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AlinaNovosolova
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
3,098
Data is the new currency of the digital economy, and data providers are at the heart of it.

Data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud gives data providers a way to monetize their data and distribute their offerings to all kinds of companies – large enterprises, small businesses, startups – who need smart data to power their digital transformation journey.

This blog post

  • provides an overview of the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (for an in-depth overview of the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud - check Oliver Huth's blog)

  • describes the benefits and ways for data providers to publish their data to the data marketplace

  • explains the role of startups to create listings in the data marketplace through SAP.iO.


We interviewed oliver.herms, Program Lead of data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, about how companies can harness the enormous potential of the data that their business generates and monetize their data products on the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, reaching more than 400 000 SAP customers.

In the next part of the blog, I will share with you a step-by-step guide on how a data provider can self-publish their data product on the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.

In the next part of the blog, I will provide step-by-step guide on how a data provider can self-publish their data product on the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.

Table of contents

  1. What is SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and what is its strategic role in the SAP solution portfolio?

  2. Difference between SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC) and SAP Business Warehouse (BW)

  3. How extensive is the customer base of SAP Business Warehouse and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud? What typ...

  4. What is the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud?

  5. What are the advantages of external data and what pain does the data marketplace for SAP Data Wareh...

  6. Benefits for data providers to create and share their data products on the data marketplace

  7. Do data providers need to have SAP Data Warehouse Cloud tenant to put their data products in the da...

  8. What does the architecture and main components of the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud...

  9. Role of Start-Ups on the data marketplace and onboarding via SAP.iO

  10. Commercial journey for startups to be listed on the data marketplace

  11. Is it possible for data providers to act simultaneously as data consumers?

  12. Can a data provider adapt one data product for different users?

  13. Relation of the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud to SAP Analytics Cloud


1. What is SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and what is its strategic role in the SAP solution portfolio?


SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is a comprehensive, end-to-end data platform that provides high availability and flexibility to meet the demands of data warehousing and analytics. It enables enterprises to accelerate time-to-value, optimize IT investments and simplify cloud adoption. With SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP customers can:

  1. Build an agile analytics environment with the best in class BI tools on any device.

  2. Access data on-premise or in the cloud.

  3. Consolidate databases and integrate new sources as needed.

  4. Automatically sync data between multiple copies for high availability.

  5. Take advantage of built-in insights using machine learning technologies.


oliver.herms: “SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is part of the SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform), the strategic layout for customers to manage and consolidate their data from all the sources they have in order to have a central access layer for analytics, machine learning, and planning.

SAP has seen the relevance in developing SAP Data Warehouse Cloud due to the different reasons:

  • First, it’s a demand from an existing on-premise data warehousing customer base. We have more than 5000 SAP Analytics Cloud customers and they have more and more data demands for the analytics use cases, that can be performed from the speed and volume point of view exceptionally in the cloud.

  • Second, it’s a general shift to the cloud to leverage benefits like elasticity, scalability, sustainability, and noticeable cost reduction.
    Nowadays, all the companies are made up of people who want to work with data, so we didn’t just take our existing business warehouse and put it into the cloud, but have developed a new solution that should enable anyone in an organization to interact with data - some do the entire data value chain and some just get the data and use it.”


2. Difference between SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC) and SAP Business Warehouse (BW)



SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. Architecture. Source: SAP SE


SAP Business Warehouse is a powerful data warehouse and data mining solution for SAP customers, allowing companies to manage all their data in one place. It provides analytics and reporting features for business intelligence purposes and also contains a variety of enterprise management capabilities.

However, if you are looking for a cloud-based solution then SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is the answer. It is a cloud-based data warehouse that offers a wide range of features including – scalability, high availability, flexibility to scale up or down, plus support for more diverse workloads with increased efficiency and performance.

Here are some general points to understand what SAP Business Warehouse (BW) vs. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC) means:

  • Both solutions can work together to handle all aspects of customers’ analytics needs.

  • SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is optimized for both OLAP (online analytical processing) and OLTP (online transaction processing) workloads while BW only handles OLAP workloads.


oliver.herms: “It's essential to understand that SAP develops the on-premise SAP Business Warehouse and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud from one team. This means that these are not two alternative solutions, but fully integrated products in the SAP data warehousing portfolio that allow customers to take advantage of both and get the most out of them.

While many customers still have most of their data stored on-premise, the cloud is where you can leverage new technologies - elasticity, machine learning, data sharing capabilities, things that you couldn't realize in an on-premise scenario that we had 30 years back when we started with SAP Business Warehouse.

The most important thing for our customers is that there's a link between SAP Business Warehouse and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, so while the one is on-premise, the other is in the public cloud, we know that our more than 30,000 Business Warehouse customers have a desire to go to the cloud and that's why we have a bridge, which links these two products.

There are two integration options:

  • First, customers can have a more loosely coupled integration with the so-called moderate transfer. It takes existing investments and especially semantic investments that SAP clients have done over the year in the Business Warehouse and connects to the Data Warehouse Cloud to transfer all the existing data from SAP Business Warehouse and then extend it inside SAP Data Warehouse Cl That is what we introduced at the end of last year.

  • We also have a dedicated migration path for BW customers with the so-called SAP BW Bridge. In simple terms, you can take your SAP Business Warehouse and put it inside SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, and operate your existing BW further. You can also shut off your on-premise installation but keep your artifacts and run them inside SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and use your Business Warehouse as a native source in the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.


So, SAP Business Warehouse and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud are two different products, but both of them have a roadmap in the cloud, and are often used together in a bundle, complementing each other.”

3. How extensive is the customer base of SAP Business Warehouse and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud? What types of data and analytics do customers typically use with SAP Business Warehouse / SAP Data Warehouse Cloud / SAP Analytics Cloud?


oliver.herms: “As I pointed out in the previous answers, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud has a clear direction to address a larger share of users in an organization - It's not just for programmers and IT staff, but for any business user, analyst, and business owner. All of these target groups see the enormous potential of having customer, product, and finance data in one place.

That is why the customer base of the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is growing and it's basically comprised of two groups of users:

  • On the one hand, it is the existing SAP Business Warehouse customers who have the intention to move in the cloud and no longer consider their investment strategy on-premise. For them, we develop strategic and technical ways to switch to the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud with SAP BW Bridge or in a hybrid way. There are also more than 400,000 SAP customers who use other SAP products (not just SAP Business Warehouse) and need an integrated solution for data warehousing, analytics, business intelligence.

  • On the other hand, there is a great interest in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud from the customers who didn’t use SAP Business Warehouse before. These users need to first get their skin in the game and connect their data and business processes in one place. New SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customers clearly see the business challenge they want to solve and choose SAP Data Warehouse Cloud as a comprehensive solution. “


4. What is the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud?



Data Sharing and Shopping in SAP’S Data and Analytics Portfolio. Source: SAP SE


The Data Marketplace enables to buy, sell & use data in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. It goes in line with the SAP Business Technology Platform, bringing benefits for all three target groups: customers, partners, SAP.

With the Data Marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, customers can access data in clicks, not projects to focus on value-adding data tasks:

  1. In-App Data Discovery Experience for a transparent evaluation of more than 100 Data Providers & 3000+ data products.

  2. Complimentary Deployment Channel as you can bring your existing data provider license with no brokerage for SAP.

  3. Managed Data Integration & Update Management for sustainable adoption of external data sources.

  4. Unparalleled Data Management Functionality for Data Enrichment & Harmonization with SAP Data for Business & IT Users

  5. Seamless Consumption with SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Data Intelligence & SAP HANA Cloud, or the 3rd Party Frontend Tool of Customer Choice.


5. What are the advantages of external data and what pain does the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud solve for SAP customers?



Unlock the power of external data in clicks, not projects. Source: SAP SE


oliver.herms: “Nowadays, it is simply impossible to make predictions and analyze based only on internal company data. Gradually, customers began to realize how important it was to integrate external data, but it took a huge amount of time and cost a tremendous amount of money - to find a third-party data provider in one place, upload data to on-premise data storage or to the cloud, while analyzing and visualizing it all in Excel - the result was a horrible and expensive project that did not bring any results. A data integration project could last 3-4 weeks and cost customers $5 000-20 000 just for consultants to set up all the systems and combine the sources. To this, you also need to add the cost of data storage, the purchase of external data from third-party providers, and many other related costs.

