As enterprises deal with an ever-growing volume and variety of data, modern data orchestration and integration tools become essential for effective data management. SAP Data Hub (now part of SAP Data Intelligence) is a powerful solution designed to orchestrate, govern, and integrate data across diverse landscapes—cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments.
Integrating SAP BW/4HANA with SAP Data Hub unlocks new capabilities, allowing organizations to streamline data pipelines, leverage diverse data sources, and enhance analytics agility. This article explores the integration approach, benefits, and best practices for combining SAP BW/4HANA with SAP Data Hub.
SAP Data Hub is a comprehensive data orchestration platform that enables:
- Data integration from multiple sources including SAP and non-SAP systems
- Data pipeline automation and scheduling
- Metadata management and data governance
- Machine learning and advanced analytics integration
- Support for hybrid cloud and on-premise scenarios
It provides a unified platform to connect disparate data silos, making data accessible and usable for advanced analytics and reporting.
SAP BW/4HANA is a robust enterprise data warehouse optimized for SAP HANA, focusing on structured, curated data for business intelligence. Meanwhile, SAP Data Hub excels in orchestrating data flows and managing complex data pipelines from heterogeneous sources.
Integrating both solutions provides:
- End-to-End Data Management: Orchestrate data ingestion, transformation, and delivery pipelines feeding BW/4HANA.
- Access to Diverse Data Sources: Seamlessly integrate big data, IoT, streaming data, and cloud sources into BW/4HANA workflows.
- Improved Data Governance: Maintain metadata consistency and lineage across the data lifecycle.
- Enhanced Agility: Automate data workflows and accelerate time-to-insight.
The integration typically involves these components:
- SAP Data Hub Pipelines: Define data workflows that extract, transform, and load data from various sources.
- SAP BW/4HANA Data Targets: Receive cleansed, transformed data for storage and analysis.
- Metadata Synchronization: Align metadata models between Data Hub and BW/4HANA for consistency.
- Connectivity: Use adapters and connectors such as ODP (Operational Data Provisioning), ODBC, or REST APIs for communication.
- Configure secure and reliable connectivity between SAP Data Hub and SAP BW/4HANA systems.
- Set up adapters for SAP BW extraction and loading technologies, e.g., ODP.
- Use SAP Data Hub’s visual pipeline designer to orchestrate data flows.
- Integrate data from multiple sources, apply cleansing, transformation, and enrichment.
- Deliver processed data into BW/4HANA InfoProviders like aDSOs or CompositeProviders.
- Use optimized load processes and monitor data transfer performance.
- Ensure metadata consistency by aligning data definitions in both systems.
- Track data lineage and apply governance policies using SAP Data Hub’s metadata management.
¶ 5. Monitor and Optimize
- Use monitoring tools in both SAP Data Hub and BW/4HANA to track pipeline health and query performance.
- Optimize pipelines and data models based on insights from monitoring.
- Start with Pilot Projects: Validate integration design with smaller datasets and workflows.
- Leverage SAP Best Practices: Follow SAP guidelines for connectivity, data modeling, and security.
- Automate Workflows: Use SAP Data Hub’s scheduling and automation features to reduce manual intervention.
- Implement Strong Security: Protect data in transit and at rest, using encryption and secure access controls.
- Focus on Metadata Management: Maintain a single source of truth for data definitions and lineage.
Integrating SAP BW/4HANA with SAP Data Hub equips enterprises with a powerful, flexible, and governed data architecture capable of handling modern data challenges. This integration not only streamlines data orchestration but also extends the analytical reach of SAP BW/4HANA by leveraging diverse data sources and advanced processing capabilities.
By combining SAP BW/4HANA’s enterprise data warehousing strengths with SAP Data Hub’s orchestration prowess, organizations can accelerate data-driven decision-making and build future-ready analytics platforms.