The Evolution of SAP Data & Analytics is Accelerating!

[pbaumann]

✳️ SAP BW was launched in 1997 - 28 years ago - with the idea of decoupling a reporting server for SAP data. Generations of todays experienced SAP BI consultants grow up with and learned about business content, transaction codes and building a data warehouse as a application. Later renewed on SAP NetWeaver and then becoming BW on HANA and BW/4HANA what is still the backbone of many SAP analytics activities in todays companies.

✳️ In 2019 SAP made the step into the cloud. Not the first try, and if someone remembers Project Blueberry, there had also been other ideas how to go this way. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC) brought Spaces, Python and simplified graphical modeling. For sure limited compared to other solution on the market, but better late than never - it was the right step.

✳️ In 2023 with the first SAP Unleashed event SAP renamed DWC to SAP Datasphere, celebrated the Business Data Fabric and went into a Open Partner Data Ecosystem with powerhouses like Collibra, Databricks and Confluent to deliver on the promise of the Modern Data Stack.

✳️ The last 2 years we had seen the optimization of the ecosystem and the maturing of SAP Datasphere on it's way to a strong cloud data solution. This year at the SAP Business Data Unleashed, the SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) was launched. BW as part of the solution, SAP Databricks, Data Products on the Data Lake(house) powered by AI and new features like elastic nodes, vector engine, evolution of the data marketplace or knowledge graph for SAP Datasphere.

👉 In customer talks I see that many companies currently rethinking already planed steps to BW/4HANA or SAP Datasphere as they first want to get a better understanding on the value of SAP BDC. Is it now the one and only way forward for you legacy BW landscape? Are you confued about the new possiblities? Do you have to learn Databricks now?

💬 Tell me about your impression...