Just imagine that in today's pandemic situation, you want to make a revenue or volume forecast. These are all dependent on a huge number of external factors. You can no longer rely on historical data from the past and think that your projections will be relevant. All analytics needs up-to-date data, gathered from different sources, various data providers and reflecting the real situation in the world. This applies to any sphere, not just these exceptional situations. If a company wants to enter a new market or create a new product, you need to have a complete picture and have a view from all sides, what and where is going on, what trends and what competitors' indicators are, etc.


The need for External Data Value in the Enterprise Context. Source: SAP SE


These are completely new customer requirements changing the way we are doing business. We need external data that is not in our system. This data is all over the world and fortunately, we now have access to it. We can aggregate data from thousands of data providers from any given industry, collect it in one place and perform the most holistic and up-to-date analytics.

Data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is a central infrastructure where data providers can easily onboard and list their data assets for SAP customers. With this, customers who use SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, can access the data marketplace and choose which data product they need (in terms of their use case, industry, region, and any other criteria) and augment their internal assets with third-party data in a few clicks.”

6. Benefits for data providers to create and share their data products on the data marketplace


oliver.herms: “We have three main types of data providers:

  • Commercial data providers. They look for attractive distribution and deployment channels to monetize their data and get exposure to the big customer base.

  • Open data providers, whose main motivation is to support data sharing and spread open-source data resources.

  • Businesses, who do not even realize their data provider’s potential, but have lots of generated data inside their business and product.


The benefits that all data providers get on the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud are:

  • Direct exposure of data products to more than 400 000 SAP customers and thus visibility within a very clearly defined target group of potential data buyer

  • Customers of the data provider, who receive the data through the data marketplace, can use it directly within their data warehousing environment and will not require any additional connectivity or transfer.

  • No brokerage fee is associated with the data marketplace and the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud access which the data provider needs is provided for a fixed, monthly fee.

  • Fast and simple onboarding. Every SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customer can become a data provider with a simple self-service registration process. Particular partner status is not required.

  • Enterprise-grade data product setups – from public products that everybody can buy to individualized products with limited visibility to the relevant audience.

  • Data product-specific license management that allows linking customer-specific scope (records, values, and attributes) to a license.


7. Do data providers need to have SAP Data Warehouse Cloud tenant to put their data product in the data marketplace?


The whole data exchange between data providers and data consumers is a bilateral agreement between these 2 parties and a decentralized exchange. SAP does not store the data centrally but provides a fast and easy channel for search, communication, and all type of solutions for further actions with the data.

oliver.herms: “All the data providers need to have access to the Data Sharing Cockpit within SAP Data Warehouse Cloud to list and provide data to any SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customer. This can be done with any regular SAP Data Warehouse Cloud system. However, data providers who solely want to use SAP Data Warehouse Cloud to participate in the data marketplace can leverage the Test License (8011317), starting at 830€ per month for 128GB.”

8. What does the architecture and main components of the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud look like?



Data Marketplace Architecture. Source: SAP SE


oliver.herms: “Data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is built on the principle of a decentralized infrastructure, which is essential for all European companies. Simply put, we do not store the data centrally, but every participant of the data marketplace – both data providers and data consumers, has an instance of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.

SAP does not see or save any data from data providers. When a data consumer finds a suitable data product in the data marketplace via the Landing Page within the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, a commercial agreement is concluded between the data provider and data consumer. Only at this point, the infrastructure of the data marketplace comes into play to ensure a private, secure, and scalable exchange between the data provider and data consumer.


