As enterprises modernize their data landscapes, integrating existing on-premise solutions with cloud platforms becomes critical for maximizing business value. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (SAP DWC) offers a flexible, scalable cloud data warehousing solution that can seamlessly integrate with SAP BW/4HANA — SAP’s powerful on-premise and private cloud data warehousing system.
This integration enables organizations to leverage their existing SAP BW/4HANA investments while expanding analytics capabilities in the cloud. This article explores how to effectively integrate SAP DWC with SAP BW/4HANA to build a unified, hybrid data warehouse environment.
- Preserve Existing Investments: SAP BW/4HANA houses critical historical and transactional data modeled with years of expertise.
- Enable Hybrid Architecture: Combine the strengths of on-premise data processing with the agility and innovation of cloud technologies.
- Accelerate Time-to-Insight: Provide business users with a unified view by blending BW data with other cloud and third-party data sources in SAP DWC.
- Simplify Data Management: Centralize governance and metadata management across environments.
SAP DWC supports connecting directly to SAP BW/4HANA via Remote Tables:
- Configure a secure connection using SAP HANA Cloud Smart Data Access (SDA) or ODBC.
- Access BW/4HANA InfoProviders (cubes, DSOs) as remote tables within SAP DWC.
- Query and consume live BW data without data replication, ensuring data freshness and minimizing storage needs.
- Extract data from SAP BW/4HANA using open OData or native SQL connectors.
- Use SAP DWC’s Data Flow feature to replicate and transform BW data into SAP DWC-managed tables.
- Enable scenario-specific transformations and data enrichment in SAP DWC for hybrid analytical models.
- Synchronize metadata models between SAP BW/4HANA and SAP DWC for consistency.
- Use SAP BW’s modeling capabilities to define complex data structures and expose them via SAP DWC semantic layers.
- Maintain alignment on business logic and calculations across environments.
- Direct connectivity provides real-time data access but may be subject to network latency.
- Data replication can improve query performance at the cost of storage and data freshness.
¶ Security and Governance
- Ensure consistent security policies across SAP BW/4HANA and SAP DWC.
- Leverage SAP’s role-based access controls and audit capabilities.
- Monitor data lineage to maintain compliance and traceability.
- Decide which data should remain in BW for operational efficiency versus which datasets benefit from cloud agility.
- Use SAP DWC’s modeling tools to blend BW data with external sources for comprehensive insights.
¶ Benefits of SAP DWC and SAP BW/4HANA Integration
- Unified Analytics Platform: Access and analyze data from multiple sources with a consistent user experience.
- Scalable Cloud Innovation: Take advantage of cloud-native features such as machine learning and advanced visualization.
- Reduced Complexity: Avoid unnecessary duplication by leveraging live data access or targeted replication.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Business and IT users can collaborate more effectively using SAP DWC’s business-friendly interfaces.
Integrating SAP Data Warehouse Cloud with SAP BW/4HANA offers organizations the best of both worlds—leveraging mature, enterprise-grade data warehousing with cloud-based flexibility and innovation. By adopting a hybrid approach, businesses can modernize their analytics landscape while preserving critical investments and ensuring seamless data governance.
With SAP’s native integration capabilities, enterprises can accelerate their digital transformation journeys, delivering faster, smarter, and more comprehensive insights to drive competitive advantage.