In today’s interconnected enterprise ecosystems, data is a critical asset that drives innovation and competitive advantage. Organizations increasingly operate across diverse systems, cloud environments, and partner networks. To unlock the full potential of their data, they must adopt effective data sharing strategies that span not only internal landscapes but also external platforms. SAP Datasphere, as SAP’s flagship cloud data management and warehousing solution, offers robust capabilities for data sharing that extend seamlessly beyond its own environment.
This article explores strategic approaches for sharing data across SAP Datasphere and external platforms, focusing on best practices, technology enablers, and governance considerations essential for modern enterprises.
SAP Datasphere centralizes and harmonizes data from SAP and non-SAP sources, creating a unified semantic layer. However, business ecosystems are rarely isolated. Data consumers such as partners, subsidiaries, and analytics vendors often reside outside the SAP landscape.
Reasons for sharing data beyond SAP Datasphere include:
SAP Datasphere supports native data sharing capabilities, allowing organizations to expose data models and datasets to other SAP Datasphere tenants or users securely without data replication.
Rather than physically moving data, SAP Datasphere enables federated queries across external data sources like SAP HANA Cloud, AWS S3 data lakes, or third-party warehouses (Snowflake, Azure Synapse).
For external platforms that do not support direct federation or native connectivity, data can be exported via APIs, flat files, or ETL pipelines.
Expose business-friendly views and models rather than raw tables. This approach enhances data usability for external consumers and maintains consistency in definitions.
Utilize SAP Datasphere’s RESTful APIs and connectors for smooth integration with external data platforms and applications.
Federated queries can introduce latency; therefore, monitor query performance and optimize data models to ensure efficient access.
Formalize data sharing through agreements specifying usage rights, data refresh schedules, security standards, and liabilities.
A global retailer uses SAP Datasphere to unify data from SAP ERP, online sales, and inventory systems. They share aggregated, cleansed datasets with a third-party AI platform hosted on AWS for demand forecasting. Using federation and API-based data sharing, the retailer maintains data sovereignty and governance while enabling advanced analytics to improve supply chain responsiveness.
Effective data sharing strategies are vital for maximizing the value of data assets across organizational and technological boundaries. SAP Datasphere provides flexible, secure, and governed methods to share data within SAP environments and across external platforms. By combining direct sharing, federation, and integration approaches with strong governance, enterprises can foster collaboration, innovation, and compliance in today’s complex data ecosystems.