Data Marketplace Data Provider Process. Source: SAP SE


When a Data Provider decides that they want to publish their data to the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, there is a specific set of steps that the Data Provider must take (All the actions for each step are described in detail in a separate blog post by Oliver Huth😞

  1. Connect & Prepare Data for Listing

  2. Create Data Provider Profile

  3. Create Data Product Listing

  4. Create Data Release

  5. Create License


When creating data product listing, data providers have 4 main options for the data product delivery (see the slide), where the data load is integrated by the data marketplace, directly pushed into OpenSQL schema of dedicated data consumer space, or is manually integrated by data providers.

9. Role of Start-Ups on the data marketplace and onboarding via SAP.iO



Source: SAP.iO


Startups have a very large potential to represent their data on the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. Since almost every startup is in some way focused on the data that the product generates, many startups do not realize how much they can benefit not only from selling their product but also from the data that SAP customers now demand very much.

oliver.herms: “With SAP.iO, startups get:

  • Very high credibility. Partnering with SAP and being able to be represented in front of more than 400,000 SAP customers is an indicator of the quality and level of the startup, its product, and the data they provide.

  • Much easier access to the data marketplace. If a startup partners with SAP.iO, SAP.iO takes care of the preparation and onboarding of each startup. It is very difficult for a startup to start a partnership with SAP without help - it is quite a serious selection process and a long process that the startup has to meet in order to partner with SAP.

  • Personalized support. The SAP.iO team considers each startup's use case individually, consults and advises on how best to present themselves.

  • Access to the SAP.iO ecosystem and SAP as a whole. If startups start in the data marketplace with SAP, they are more likely to have access to other startup programs as well - SAP.iO Foundries, Grow by SAP, etc. This generally opens up a huge number of doors to the SAP world and access to the SAP customer base.”


10. Commercial journey for startups to be listed on the data marketplace



Source: SAP.iO


For startups, the most beneficial option is to initially conclude a partnership agreement with SAP.iO, because, after onboarding, startups get free access to the SAP.iO’s SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud tenants, and can place their data product under the SAP.iO management. SAP takes no brokerage fee from any data provider, but it is still much more profitable for startups - they get free access to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud.

oliver.herms: “To get into the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, each data provider has so many options. The most important thing for a startup is to define its goal of cooperation with SAP, create a clear positioning of itself and choose a path based on that. The only thing that is common for all data providers is the need to gain access to the tenant SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, and then everyone has a different story.”

11. Is it possible for data providers to act simultaneously as data consumers?


oliver.herms: “Yes, within the SAP for Data Warehouse Cloud, you can act as both a data provider and a data consumer. To date, the only limitation is that you will need two tenants of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud - in one tenant you can create and publish your data product in the data marketplace, and from the other tenant you can upload any data products as data consumer and work with them. In the future, if new functionality is added, you will be able to perform both roles from one tenant.”


Data Provider and Data Consumer Connection on the Data Marketplace



12. Can a data provider adapt one data product for different users?


When creating a listing of data products, each data provider focuses primarily on the needs of the customer and can personalize the same data product for different requests of data consumers. This provides the following listing possibilities:

  • Single or multiple artifact listing. A simple listing of the entire content.

  • Listings with data filter. Applying a filter to select the necessary data for the client. For example, the data for a specified country, time, etc.

  • Listings with column selection. Data with a different set of attributes.


Oliver Huth: “The data marketplace provides opportunities for data providers to customize datasets to meet customer needs. If a startup, for example, provides data on weather conditions throughout Germany, but the customer is only interested in the Berlin region, the data provider can set up a data filter, providing only the desired data.”

13. Relation of the data marketplace for SAP Data Warehouse Cloud to SAP Analytics Cloud


oliver.herms: “SAP customers are not looking for data per se, but information and insights. That's why analytics is the key to everything.

When a data provider creates a data product, the dashboard or any other object from SAP Analytics Cloud is not directly included in the listing, but all data providers provide a screenshot in their data listing and we highly recommend that this screenshot includes exactly the dashboard with data in SAP Analytics Cloud. This greatly increases customer interest, as they can immediately understand where and how to apply the data.

We also advise data providers to create data models and dashboards separately in a tenant of SAP Analytics Cloud and publish them to the Content Network within SAP Analytics Cloud after publication on the data marketplace. This is an additional way to get value out of the data.”

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