Data modeling is a cornerstone of SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW), shaping how business data is structured, stored, and accessed for reporting and analytics. While traditional modeling techniques involve physically loading and storing data in InfoProviders, advanced techniques such as Virtual Providers allow for more flexible, real-time access to data without physical storage.
This article dives into advanced data modeling techniques in SAP BW with a focus on Virtual Providers, exploring their architecture, use cases, advantages, and best practices.
A Virtual Provider is a type of InfoProvider in SAP BW that enables on-demand access to data from source systems or external databases without persisting the data inside the BW system. Unlike InfoCubes or DataStore Objects (DSOs), Virtual Providers do not store data physically; instead, they dynamically retrieve data during query execution.
SAP BW supports different types of Virtual Providers, including:
- Virtual InfoProvider (V-InfoProvider): Connects to external sources like SAP ERP via remote function calls (RFC) or ODP (Operational Data Provisioning).
- CompositeProvider with Virtual Joins: Combines data from different sources virtually without physical data replication.
- Open ODS Views: A newer type of virtual provider in SAP BW/4HANA that supports direct access to external data sources using SQL.
- ABAP-based Virtual Providers: Custom implementations using ABAP code to deliver data dynamically.
- Real-Time Data Access: Provides up-to-date information directly from source systems without latency caused by data replication.
- Reduced Data Storage: Saves BW system storage as data is not duplicated.
- Faster Modeling and Deployment: Eliminates time-consuming data load processes.
- Flexibility: Allows combining multiple data sources virtually for more comprehensive analytics.
- Cost Efficiency: Minimizes infrastructure costs related to storage and batch processing.
- Real-Time Reporting: Scenarios requiring up-to-the-minute data, such as operational dashboards.
- Data Integration from Multiple Systems: Combining SAP and non-SAP data without complex ETL.
- Prototyping and Ad-hoc Analysis: Quickly modeling new data sources without full integration.
- Large Data Volumes: Avoiding storage of very large data sets that can be accessed remotely.
- Performance Considerations: Since queries run in real-time against source systems, optimize source-side indexes and filters to reduce response times.
- Data Security: Ensure consistent authorization management across BW and source systems.
- Limit Complex Transformations: Perform complex data cleansing or calculations in source systems or subsequent BW layers to improve query performance.
- Use in Combination with CompositeProviders: Combine virtual and persistent InfoProviders for hybrid scenarios balancing performance and flexibility.
- Monitor Query Runtime: Continuously monitor and tune query execution to avoid performance bottlenecks.
Virtual Providers represent a powerful advanced data modeling technique in SAP BW, enabling flexible, real-time data access without the overhead of physical data storage. By leveraging Virtual Providers, organizations can accelerate reporting, reduce system load, and integrate diverse data sources more efficiently.
For companies embracing SAP BW/4HANA, Virtual Providers and Open ODS Views form essential building blocks in modern data architectures. If you want, I can assist you with hands-on examples of Virtual Provider setup or guide you on designing hybrid models combining virtual and persistent data sources.