Alation HANA DB Connector in violation of HANA Runtime License

[richard_howard]

Alation is a market leader in the Data Catalog space.  They show up in any kind of web research with BW, ECC, and other SAP connectors.  All of those connectors are really the same, an ODBC Connection to the HANA Database.  

As DBA's we know that metadata scans at the HANA level will bear no real fruit.  We should also know, that the Runtime License for S/4HANA does not allow ODBC connections by third parties.  In a nutshell, there appears to be no real support for S/4HANA to be connected to Alation.

If your company is assessing Alation, be very specific in your challenges on whether they work with SAP.  

That said, does anyone know if the Data Catalog in Datasphere will be a connector of any type to Third Party solutions like Collibra, or Alation? 

[XaviPolo · Accepted solution]

I can tell you about Collibra because I am using it.
You connect the source systems you want to DSP, and in the DSP catalog it creates the assets that represent the different objects (analytical models, views, tables).

Collibra connects to the DSP catalog (not to the source systems connected to DSP) and extracts the information from these assets. There is no odbc access to any site. It will not see anything that is not in the DSP catalog because as I said it does not access the source, only what is published in the DSP catalog.

Best regards.

[richard_howard · Accepted solution]

much thanks. that's the direction I would like to see us do with Alation. makes sense.