SAP HANA Cloud used in a sidecar scenario with S/4HANA

[Eric_Ledu]

Hello SAP gurus

In a scenario where you want to export data from an on prem S/4HANA to a Cloud datalake, one of the options it to first replicate the information in a SAP HANA database on prem, and then to the Datalake.

This simplifies the license issue of exporting SAP Data to an external application

If your S/4HANA is now hosted on the cloud, do you think we can adapt this scenario and go through a SAP HANA Cloud sidecar instance (as a gateway before sending the data to a Datalake) ?

Thx

Eric

[markmumy]

Eric,

What do you mean by "data lake"? Are you talking about the SAP HANA Cloud data lake? Or some 3rd party data lake?

Mark

[markmumy · Accepted solution]

OK, that makes sense. And certainly changes the direction and impact.

It may not simplify the license aspect if this is HANA runtime under S/4HANA. The current usage rights, to grossly paraphrase, basically say that you can use any SAP licensed tools (Data Services, Data Intelligence, SLT, etc) to copy the application data to a downstream HANA system (HANA enterprise and standard, HANA Cloud, HANA as a Service, Data Warehouse Cloud) for sole use within that HANA instance with no data distribution beyond that system.

You are also able to copy data out using any tool certified with S4, so long as the tool only accesses the application layer (not the database). The SUR, again grossly paraphrasing, says that the data modeling, distribution, creation and extension of data structures must be performed via the Supported Software. Supported software being S4, BW4, and SAP app, etc.

If the intent is to replicate into HANA Cloud so that it can then be distributed further, that could still require a full use HANA license under S4. They key being "could".

But this is just one aspect of your question. What gets moved, how it gets moved, tools used, interfaces used, etc are all other aspects that will guide the solution and what is or is not allowed.

There are quite a lot of nuances to this. What I mention is quite a lot of paraphrasing and summarization of stuff that I've been involved in and is not an answer. Ultimately, you should work closely with your account team to get the definitive answer on what is or is not allowed given your contracts and software usage rights agreements.

Things to discuss with the sales and technical team should include:

• What tool will be used to copy the data?
• Will that tool interface with HANA or solely with the application layer?
• Will the tool use application logic to copy data (CDS views, app functions)?
• Why must the data move into another data lake? SAP has solutions that mitigate the wholesale movement of data and can simply the integration of SAP and non-SAP data.

I know that this likely isn't the yes/no answer you were hoping for. Every customer has a different situation and different contracts that can affect this. These will help guide the conversation and get you, hopefully, to the right answer.

Mark

[Eric_Ledu · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark,

thx a lot for the comments : I know exactly what you mean by "They key being "could"." .....might be one of the most infamous and tricky answer that comes so often in the SAP world !

I agree with everything you said, and I will definitely check all these points with the SAP sales team regarding the licenses.

I still find it a bit annoying that SAP is currently opening its applications to the outside world, and that we do not have a clear solution that could be applied everywhere. I

If using an intermediary step (SLT between S4 and a HANA Enterprise sidecar or HANA Cloud) does not allow to send the data "outside" (3rd party Datalake), then we still have, as always, a lot of licensing discussions interfering with the technical discussions......

Thx for your answer !

Eric

[Eric_Ledu]

Hi Mark

thx for the feedback: no I was referring to a non SAP Datalake, as most of our customers already have an Azure (or AWS or GCP) Datalake today.

And they ask to feed it with their S/4HANA data

Eric