supports importing meta data instead of having to rebuild them manually. After you have created a connection, from the entry page of the Business Builder a modeler can import source meta data from the connection.

Data builder:

Create views and tables to prepare data for your stories and use entity-relationship models to visualize and make associations between artifacts.

Data Builder

SAP Datasphere provides an editor to model Data Builder artifacts in a user-friendly graphical interface. You can drag and drop objects , join them as appropriate, add other operators to remove or create columns and filter or aggregate data, and specify measures and other aspects of your output structure in the output node. It is possible to preview the data in your tables and views and the data output can be viewed at each of the nodes when working in graphical interface.

You can share the object with other space, save and deploy the object and release the object to be consumed by SAP Analytics cloud and in other analytics clients and ETL tools.

Please refer the below link for analytics model in SAP Datasphere:

Introducing the Analytic Model in SAP Datasphere

SAP Help – Creating an Analytic Model

Business builder:

The SAP Datasphere Business Builder is the designated tool for modeling the objects of the Business Layer. Create business entities and fact models as the foundation for consumption models and protect them by creating authorization scenarios. Business users can define business models in the Business Builder, which are separate from the physical Data Layer. They create their models top down and map them to the Data Layer.

Business Builder

Dimension and analytics dataset are the business entities. They can define measure and attribute and the source is the view or table that is created in the Data builder.

Fact models define an array on measure, attribute and filters that are relevant to a specific business context. They can be reused in the several use cases within a business context.

Consumption models are the basis data consumption that rely on Dimension, Analytics dataset and Fact models which have some element of consumption model already pre-defined. Perspectives are the core part of consumption models and define the final interface toward consumption in SAP analytics cloud.

Authorization Scenarios define which scenario is relevant to a user’s context. They can be used in consumption model to control row level data access

Administration and Security:

Manage settings on system level, such as connectivity and data integration settings, security, auditing, and monitoring settings. Manage self-service IP allow lists, database access, and others. Define security on all layers. Manage access on tenant, functional, and space level, and configure secure connectivity to sources. Manage data access by defining row-level security on data and business layer.

Business Catalog:

Access, maintain, and manage all objects in your system based on provided tools. Please refer the below link for the SAP Datasphere catalog details:

Unlock the full potential of your enterprise data with SAP Datasphere Catalog

Business Content:

A large set of SAP delivered, and partner managed content is available to accelerate application development.

Business Content

SAP sample content for FI, HR and SD is available. Pre-built content is also available as seen below:

SAP Datasphere Sample Content

Standard Business Content

3rd party contents are also available and might be associated with additional cost.

Consumption:

In SAP Datasphere , together with SAP Analytics Cloud , you will have the possibility to combine your data sources and extract insights from them based on stories. There are several ways to visualize data from SAP Datasphere in SAP Analytics Cloud. If you already have an SAP Analytics Cloud system you can use a live connection to connect with Datasphere.

How to Connect SAP Analytics cloud and SAP Datasphere/DWC

Summary:

One of the key benefits of SAP Datasphere is its ease of use. Its intuitive interface and simplified workflows make it easy for users of all skill levels to collect, integrate, and analyze data. Plus, with its cloud-based deployment, there’s no need to worry about setting up and maintaining infrastructure – it’s all taken care of for you! Datasphere is also highly scalable, which means it can handle large amounts of data without compromising performance. Datasphere provides robust data security features, including data encryption, access controls, and compliance certifications, so you can be sure your data is always safe and secure.

Overall, SAP Datasphere is a powerful and flexible solution for data warehousing and advanced analytics. With its ease of use, scalability, and advanced analytics capabilities, it’s the perfect solution for organizations of all sizes that want to make the most of their data.

In conclusion, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud provides organizations with a powerful and flexible platform for data warehousing and advanced analytics. With its intuitive user interface, robust data management capabilities, and advanced analytics features, SAP Datasphere can help businesses unlock the value of their data and drive growth.

Wrap up:

Thanks for taking the time to read this article on SAP Datasphere. I am excited to have explored the Datasphere and hopefully it helped you with the overview of Datasphere Architecture and the associated main components. I will come up with blogs on BW Bridge and how we can connect SAP Datasphere with BW4HANA, S4HANA, GCP, AWS, 3rd party reporting tools etc.

Free trial Account:

I would recommend you to try out SAP Datasphere using the free trial account.

• Guided Experience:

SAP Datasphere Free Trial

• Access via SAP BTP:

You need to Register with SAP BTP first and then subscribe to Pay-As-You-Go with $0 (will need Credit Card). Login to the new BTP link sheared in the email and create a sub-account. Add the entitlement for SAP Datasphere and create SAP Datasphere instance to access the SAP Datasphere

Get Ready for Your SAP Datasphere Trial Mission with BTP

Further Reading:

New Capabilities of SAP datasphere

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/03/15/exploring-the-new-capabilities-of-sap-datasphere-for-unleashing-the-power-of-data/

SAP Datasphere Q&A:

https://community.sap.com/topics/data-warehouse-cloud/datasphere-faq

What’s New is SAP Datasphere:

https://help.sap.com/whats-new/48017b2cc4834fc6b6cae87097bd9e4d?locale=en-US

SAP Datasphere Naming Convention:

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/03/14/sap-datasphere-naming-convention-in-action/