SAP HANA, as a high-performance in-memory database, serves as the foundation for many enterprises’ data-driven strategies. To fully leverage SAP HANA’s real-time data processing capabilities, integrating it with SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) enables users to create dynamic visualizations, dashboards, and advanced analytics — all within a unified cloud environment.
This article explores how SAP HANA integrates with SAP Analytics Cloud, highlighting connection methods, benefits, and best practices.
SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform that combines data visualization, planning, and predictive analytics in one solution. It provides users with intuitive tools to explore live data, create reports, and collaborate in real time.
- Real-Time Analytics: Connect to SAP HANA’s live data to generate up-to-date insights without data replication.
- Single Source of Truth: Direct access to SAP HANA ensures consistency and accuracy in reporting.
- Advanced Analytics: Leverage SAC’s built-in predictive analytics and planning capabilities using SAP HANA data.
- Simplified Architecture: Eliminate the need for intermediate data storage layers, reducing latency.
- Live Data Connection allows SAC to query SAP HANA directly via SAP HANA Smart Data Access (SDA) or OData services.
- It provides real-time data access without importing or duplicating data into SAC.
- Ideal for operational reporting and dashboards requiring current data.
Setup Steps:
- In SAC, create a new connection selecting SAP HANA Live Data.
- Provide SAP HANA server details, user credentials, and specify the calculation views or tables to expose.
- Use SAP HANA calculation views as data sources to optimize performance and modeling.
- Imports data from SAP HANA into SAC for offline analysis.
- Useful when users need to perform extensive data manipulation or when network connectivity is limited.
- Requires scheduled refreshes to keep data current.
¶ Best Practices for SAP HANA and SAC Integration
- Model Data in SAP HANA: Prepare and optimize calculation views with necessary business logic and aggregations before connecting to SAC.
- Use Calculation Views for Data Access: Calculation views serve as semantic layers, ensuring SAC accesses well-structured and performant datasets.
- Limit Data Volume: Use filters and parameters in calculation views to reduce the data footprint and improve SAC responsiveness.
- Security Alignment: Implement row-level and object-level security in SAP HANA to control data visibility in SAC.
- Monitor Performance: Use SAP HANA tools like PlanViz to optimize queries executed via SAC.
- Agility: Business users can build and adjust dashboards quickly using live SAP HANA data.
- Scalability: Leverages SAP HANA’s in-memory processing for complex analytics at scale.
- Unified User Experience: SAC’s intuitive interface enables users to explore data from SAP HANA seamlessly.
- Cost Efficiency: Reduces the need for additional data warehousing or ETL processes.
Integrating SAP HANA with SAP Analytics Cloud empowers organizations to harness real-time insights from their core transactional data. By connecting SAC directly to SAP HANA, businesses unlock faster decision-making, richer analytics, and a more agile reporting environment.
Mastering this integration is essential for SAP professionals aiming to deliver cutting-edge analytics solutions within the SAP ecosystem.